Tag: immigration
Donald Trump

New Polls Show Voters Rapidly Turning On Trump Over Economy

Less than 100 days into his new term, President Donald Trump and his Republican Party are hemorrhaging public support as his policies thrash the economy, threaten Americans’ Social Security and Medicaid, and blow up the rule of law.

Trump's approval rating is now well underwater, with 54 percent of registered voters disapproving of the job he’s doing as president, compared with just 42 percent approving, according to Civiqs’ tracker. Voters seem to be deeply repelled by his handling of the economy, inflation, and even immigration—an issue he's usually held an advantage on.

This is terrible news for Republicans both for critical upcoming gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia in November, and for the rest of the GOP in the 2026 midterms.

For example, a Morning Consult poll released Tuesday morning found that for the first time since 2021, more voters trust Democrats on the economy than they do Republicans, by a 46 to 43 percent margin.

"That three-percentage-point edge for Democrats—their largest since April 2021—underlines a stark unraveling for the GOP, which had come off the 2024 election with a double-digit advantage on the matter," Morning Consult wrote.

The evaporation of Republicans’ edge on economic issues comes as they defend the tariffs Trump has levied on nearly every country in the world. Those tariffs are threatening to explode inflation, sink the country into a recession, and cost thousands of Americans their livelihoods.

Even worse for Republicans is that Morning Consult found congressional Democrats are now viewed more favorably than congressional Republicans.

"For the first time since just before the 2024 election, the average voter is more likely to hold positive than negative views about Democrats in Congress (47 to 46 percent). It leaves them more popular than Republicans in Congress, whose favorability ratings are now 10 points underwater," Morning Consult reported.

A new poll conducted by YouGov for the University of Massachusetts at Amherst also finds similarly poor results for the GOP. In it, voters overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump's handling of inflation (33 percent approve, 62 percent disapprove), trade (36 percent approve, 58 percent disapprove), jobs (38 percent approve, 53 percent disapprove), and foreign affairs (36 percent approve, 53 percent disapprove). The poll also finds just 50 percent approve of his handling of immigration—often his strongest issue in polling—while 46 percent disapprove.

Meanwhile, a Quinnipiac University poll from last week found Trump underwater on immigration, with 45 percent approving of his handling of it and 50 percent disapproving.

“Despite what you’ve probably heard, Trump’s immigration agenda isn’t actually popular,” G. Elliottt Morris, a reporter who led the now-defunct news outlet 538, wrote in a post on X. “While Americans tend to approve of ‘the way he is handling immigration’ in abstract, they are very negative on the details.”

For example, voters strongly disapprove of Trump’s policy of deporting undocumented immigrants without criminal records, Morris found. They also strongly oppose sending such immigrants to foreign prisons.

Trump is refusing to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant from El Salvador that Trump sent to that prison known as CECOT, despite an order from the Supreme Court to do so.

“The media narrative is that ‘Trump is popular on immigration.’ But as we can see, that is not really true,” Morris wrote in a blog post. “On the specifics of his policy, and especially on the on-the-ground implementation, Americans are mostly opposed to what his administration is doing. (And the data above should probably be considered an overestimate, since the polls I've used are old and conducted before the Abrego Garcia news.)”

Ultimately, Trump is not immune to political gravity. And if voters have already soured on his agenda less than 100 days into his term, things could get even uglier for Trump and his party if he doesn’t reverse course.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Pope Francis

'God Bless This Pope': Francis Harshly Admonishes Trump And Vance

Pope Francis harshly criticized the Trump administration for its mass deportation of migrants in a public letter to U.S. bishops published Tuesday. In it he argues that the administration's treatment of migrants goes against church social doctrine and says that a policy built on force “will end badly.”

“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” the Pope writes.

The letter comes after Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, called on theology to legitimize a crackdown on migrants. “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country,” Vance said on Fox News. “Then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” the first Latin American Pope writes. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

“God bless this Pope,” Mehdi Hasan, editor in chief of Zeteo, posted on X.

“When you get your Catholic teaching so wrong the Pope himself has to issue a correction,” Mollie Wilson O’Reilly, editor at large for Commonweal Magazine, posted on Bluesky. She added: “I'm being glib, but this is truly beautiful,and clarifying.”

