| | | | Donald Trump's presidency at 6 months | | As of Thursday around noon, Donald Trump will have been president of the United States for six months.
So, how's he doing? By any objective measure, not well.
Trump's job approval rating is hovering somewhere between the mid and upper 30s, which puts him at or near the lowest ebb of any of the past nine men who have held the presidency before him.
His legislative agenda is in tatters, with Republican attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act having failed to garner the necessary 50 GOP votes in the Senate. Tax reform is more a sketch of a proposal than a formal legislative offering at this point. Securing new funding for his much-touted border wall seems unlikely. Even his infrastructure plans seem halted.
Then there is the Russia investigation. Special counsel Bob Mueller, former head of the FBI, continues to lead the effort, with signs suggesting it is ramping up rather than winding down.
Trump himself continues to be bothered by the ongoing probe, which he has described as a "witch hunt" and a "hoax." Those close to him -- including his eldest son and his son-in-law -- have hired high-profile lawyers to protect themselves amid the Mueller investigation.
In short: Almost everything that could go wrong has gone wrong for Trump in this first six months. I say "almost" everything because he does have one very clear win to tout: The nomination and confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.
At the heart of all Trump's problems is Trump himself. He has shown himself over these first six months to be unwilling or unable (or both) to stay disciplined, to avoid ad hominem attacks on Twitter, to put forward a consistent message or to deliver on his promise of being the best negotiator the country has ever seen.
Worst of all for Republicans is that Trump and those closest to him appear to be living in an alternate political reality where he is winning day in and day out. And where his style and his self-proclaimed "modern day presidential" approach to the office is being lauded by the public.
The polling suggests it's not. Not even close. But, unless and until Trump realizes he needs to make changes, there's every reason to believe the next six months will be a lot like his first six months. And that's bad news for Republicans hoping to hold the Senate and House in 2018. | | GOP HEALTH CARE FALLS APART | | The GOP's Obamacare repeal plan is currently a no-go.
As CNN's MJ Lee and Lauren Fox reported Tuesday, "three Republican senators said that they would oppose a procedural vote to advance the Senate's efforts to overhaul Obamacare, once again plunging into chaos Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's latest efforts to make good on the GOP's seven-year campaign promise to gut the Affordable Care Act."
As for President Trump's plan? "We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us," he told reporters at the White House.
| | SOME GOOD OLD FASHIONED SHADE | | Turns out The Wall Street Journal's editorial board is really good at throwing shade at President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, the editorial board published "The Trumps and the Truth," a scathing op-ed about the administration.
CNN's Liz Stark picked out six of the most scathing lines from the piece. - "Even Donald Trump might agree that a major reason he won the 2016 election is because voters couldn't abide Hillary Clinton's legacy of scandal, deception and stonewalling. Yet on the story of Russia's meddling in the 2016 election, Mr. Trump and his family are repeating the mistakes that doomed Mrs. Clinton."
- "Even if the ultimate truth of this tale is merely that Don Jr. is a political dunce who took a meeting that went nowhere — the best case — the Trumps made it appear as if they have something to hide. They have created the appearance of a conspiracy that on the evidence Don Jr. lacks the wit to concoct. And they handed their opponents another of the swords that by now could arm a Roman legion."
- "Don't you get it, guys? Special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate intelligence committees are investigating the Russia story. Everything that is potentially damaging to the Trumps will come out, one way or another. Everything. Denouncing leaks as "fake news" won't wash as a counter-strategy beyond the President's base, as Mr. Trump's latest 36% approval rating shows."
- "Then release it all to the public. Whatever short-term political damage this might cause couldn't be worse than the death by a thousand cuts of selective leaks, often out of context, from political opponents in Congress or the special counsel's office. If there really is nothing to the Russia collusion allegations, transparency will prove it."
- "Mr. Trump will probably ignore this advice, as he has most of what these columns have suggested. Had he replaced James Comey at the FBI shortly after taking office in January, for example, he might not now have a special counsel threatening him and his family."
- "Mr. Trump somehow seems to believe that his outsize personality and social-media following make him larger than the presidency. He's wrong. He and his family seem oblivious to the brutal realities of Washington politics. Those realities will destroy Mr. Trump, his family and their business reputation unless they change their strategy toward the Russia probe. They don't have much more time to do it."
| | | Photo credit: YouTube/Screengrabs | | | The Trump administration deemed this week's theme "Made in America" -- and our favorite late-night hosts couldn't resist making fun of it. USA Today had a great YouTube video featuring a roundup of the best Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel jokes from Monday. | | | Lorde, joined by a choir, performed her song "Perfect Places" on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" Monday and it was amazing. Watch the full clip on YouTube here. | | Beyonce isn't the only one who thinks girls should run the world. Nonpartisan organization She Should Run, created in 2011, helps recruit and train women to run for public office.
Their latest effort: A campaign called 250kBy2030, which aims to have women make up half the 500,000 elected office positions in the United States by 2030. (Axios first reported the news).
Saba spoke with She Should Run founder and CEO Erin Loos Cutraro, who said more than 15,000 women have joined the She Should Run community since the election. "It's been quite remarkable growth," she told Saba of the sign-ups. "It's important to celebrate the increasing number of women who have raised their hand to run for office. But there also needs to be ecosystem to support them all the way to ballot. That doesn't currently exist for women."
Check out Saba's story here. | | Another day, another poll showcasing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is really not very popular.
Morning Consult on Tuesday released a list of America's Most and Least Popular Governors -- and Mr. Beachgate himself topped the least popular list, with a 69% disapproval rating.
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback was the No. 2 least popular gov, with a 66% disapproval rating. Connecticut Dan Malloy (64% disapproval rating), Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (55% disapproval rating) and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (52% disapproval rating) rounded out the top five.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican in one of the most liberal states in the country, topped the most popular list, with a 71% approval rating. | | SOMEHOW...THIS IS STILL A THING | | | Ann Coulter is so pissed at Delta that she's still tweeting about it. Her latest message on Tuesday warned people to "BEWARE OF @DELTA REPUBLICANS." CNN Money has more on the Coulter-Delta Twitter saga here. | |  | | Here's Saba's dad, Farid, posing in front of the restaurant. | | | This isn't a news item but ... while Saba was on vacation in Montreal over the weekend, she spotted a restaurant called Vladimir Poutine. No, seriously that's its name -- a play on Russian President Vladimir Putin and the famous, popular local dish poutine (it's really good, btw). At the restaurant, various dishes are named after dictators and politicians, including Napoleon and Mussolini. Politics is everywhere. | | | Here's a GIF of Biden and former House Speaker John Boehner. Reminder that Boehner kind of called the Republican health care collapse. In February he said this about Congress repealing Obamacare: "This is not all that hard to figure out, except this: In the 25 years that I served in the United States Congress, Republicans never, ever one time agreed on what a health care proposal should look like. Not once." Huh. Anyway, thanks for reading! Remember to tell your friends -- and your haters -- to subscribe. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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