As I noted over the weekend, the arrival of Trump’s 100th day in office (April 30th), has been greeted by a raft of terrible polls. Most of the premium pollsters have fielded a poll to coincide with the 100 days milestone. The results range from approval in the low 40s to the very high 30s. Two put Trump’s approval number at 39%. His disapproval ranges from the mid to the high 50s. In response, there has been a predictable chorus that polls, or public opinion itself, simply doesn’t matter anymore. That’s either because Trump won’t face the electorate again, or because there won’t be elections again, or that there won’t be fair elections if they’re held, etc. The overarching argument is that public opinion doesn’t matter anymore because we’re no longer in the “normal” political space we’re used to.
This is categorically false, a basic misunderstanding of what politics even is.
New ABC/WaPo poll shows a similar story to AP-NORC poll: Trump dipping below 40% approval for the first time in his second administration. 39% approve, 55% disapprove. A CNN/SSRS poll shows him with 41% approval and 59% disapproval. In that poll, 22% strongly approve and 45% strongly disapprove.
I said yesterday that I thought we likely weren’t far away from the first national poll which showed Donald Trump’s approval number dipping into the 30s. And here we are: AP-NORC 39% approve, 59% disapprove.
I’ve said repeatedly that we are in the midst of a lengthy national struggle and that it is fundamentally over public opinion. To understand where we are, where we’re going and what the future possibilities are, everything must be seen through that prism. But I noticed a conversation yesterday that prompts me to be more specific.
Government Executive: “The Veterans Affairs Department is requiring all employees working on its plans to slash tens of thousands of workers from its rolls to sign non-disclosure agreements, an unusual move that has prevented supervisors from sharing basic information with staff.”
Question: I’m looking for examples of medical schools which may just have received a letter from the Justice Department demanding detailed records of the school’s admissions going back five years. If you have information: Signal joshtpm.99 or joshtpm at protonmail dot com. All comms confidential.
This isn’t terribly surprising, given the broader budgetary situation at American universities, particularly in the sciences and biomedical research specifically. I’ve heard from faculty and graduate students at a number of schools around the country. Many programs are dramatically reducing the number of offers being made for PhD programs. One prestigious school of medicine cut the number of PhD students it’s admitting for next year by 50%. At another program, PhD students are being graduated on an expedited basis, sooner and with less work produced than would normally be allowed. The logic is simple. The program doesn’t think they’re going to have the money to allow these students to finish. I’ve heard multiple examples of offers being turned down to attend programs in other countries. Meanwhile and unsurprisingly, foreign students are turning down offers to study in the United States.
The way that Trump has gone about using rescission turns on its head the constitutional process for allocating funds and further undermines Congress’ authority to direct spending, stand up federal agencies and serve as a check on the executive branch.
Kate and Josh discuss Pete Hegseth and Signal-gate part two, the Supreme Court’s extraordinary Alien Enemies Act order and the passing of Pope Francis.
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