Michelle Cottle

Guys, thank you so much.

I couldn't make sense of all this without you.

Let's do it again.

I'm Michelle Cottle.

I cover national politics for New York Times Opinion.

And this week, we've got the band back together.

I've got my fabulous colleagues, David French coming to us from Chicago and our man in Charlottesville, Jamel Bowie.

Guys, good to see you as always.

All right.

Today, we're going to talk about the center of the electoral universe in the coming week, Texas, and the emerging cracks in Trump's coalition.

Usual caveat, we are recording this on Thursday, and Trump is set to head to Texas on Friday, ahead of the state's primary elections next week.

So, you know, anything goes.

But as for the current no-knowns, Trump is hitting the Lone Star Trail to spread his message of economic victory, prosperity.

Now, of course, this past Tuesday, he had an even bigger platform from which to tout his economic record during the marathon State of the Union.

So how did he do on that front?

Hey, good endurance.

Very impressive.

Okay, so he was supposed to be going in there to focus on the economy and make America feel like he understands their concerns.

Now, he started off with a list, a laundry list of all the magical things he feels that he has done for the country, and that included...

some plans or moves he's made, although they were creatively spun, like how he has lifted so many people up off of food stamps, by which he means he has slashed the number of people who are receiving food stamps.