We’re a hundred days into Trump version 2.0 and the administration is beating the propaganda drum about immigration and asking us to ignore the fake news polls showing the president underwater on major concerns. Intend to take them up on that challenge.
Unfortunately, those fake news polls are all the legacy media wants to talk about. Every horrible or stupid move from the White House is being measured through the lens of polling, usually accompanied by insight into why some people think this horrible or stupid move is brilliant.
Best “both sides” of the day goes to Politico Playbook, desperately trying to put spin on lousy polling:
MAGA supporters have been thrilled by what they’ve seen. For liberals, this has been a nightmare writ large. But for those in the middle, polls suggest the jury’s largely still out.
So now undecided or refused to answer respondents are the “middle?” Good to know.
A better approach is the one taken by Jonathan Larson, letting his freak flag fly at The F*cking News:
Pres. Donald Trump yesterday surrendered America’s red states to the invading hordes of immigrants, in a shocking retreat of appeasement and impotence and weakness and sexual ambiguity. Trump’s surrender came on the same day he said he wants to give up protecting America’s longest border.
Trump signed an executive order directing government immigration efforts not to the southern states most under pretend-siege, but to blue states that are actually doing just fine with the hordes, thanks for asking.¹
The order requires the Justice Department to compile a list of so-called “sanctuary cities” — where local officials aren’t dicks and don’t bother people who are just trying to get through the fucking dia. In other words, cities that literally don’t need help with the pretend-invading armies of, um, workers and law-abiders.
If you’re wondering why the Trump administration isn’t bragging about its mass deportations, Scripps News says that’s because they’re running behind what Joe Biden did during a comparable time period.
Via The Associated Press:
Yard signs with mug shots of immigrants who have been accused of crimes like rape and murder were posted across the White House lawn, positioned so they would be in the background of television broadcasts outside the West Wing. Tom Homan, Trump’s top border adviser, told reporters there has been “unprecedented success” on the border effort and “we’re going to keep doing it, full speed ahead.”
Immigration is Trump’s leading issue in public opinion surveys, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a morning briefing the administration is in “the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history.”
About 139,000 people have been removed so far, according to the White House. Deportations have occasionally lagged behind Democratic President Joe Biden’s numbers, but Trump officials reject the comparison as not “apples to apples” because so many fewer people are crossing the border now.
This reality probably explains why the nation has been asked to accept a lack of due process for mostly non-criminal migrants. Also, this failure would explain why Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has been cosplaying as a SuperCop in locations throughout the nation where videographers lurk.
The other biggie for poll watchers has been the economy, which doesn’t look encouraging despite promises of 90 trade deals in 90 days (so far = zero), tariffs collecting enough revenue to reduce or eliminate income taxes, and tales of wonderment about all the new jobs already opening in America.
Two developments as I’m writing this make the future bleak for Trump’s tariffs. Senator Rand Paul is telling people he’s got enough votes to take back the authority to issue tariffs. And Amazon has decided to list the costs imposed by tariffs on its website and receipts.
Boom! America's favorite mall just admitted that China isn’t the one paying tariffs.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was very upset this morning, saying it was “a hostile and political act by Amazon. This should sink in with consumers at about the same time Amazon starts warning about delays in shipping certain products (which I think they’re already doing).
Let’s talk about what his President has actually done along the lines of “normal” executive behavior.
Since he’s been in office (100 days, remember) he has signed exactly 5 pieces of legislation. In his first term, Trump signed 30 pieces of legislation during this period. And every Democratic President has done better since JFK.
B-B-B-But… How about those Executive Orders? There’s been 137 of them thus far, plus 76 memos and proclamations.
According to Just Security, they are tracking 210 legal actions (including 4 closed cases and not including more than 100 lawsuits and 50 restraining orders from dozens of federal judges on student visa revocations) against the Trump administration.
Whew. That’s a lot of lawsuits. The administration lost 93% of its cases in court during Trump’s first term.
Sadly, a hundred days in a bunch of sad sacks Party -Carville, Silver, Newsom, and Schumer come to mind- seem to believe that Democrats should follow public opinion. Enough of the public thinks those guys are full of it to attend Saunders/AOC rallies by the tens of thousands and march in the streets by millions.
Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer has probably found his place in the Democracy Hall of Shame for bragging about a letter sent to the president asking if antisemitism was being used as a pretext for the decision to cut Harvard’s funding:
"So we sent him a very strong letter just the other day asking eight very strong questions about why this isn‘t just a pretext."
The call from the bleachers has been “do something, anything” and it’s (finally) being heard on Capitol Hill.
Michigan Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar has filed articles of impeachment against President Trump.
“I have introduced articles of impeachment against President Trump,” Thanedar said in his announcement online. “When Trump ignores the Constitution, Congress, and the courts, he is not ‘fighting for America.’ He is tearing it down and endangering our democracy.”
Senator Cory Booker and other electeds held a teach-in on the steps of the Capitol on Sunday talking about the threats posed by cuts to Medicaid. It would have been nice if they’d let it keep going for a few days, as House Republicans are now reportedly just waiting for Trump’s approval on budget cuts.
Speaking from the Senate side, Majority Leader John Thune is now saying that final votes on a budget wouldn’t be coming until around July 4... Which is his way of saying they’re hoping public outcry over cuts will settle down by mid summer.
The speech of the moment goes to somebody who I consider to be an unlikely resistance leader, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to a room full of Democrats in New Hampshire:
“I understand the tendency to give in to despair right now,” he said, “But despair is an indulgence that we cannot afford in the times upon which history turns. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.
“These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soap box, and then punish them at the ballot box. They must feel in their bones that when we survive this shameful episode of American history with our democracy intact—because we have no alternative but to do just that—that we will relegate their portraits to the museum halls reserved for tyrants and traitors.”
“Cowardice can be contagious,” Pritzker said, “But so too can courage…. Just as the hope that we hold onto in the darkness, shines with its own...special light.
I’d say he’s definitely running for President. And he’s also a billionaire, so his candidacy no matter how framed would end up being a patch for the tear of the class divide at the root of the nation’s problems.
We don’t need any bigger slices of the pie, we want the whole goddamn pie, as they said back in the day.
Finally, for this Day 100 report that doesn’t cite any poll numbers, congratulations to our neighbors to the north.
“The Liberals in Canada were losing big until our president kept mocking Canadians, our neighbors and close friends,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin. “He made Canadian Liberals great again.” Ouch.
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Mayday is this Thursday. Make plans to let your voice be heard. I’ll have a (day early) calendar of San Diego protests in this space tomorrow.