President Trump is closing out the first year of his second term with a slight rebound in his approval ratings, but the numbers are still far lower than where they stood at the beginning of the year as concerns over the economy take hold.
Trump's approval tumbled to a second-term low of 41 percent last month amid the record-breaking government shutdown, according to Decision Desk HQ's poll aggregate. Since then, it's ticked up to around 45 percent, which has been the rough average for him since taking office.
But signs suggest the president still faces headwinds as he enters 2026. Recent polls show the president with some of his lowest-ever economic approval ratings amid steep tariffs, high prices and cost-of-living issues. |
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The Justice Department (DOJ) on Friday released a tranche of thousands of documents related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, that included public court records, photographs, flight logs and other materials.
The release came in response to a law that garnered near unanimous support, with only one House member voting against it that gave the Justice Department 30 days to publicly post all unclassified documents in its possession surrounding Jeffrey Epstein. Friday marked 30 days since President Trump signed the law. While reporters are still sifting through all of the documents, here are five initial takeaways from what was published. |
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The Justice Department released a portion of the Jeffrey Epstein files to meet the Friday deadline established in a congressional bill with a series of downloadable files related to the convicted sex offender.
They include a host of photos and completely redacted files. The information can be accessed on the Department of Justice's (DOJ) website. Files can be accessed under the following categories: Court Records; DOJ Disclosures, Including Disclosures Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405); Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Disclosures. |
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Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a leading sponsor of the law requiring the Trump administration to release the full Jeffrey Epstein files, said Friday that the Justice Department is "grossly" violating its legal obligations.
In a social media post, Massie said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and her chief deputy, Todd Blanche, who orchestrated Friday's document release, are skirting the law that President Trump enacted exactly a month ago. "Unfortunately, today's document release by @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche grossly fails to comply with both the spirit and the letter of the law that @realDonaldTrump signed just 30 days ago," Massie posted on X. |
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A trio of House Republicans welcomed an Orthodox Christian delegation that accused Ukraine of religious persecution to Capitol Hill this week.
Reps. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) and Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), headlined an advocacy day Tuesday for Orthodox Christian clergy, some with ties to the Russian Orthodox Church, which has said Moscow's war against Ukraine is justified.
But the group's advocacy is drawing criticism from other Republicans and Kyiv's supporters, who accuse the clergy of pushing Kremlin narratives. Critics say the Kremlin is recruiting these clergy to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine by pushing false narratives and refusing to address Russia's persecution of religious groups at home and in occupied territories of Ukraine. |
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President Trump on Friday told supporters that Democrats will shut down the government over health care in January, after Affordable Health Care (ACA) tax credits are set to expire going into the new year.
"The problem is that Democrats will shut down the government because they are beholden ... to the insurance companies," Trump said at a rally in Rocky Mount, N.C. "So I don't know what they can do about it, but they'll probably close down the government. It's so simple."
Trump claimed Democrats "demanded" the deep increase in ACA premiums spiking next year. He said he wanted credit for referring to the ACA as the "Unaffordable Care Act." |
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The U.S. military struck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria against Islamic State on Friday, retaliating a week after two U.S. service members and one civilian were killed by a gunman tied to ISIS in an ambush attack.
U.S. forces, as part of "Operation Hawkeye Strike," eliminated ISIS fighters, weapons sites and infrastructure in response to the attack on U.S. service members in Palmyra, Syria, on Dec. 13, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday. The U.S. military utilized fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery against ISIS targets, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said. Jordan's Armed Forces supported the attack with fighter jets, an operation where over 100 precision munitions were used to target "known ISIS infrastructure and weapons sites." |
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Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced Friday that she was suspending her bid for New York governor and would also be retiring from Congress.
Her stunning announcement came shortly after Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a fellow ally of President Trump, jumped into the primary. "While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for Governor and will not seek re-election to Congress. I did not come to this decision lightly for our family," she wrote in a post on social platform X. |
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Kerry Kennedy, daughter of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, said she will "grab a pickax" to remove President Trump's name from the Kennedy Center after Trump's name was added to the building Friday.
"Three years and one month from today, I'm going to grab a pickax and pull those letters off that building, but I'm going to need help holding the ladder," Kerry Kennedy posted on the social platform X. "Are you in? Applying for my carpenter's card today, so it'll be a union job!!!" The Kennedy Center board voted to include Trump's name on the building Thursday. Letters spelling Trump's name were added to the center Friday. The exterior now says, "The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts." |
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OPINION | When President Trump won the 2024 presidential election and Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress, many people assumed the outcome would be like his first term. In both instances, Trump campaigned on policies of lower taxes and deregulation that were favorable for U.S. businesses.
One difference in his second term is Trump made tariffs the centerpiece of his program to transform the U.S. economy by reviving manufacturing and creating better paying jobs for workers. In his view, persistent bilateral trade deficits were facial evidence of unfair trading practices. |
OPINION | In 2021, a Democratic trifecta in Washington, D.C. used the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to bail out ObamaCare with enhanced premium subsidies. Now, in 2025, a Republican trifecta appears poised to do the same. Elected officials that once sought to "Repeal and Replace" the so-called "Affordable Care Act" are now working on plans to prop it up with another massive infusion of taxpayer dollars. However that new funding is structured — whether extending Democrats' premium subsidies or, as some Republicans prefer, depositing it in individuals' Health Savings Accounts — the fact of the matter remains that you cannot fix broken systems by shoveling money into them.
ObamaCare's haters were right the first time around. Premiums have doubled. Smaller insurers have been pushed out of the market. And the national debt has grown by $1.5 trillion. The nation's largest health care insurance companies, meanwhile, have grown richer on taxpayer money. |
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BY LISA LERER AND JONAH SMITH |
On President Trump's first day back in office, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey, hit him with a new political mantra. His barrage of executive orders, she argued, had failed to make any attempt to address the "affordability crisis."
It was an early sign of where the Democratic Party was headed. Nearly a year later, Sherrill is preparing to take office after winning her bid for governor. And "affordability" is dominating the political conversation. |
BY ALEXANDER WARD, ROBBIE GRAMER AND PETER GRANT |
Beachside luxury resorts. High-speed rail. AI-optimized smart grids.
Welcome to "Project Sunrise," the Trump administration's pitch to foreign governments and investors to turn Gaza's rubble into a futuristic coastal destination.
A team led by President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, two top White House aides, developed a draft proposal to convert the bombed-out enclave into a gleaming metropolis. |
Luigi Mangione's lawyers contend that Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision to seek the death penalty against him in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was tainted by her prior work as a lobbyist at a firm that represented the insurer's parent company.
Bondi was a partner at Ballard Partners before leading the Justice Department's charge to turn Mangione's federal prosecution into a capital case, creating a "profound conflict of interest" that violated his due process rights, his lawyers wrote in a court filing late Friday. They want prosecutors barred from seeking the death penalty and some charges thrown out. A hearing is scheduled for Jan. 9. |
Over three years, the U.S. Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee sifted through hundreds of ideas for commemorative coins to celebrate the 250th anniversary of America's founding.
The group settled on five options, including quarters honoring abolitionist Frederick Douglass; Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old girl who helped integrate public schools in New Orleans; and the women's suffrage movement. In a preview of the Trump administration's approach to celebrating the country's 250th birthday, Treasury Department officials announced earlier this month that the agency would ignore the committee's recommendation and produce quarters that are far less diverse and more traditional. |
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