Today’s Top Stories from NBC News

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2026

In today’s newsletter: An NBC News poll shows Trump’s approval rating remains low. An ICE officer shot a Venezuelan man in Texas as he was delivering food. And scrutiny of a juror in the Lindsay Clancy trial risks a “chilling effect.”

Here’s what to know today.

▼ The Lead

Poll: Most voters say Trump has hurt the economy

(NBC News)

President Donald Trump’s sinking ratings threaten to drag down Republicans in November’s elections, as voters blame him for high prices and a shaky economy, according to an NBC News poll. The president’s approval rating stands at 41% among registered voters, a second-term low in the poll, with a majority, 55%, of voters saying they believe Trump’s policies have hurt the economy. That’s up from 48% in March, before the Iran war.

Democrats hold a 5-point edge in the battle for control of Congress, 50%-45%. Despite the lead, the Democratic Party is still viewed more negatively than Trump and the GOP.

Still, the poll suggests an increasingly gloomy political environment for the GOP. More than 6 in 10 voters say the Iran war has not been worth it. And respondents did not appear to be motivated by Trump’s signature tax and spending legislation he championed last year.

Dive deeper into the poll numbers.

NBC News surveys also show:

23% of registered Democratic voters say they intend to cast their ballot by mail and 36% say they plan to vote in person at an early voting site. Here’s how those numbers compare to 2024.

Just 2% of registered voters called data centers the most important issue facing the country. But a candidate’s support for new data centers drew the strongest reaction of any characteristic that would make a voter less likely to support them.

More politics news:

Democrat James Talarico holds a narrow advantage over Republican Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race, according to an NBC5 Dallas/Telemundo Station Group poll. Elon Musk is boosting GOP candidates in critical races such as this one — but he’s keeping quiet.

Trump says his proposed “Triumphal Arch” includes plans for a military complex housing drones and snipers.

For subscribers: Details of alleged Russian spy murder plots are exposed in a new indictment accusing five men of scheming to kill a dissident living in the U.S.

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An ICE officer shot and seriously wounded a Venezuelan man as he was delivering food in Austin, Texas, yesterday afternoon, his immigration lawyer Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. The man, identified by Lincoln-Goldfinch as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garcés Perez, was in the U.S. illegally and had a final order of removal, a law enforcement source said.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson said the agency received a request for assistance from ICE for a vehicle pursuit involving a blue Toyota Corolla, but the shooting occurred before DPS troopers arrived at the scene.

Garcés Perez, who Lincoln-Goldfinch said lives in Austin, is a DoorDash driver. In an email, a company spokesperson confirmed Garcés Perez was making a delivery at the time, adding that DoorDash is investigating and would not release more information “at this time.”

Here’s what else we know.

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Jury scrutiny mounts after Lindsay Clancy mistrial

In his first interview since his ex-wife’s mistrial, Patrick Clancy said he thinks he did “the best I could with what I had at the time” and that he didn’t know much about postpartum illness before Lindsay Clancy killed their three children in 2023. “And I live with the outcome,” he told CBS’ “60 Minutes. “I live with it every day.” Read more from the interview.

Lindsay Clancy’s mistrial has sparked an online frenzy and scrutiny against one juror who others on the panel said blocked an otherwise unanimous verdict to acquit. Some jurors described the holdout, identified as Michael P. Desronvil, as hostile and disinterested. Desronvil’s lawyer, meanwhile, has asked people to “stay away from his home, stop calling him, and don’t even think about deciphering his location.”

Attorneys and jury experts fear the post-trial frenzy could lead to a “chilling effect” when it comes to seating juries. That includes any possible future trial for Lindsay Clancy. Adding to the controversy was that prospective jurors had been given a questionnaire asking about their criminal history — and Desronvil reportedly faced a past domestic violence allegation.

What legal experts think of the trial firestorm.

Cindy Crawford’s son, model Presley Gerber, dies at 27

Presley Gerber, the son of supermodel Cindy Crawford, has died, a family representative said. He was 27.

Gerber died at a “rehab facility,” according to online records of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner. No cause of death or further detail was given.

Here’s what else we know.

Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes look like their old selves

The Kansas City Chiefs last season lost more than their star quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, to injury. They had already lost the air of invincibility they’d built as they won three Super Bowl titles under coach Andy Reid. But two games into this season, Kansas City is 2-0 again and looks like a team that could be feared in the AFC.

Mahomes appears uninhibited by his knee injury and now has a number of playmakers surrounding him — led by one familiar face, and one new. In last night’s 33-30 overtime win against the Indianapolis Colts, the Chiefs showed again they know how to win a close game while overcoming a wild play that might have changed the outcome.

Read the full game recap.

More from Week 2 of the NFL season:

The Los Angeles Chargers and the Houston Texans entered the season as Super Bowl hopefuls. Now the odds are against them.

For subscribers: The Chicago Bears’ offense took a historic step back — and that’s not the worst part.

▼ Staff Pick

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Trump’s catchphrase, ‘transgender for everybody,’ becomes an LGBTQ rallying cry

A few months ago, I noticed that one of my favorite artists, Sweet Cowboy Blues, made a t-shirt with what has become one of Trump’s catchphrases, “Everything Transgender! Everybody Transgender!” I wondered if more LGBTQ artists were putting the phrase, and its variations, like “transgender for everybody” on merch. I very quickly found similar shirts, pins and stickers across the internet, often made by LGBTQ artists who were reclaiming the phrase in a positive way.

I spoke to some of them for this story and explored the decades-long tradition they are a part of, where queer and trans artists and activists repurpose derogatory language and painful images in declarations of power and resistance.

— Jo Yurcaba, enterprise reporter

▼ Read All About It

A police officer and a man were wounded in an exchange of gunfire near a synagogue in Ontario as the Jewish community marked Yom Kippur.

New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert died “peacefully in his sleep” at the age of 45, his bandmates and wife said.

A moviegoer who was arrested after he allegedly pepper-sprayed a cellphone user at a California theater has some calling him a “hero” and others condemning the act.

For subscribers: A Philadelphia woman was “petrified” of her ex-husband before she vanished. Her case is part of a mystery involving six other women.

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