I said yesterday that I thought we likely weren’t far away from the first national poll which showed Donald Trump’s approval number dipping into the 30s. And here we are: AP-NORC 39% approve, 59% disapprove.
I’ve said repeatedly that we are in the midst of a lengthy national struggle and that it is fundamentally over public opinion. To understand where we are, where we’re going and what the future possibilities are everything must be seen through that prism. But I noticed a conversation yesterday that prompts me to be more specific.
Government Executive: “The Veterans Affairs Department is requiring all employees working on its plans to slash tens of thousands of workers from its rolls to sign non-disclosure agreements, an unusual move that has prevented supervisors from sharing basic information with staff.”
Question: I’m looking for examples of medical schools which may just have received a letter from the Justice Department demanding detailed records of the school’s admissions going back five years. If you have information: Signal joshtpm.99 or joshtpm at protonmail dot com. All comms confidential.
This isn’t terribly surprising, given the broader budgetary situation at American universities, particularly in the sciences and biomedical research specifically. I’ve heard from faculty and graduate students at a number of schools around the country. Many programs are dramatically reducing the number of offers being made for PhD programs. One prestigious school of medicine cut the number of PhD students it’s admitting for next year by 50%. At another program, PhD students are being graduated on an expedited basis, sooner and with less work produced than would normally be allowed. The logic is simple. The program doesn’t think they’re going to have the money to allow these students to finish. I’ve heard multiple examples of offers being turned down to attend programs in other countries. Meanwhile and unsurprisingly, foreign students are turning down offers to study in the United States.
The White House (yes, technically the GSA guy and the two lawyers) sent that letter to Harvard, demanding de facto control of the university’s hiring, admissions and various elements of its curriculum. Harvard replied with a flat rejection ten days ago. The White House immediately responded by freezing $2.3 billion in grants to Harvard. That was on April 14th. Then, four days later (April 18th), there was that weird article in the Times in which we learned that the White House said that the original demand letter had been sent by mistake. The White House wasn’t disowning the contents of the letter, or not exactly? They made what might best be described as a kind of low-energy and churlish demand or beg for Harvard to continue negotiating. It’s been reported that the White House made as many as three informal contacts to restart negotiations. Then, three days (April 21st) after that, Harvard sued. I noted yesterday that a majority of the University of Michigan Regents published an op-ed backing Harvard’s stand and denouncing the White House’s coercion tactics. The American Association of Colleges and Universities published an open letter doing the same which was signed by more than 150 university presidents.
This morning, the White House announced that trade talks with China continue, albeit at a staff level. This came after a flurry of reports that Trump is planning to unilaterally ramp back the embargo-level tariffs he imposed on China earlier this month, advance notice that cheered Wall Street. Then Chinese officials said that the White House is wrong. There actually are no talks. And Trump must take the first step, unilaterally undoing the tariffs he had already imposed.
He appears set to do just that.
This comes just three days after the CEOs of Walmart, Target and Home Depot met with Trump at the White House and reportedly told him that his tariffs would result in empty shelves and product shortages in as little as two weeks.
All of this is, to put it mildly, a humiliating climb down for the President. He upended the global economy and seems to have massively damaged the perception of American assets as a safe haven during times of economic uncertainty. The goal was to go toe-to-toe with China and see China blink. But it’s the U.S. that’s blinking. And that’s after the earlier reciprocal tariffs blink that already happened.
President Trump’s dubious use of the Alien Enemies Act to try to deport large numbers of Venezuelan men — and the lives he’s consequently endangered — have gobbled up so much national attention that it’s easy to forget the Court hasn’t yet ruled on whether Trump even can use this law in this way in the first place.
Hunter Walker looks into the latest addition to the Trump family’s MAGA merch store, which gives you new ways to broadcast to the world your enthusiasm for pushing constitutional boundaries.
Khaya Himmelman checks in on Ed Martin, who made headlines this week when he backtracked on his past praise for a convicted Jan. 6 defendant who federal prosecutors described as a “white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.” It’s just one of several things Martin has done as he tries to prepare for a Senate confirmation fight that Democrats are ensuring will be contentious.
Hunter Walker reflects on the saga of the infamous George Santos, who was sentenced to 87 months in prison on Friday.
The administration’s lack of transparency about tariff exemptions has experts concerned that some firms might be winning narrow carve-outs behind closed doors.
Kate and Josh discuss Pete Hegseth and Signal-gate part two, the Supreme Court’s extraordinary Alien Enemies Act order and the passing of Pope Francis.
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