This is the Sept. 9 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.
“It’s just Frances. I don’t think anyone else could have made me cry in that moment.”
—
Alex Michelsen, after breaking down in Frances Tiafoe’s arms following their U.S. Open quarterfinal on Tuesday
In his final speech as president, Ronald Reagan offered one last thought about the country he loved:
You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.
Frances Tiafoe is that American.
His parents fled civil war in Sierra Leone and came to the United States. His father helped build a tennis center in Maryland and stayed on to maintain the grounds. With no money for a place of their own, Tiafoe and his twin brother slept in an office at the tennis center.
They picked up tennis because the courts were there.
And now Tiafoe is the toast of New York City, heading to the U.S. Open semifinals after last night’s extraordinary comeback.
When the four-hour, 38-minute match was over, Tiafoe embraced Alex Michelsen — and the young American he had just beaten wept on his shoulder.
I don’t like mixing sports and politics. But there is something especially powerful about this story in the age of Donald Trump, when immigrants from places he has called “shithole countries” can still come here and become great Americans and examples for our own children.
Last night was the kind of American moment that has always made our hearts swell with pride.
A reminder that in America, anything is still possible.
MORNING JOE FAMILY MEETING
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IN OTHER SPORTS NEWS…
Source: Gallup poll of 1,200 U.S. adults conducted Aug. 3-24, 2026. Margin of error: ±4 percentage points
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Vaughn Hillyard
The GOP is going all out for two nights in Dallas, where the Republican National Convention is hoping to mobilize voters 55 days out from the midterms. MS NOW senior White House reporter Vaughn Hillyard is reporting live.
Willie Geist: Vaughn, what are you seeing there in the arena?
VH: Vulnerable Republicans — John Husted from Ohio, Mike Rogers from Michigan, Ken Paxton in Texas — are all coming here because they believe they need Donald Trump’s help convincing a swath of the American public to show up and vote over the next 55 days.
Early ballots go out just 10 days from now. But this is more than a campaign event. This is an administration event, coming off rising tensions with Iran, climbing gas prices, and persistent inflation as the president escalates his trade war with Canada.
Walking into this arena, you don’t see pictures of Mike Rogers lining the concourse that thousands will walk past. It’s image after image of Donald Trump.
It’s more of a Donald Trump show than it is any of these House or Senate candidates’ — a byproduct of the 10-year story of Trump remaking the Republican Party in his image.
WHAT THEY SAID
David Rohde on U.S. strategy in Iran
“It’s critical for the president to be clear. With the erratic messaging — we’re going to annihilate you as a civilization, then suddenly we’re in peace talks, then there’s the embargo the U.S. military has been pushing — the question is: Can Trump be consistent for weeks and months?”
Sam Stein on Trump’s 9/11 story
“It’s blasphemous — very on-brand, of course — to put himself at the center of this tragic event. He did go down to the site afterwards, but to add these flourishes is unnecessary and, frankly, demeaning to the people who were actually there. The fact that he still tells these fibs says a lot about the guy.”
Mike Barnicle on Trump and America
“The tragedy of the Trump administration is they have spent a decade running this country down. They pose as great patriots who are going to bring back America — but nobody has to bring back America. People don’t travel, and they don’t realize it, but the United States of America is the greatest goddamn country on Earth.
Jonathan Lemire on the U.S. Open
“The U.S. Open is arguably the best two weeks in the New York sports calendar. We have an American guaranteed in the men’s final this year, we’ve still got Americans alive on the women’s side — with Coco Gauff and Jess Pegula playing tonight and tomorrow. It has more than lived up to the hype.”
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