On 10 hot-button issues, President Donald Trump gets the highest approval ratings for his handling of terrorism (46%) and the economy (45%). His lowest ratings are for healthcare policy (28%) and relations with Russia (30%). Trump’s frosty relations with the news media meet with approval from 34% of U.S. adults. […] Read more »
In Watergate, One Set of Facts. In Trump Era, Take Your Pick.
… Mainstream journalism, a shiny and ascendant conveyor of truth during Watergate, is in a battered state after decades of economic erosion, its own mistakes and the efforts of partisan wrecking crews to discredit its work, the most recent one led by the president himself. All of it gives the […] Read more »
Getting granular with the claim that Trump is some media wizard
… To the claim that Trump is a master of media manipulation — which I doubt — I offer these alternatives: 1.) He cannot be shamed. Trump does not care if he is shown to be a liar, idiot, ignoramus, clown, or monster. Most people are not built like that. […] Read more »
Montana’s familiar story: A wealthy candidate became a warrior against the ‘establishment’
After he declared victory in a hard-fought race for Montana’s sole House seat, Republican Greg Gianforte turned somber. … One day after Gianforte was charged with assaulting Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs — and after his campaign blamed an “aggressive” and “liberal” Jacobs for the incident — Gianforte apologized to him […] Read more »
Some Of The GOP’s Institutions Have More Reason To Be Loyal To Trump Than Others
As President Trump’s struggles have mounted, the overriding question in American politics has become “who’s still with him?” … So, after speaking with some political scientists and Republican operatives, examining the groups that spent the most money electing Trump and Republicans in Congress and looking at the president’s moves in […] Read more »
Bright Line Watch Survey Report: How is U.S. democracy doing?
From May 11-20, 2017, Bright Line Watch conducted its second expert survey of political scientists assessing the state of democracy in the United States. BLW’s first survey (Wave 1) was conducted at the outset of the Trump administration in February 2017. This report presents results from the second survey (Wave […] Read more »