New York Times:
Trump’s Approval Rating Dips as Views of His Handling of the Economy Sour
The shift, while small, is notable after months of stability in President Trump’s approval rating.
Favorable views of the president’s job performance have slipped in recent weeks, as disapproval has grown, leaving the president with a net approval rating that is underwater by 14 percentage points, a widening gap from 10 percentage points just weeks ago, according to The New York Times’s polling average.
Although the shift is relatively small, it is notable after months of stability in Mr. Trump’s approval rating.
G Elliott Morris/Strength In Numbers:
How low could Trump's approval realistically go?
43% of Republicans say he isn't keeping his promises on the economy
Economic malaise is a serious problem for Trump. He won in 2024 because economic anxiety conditioned lots of voters to pull the lever against the incumbent. But now, he is the target of their ire. Losing economy-focused swing voters would cause a bloodbath for Republicans in the 2026 midterms. The 2025 statewide elections and special election in Tennessee’s Seventh District on Tuesday confirm the party is in trouble.
But, in quantitative terms, how bad is this problem for Trump, really? Are we talking about Bush 2008 levels of disapproval? Worse than Trump’s first-term ratings after Jan. 6, 2021? Today’s Chart of the Week: How low could Trump’s approval go?
Trump’s approval could fall 3 points with greater disaffection from economy-focused Republicans
The core question we are interested in is the following: What would Donald Trump’s approval rating be if current supporters abandoned him because of economic anxiety?
To start with, here are Trump’s job approval and disapproval ratings from my average for SIN sister site FiftyPlusOne. Today, we estimate that 39.7% of adults approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 56.1% disapprove of his job.
For context, this is a pretty bad number. With a -16 net rating, Trump is as unpopular as he was at this point in his first term, and more unpopular at this point than any president who came before him. (The following chart is from the SIN data portal.)
Phil Klay/New York Times:
What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes
There are many reasons to object to the policies that the Trump administration’s videos and memes showcase. Yet the images themselves also inflict wounds, of the kind that Alypius suffered when he raised his eyelids. The president inhabits a position of moral leadership. When the president and his officials sell their policies, they’re selling a version of what it means to be an American — what should evoke our love and our hate, our disgust and our delight. If all governments rest on opinion, as James Madison thought, then it is this moral shaping of the electorate that gives the president his freedom of action, and that we will still have to reckon with once he is gone.
...
This discussion misses the bigger effort the Trump administration seems to be engaged in. In lieu of careful analysis of the campaign’s legality, detailed rationales for the boat strikes and explanations of why they couldn’t be done with more traditional methods, we get Mr. Hegseth posting an image of himself with laser eyes and video after video of alleged drug traffickers being killed. The cartoon turtle is just one example in an avalanche of juvenile public messaging about those we kill. I suspect the question the administration cares about is not “is this legal,” “is this a war crime,” “is this murder” or even “is this good for America,” but rather, “isn’t this violence delightful?”
Washington Post:
Video shows second strike hit before survivors could flip boat, lawmakers say
The footage was shown on Capitol Hill, where Adm. Frank M. Bradley, who oversaw a deadly attack on alleged drug smugglers, faced a day of difficult questions about the operation.
Democrats emerged from the meetings alarmed and vowed to press ahead with nascent congressional inquiries scrutinizing the attack’s legality. Some Republicans who have been staunchly loyal to the Trump administration defended the operation — in some cases citing the same claims made by the president, who said the lethal campaign was necessary because the illicit drug trade is responsible for killing Americans.
Rep. Jim Himes (Connecticut), the House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, described the footage as “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” The two survivors, he said, were “in clear distress” after their boat was “destroyed.”
The Atlantic:
Pete Hegseth Is Seriously Testing Trump’s ‘No Scalps’ Rule
Lawmakers are finally waking up to the problems the defense secretary has created.