“The Pope's letter today takes aim at every single absurd theological claim by JD Vance and his allies in conservative Catholicism (and the Catholic electorate) but he also defends the chief target of Trumpism -- the rule of law -- in a way few seem able to articulate,” David Gibson, director of the center for religion and culture at Fordham University, posted on X.

Gibson pointed to a portion of the letter: “This is not a minor issue: an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized,” the Pope writes.

The letter comes after Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, called on theology to legitimize a crackdown on migrants. “You love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country,” Vance said on Fox News. “Then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

“Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups,” the first Latin American Pope writes. “The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan,’ that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.”

“God bless this Pope,” Mehdi Hasan, editor in chief of Zeteo, posted on X.

“When you get your Catholic teaching so wrong the Pope himself has to issue a correction,” Mollie Wilson O’Reilly, editor at large for Commonweal magazine, posted on Bluesky. She added: “I'm being glib, but this is truly beautiful,and clarifying.”

“The Pope's letter today takes aim at every single absurd theological claim by JD Vance and his allies in conservative Catholicism (and the Catholic electorate) but he also defends the chief target of Trumpism -- the rule of law -- in a way few seem able to articulate,” David Gibson, director of the center for religion and culture at Fordham University, posted on X.

Gibson pointed to a portion of the letter: “This is not a minor issue: an authentic rule of law is verified precisely in the dignified treatment that all people deserve, especially the poorest and most marginalized,” the Pope writes.

“The true common good is promoted when society and government, with creativity and strict respect for the rights of all — as I have affirmed on numerous occasions — welcomes, protects, promotes and integrates the most fragile, unprotected and vulnerable. This does not impede the development of a policy that regulates orderly and legal migration. However, this development cannot come about through the privilege of some and the sacrifice of others. What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will end badly” he adds.

The Pope also references Pope Pius XII, who wrote what Francis calls the “Magna Carta” of how the Church thinks of immigration. “The family of Nazareth in exile, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, emigrants in Egypt and refugees there to escape the wrath of an ungodly king, are the model, the example and the consolation of emigrants and pilgrims of every age and country, of all refugees of every condition who, beset by persecution or necessity, are forced to leave their homeland, beloved family and dear friends for foreign lands,” Pope Pius XII writes.

“This is the Pope also directly countering misinformation about the Catholic faith that is being expounded by the Catholic vice president,” Gibson told The Associated Press. “And it is the Pope supporting the Bishops as well."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Bannon's 'Woke Right' Drives Split In MAGA Movement

Bannon's 'Woke Right' Drives Split In MAGA Movement

During the United States' 2024 presidential race, much of the Republican Party rallied about Donald Trump's campaign. A long list of Never Trump conservatives endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, but they tended to be people who were no longer influential figures in the GOP.

President-elect Trump's victory was not the "landslide" his supporters say it was; he won the popular vote by roughly 1.5 percent. But he has the support of most Republicans in Congress.

In an article published by the London Evening Standardon January 7, however, journalist Sarah Baxter (who heads the Marie Colvin Center in upstate New York) argues that major divisions are emerging in the MAGA movement as Trump prepares for his return to the White House.

"The fall-out is already consuming the MAGA movement and has led to a split between nativist flame-throwers like Steve Bannon and globalist tech-bros like Elon Musk, as they wrestle for power and influence in the second Trump era," Baxter explains. "Musk, the world's richest man and biggest troll with his own platform, X, has the advantage for now, but the spat has the potential to tear MAGA apart."

Part of this MAGA infighting, according to Baxter, is what she calls the "rise of the woke right" — which she describes as MAGA Republicans who have strong feelings of victimhood.

"Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, has identified five key features of the new woke right," Baxter writes. "These boil down to an obsession with identity politics; an ingrained sense of victimhood; a preoccupation with microaggressions; support for affirmative action for one’s own tribe; and a zero-sum mindset — somebody wins, somebody loses."

Baxter adds, "As with the far left, it can extend to glorifying foreign autocracies, such as Russia and Hungary."

Baxter describes "patriotic correctness" as "the right's version of political correctness."

"The biggest crybaby 'victims' are the January 6 rioters and their defenders, who have partially succeeded in rewriting the history of that day," Baxter says. "Those awaiting pardons by Trump fancifully promote themselves as unfairly punished patriots who stood up for 'We the People' in defense of the U.S. Constitution against hordes of Antifa and agent provocateurs in the FBI and 'deep state'…. The left's embrace of cancel culture has been enthusiastically adopted by the right."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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