The suspected drug traffickers, the lone survivors of a U.S. airstrike, were sprawled on a table-size piece of floating wreckage in the Caribbean for more than 40 minutes. They were unarmed, incommunicado, and adrift as they repeatedly attempted to right what remained of their boat. At one point, the men raised their arms and seemed to signal to the U.S. aircraft above, a gesture some who watched a video of the incident interpreted as a sign of surrender. Then a second explosion finished the men off, leaving only a bloody stain on the surface of the sea. Footage of the two men’s desperate final moments made some viewers nauseated, leading one to nearly vomit. “It was worse than we had been led to believe,” one person told us…
So far, Trump continues to profess support. But he, too, is starting to tire of the scandals surrounding Hegseth and does not push back when others suggest Hegseth is not up for the job, an outside adviser to the White House and a former senior administration official told us. Trump has not been happy that a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill are using Hegseth’s record as a reason to stand up to the White House, a further sign of cracks in what had until recently been unwavering GOP fealty to Trump. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina publicly rejected Hegseth’s claim that he had been “exonerated” in Signalgate, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota declined, when asked, to offer his endorsement of Hegseth’s performance.
Adam Serwer/The Atlantic:
Why Doesn’t Trump Pay a Political Price for His Racism?
Immigration isn’t breaking our society. We are.
Watching Trump’s repeated attacks on Somalians—the latest group of Black immigrants to be targeted by the president—I can’t avoid the conclusion that the government of the United States of America is in the hands of people who believe that they can apply a genetic hierarchy to humanity, and that American laws and customs should recognize and serve that hierarchy.
This commitment is most visible in the Constitution-shredding program of mass deportation being carried out across the country by federal agents, who, in order to meet their quotas, are arresting and deporting immigrants who have been following the rules and showing up for their court dates, rather than those committing crimes. Gregory Bovino, a top Border Patrol commander, told a reporter outright that agents were arresting people based in part on “how they look.” This is racial profiling—a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection—and yet it has been condoned by the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. In September, an emergency-docket decision effectively legalized racial profiling by lifting an order preventing it. Although “apparent ethnicity alone” isn’t enough to detain someone, it can be “a “relevant factor,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a lone concurring opinion, calling that only “common sense.”
Neera Tanden/Wall Street Journal:
Why Democrats Won the Shutdown
The party stood united on issues dear to American families, and were rewarded for it.
For most of the year, Democrats have enjoyed little leverage in responding to President Trump’s outrageous acts. They can’t influence reconciliation bills, executive actions or nominations. The vote on the continuing resolution was only the second time this year that Democrats in Congress had leverage with Republicans. The resulting shutdown was important not only on the substance, but for an anti-Trump opposition that had been struggling to find its voice.
The shutdown pushed the conversation toward Democratic strengths. Democrats were on their soundest footing when warning that Affordable Care Act premiums could spike, even double, for more than 20 million Americans, that 14 million or more could become uninsured because of premium hikes and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and that more Americans today fear rising healthcare costs than at any point in recent years.
Better still, the fight over healthcare united Democrats while dividing Republicans. Leaders on the left and center, from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) to Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), came together while the GOP coalition frayed. Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), one of the most far-right members in Congress, publicly attacked her own party on healthcare affordability.
Brian Allen/The Allen Analysis:
Maxwell Wants Out. Survivors Say “Absolutely Not.” And The Epstein Files Are About to Drop.
The timing could not be more revealing.
As Congress prepares for the most explosive public release of Epstein records in history, Ghislaine Maxwell has quietly filed a new request to leave federal prison. Her attorneys argue she deserves compassionate relief and accuse the justice system of cruelty. Survivors call it something else.
They call it delusion.
In a filing first flagged by Raw Story (2025), Maxwell demanded an early release even as lawmakers and federal courts brace for massive disclosures that could implicate dozens of powerful figures who enabled or benefited from the Epstein trafficking machine. Her attorneys argued she has been treated unfairly and suffered enough. The survivors’ response was swift and unfiltered:
“Shut up.”
David Shuster/Blue Amp:
A Tyrant in a Raid Jacket: Kash Patel’s FBI Meltdown Revealed
From tantrums over patches to PR-driven directives, a new report uncovers how Patel turned the FBI into a sideshow.
The spectacle reveals not dignity or decorum, but childish vanity and shallow pretense — the kind of pettiness unworthy of any serious crime-fighting agency.
The report goes further, painting the bureau under Patel as a “rudderless ship,” stricken with fear and disorder. Agents move through their days reluctant to act, haunted by the possibility of getting fired or reassigned. Some agents reportedly judge policy decisions not on law or justice, but on which side spares them from getting yelled at by upper bureau management.
