Wednesday, April 30 | By Alexis Simendinger & Kristina Karisch |
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| ▪ Buckle up for next 100 days ▪ Court pushback worries GOP ▪ Interview: Expert eyes Trump deregulation ▪ Russia, Ukraine stalled on ceasefire talks |
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©️ Associated Press | Ben Curtis |
Day 101: How Trump's policies stack up with voters |
President Trump has hit the 100-day mark of his second term in the White House at "Trump speed," heralding changes that are reshaping the government and the U.S.'s role on the global stage. But the president crossed the early benchmark with polls flashing warning signs that voters are frustrated with his handling of the economy and overall job performance. Three months into Trump's second term, 44 percent of registered voters approve of his job performance, compared to 56 percent who disapprove, according to a poll released this morning from Decision Desk HQ/NewsNation. That places him in a considerably weaker position than most of his recent predecessors have been at this stage in their terms — except for Trump's first administration. Trump marked his first 100 days at a Michigan rally reminiscent of his campaign, during which he celebrated his border crackdown and his opponents' inability to thwart his agenda. Before the event, Trump joined the Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) at the nearby Selfridge Air National Guard Base to announce new resources, including 21 new fighter jets, seen as key to keeping the base open. The Hill: How Trump 2.0 compares to 1.0, so far. For decades, presidents have enjoyed approval ratings above water, at least in the first 100 days when political capital and goodwill are higher. But numerous pollsters have found Trump clearly in the negative in recent weeks. It's a marked shift from the opening days of his administration, when Trump was riding high with a blitz of executive actions that delighted allies and supporters, even as they stoked critics' fears about lasting harm. TARIFFS: Voter frustration is linked in part to Trump's ever-changing economic policy. The Hill's Tobias Burns reports that Trump's tariffs have reset global trade relations and left businesses and investors in thrall to the administration's every move. Trump has blitzed regulatory agencies and ordered wide-ranging government layoffs, taking the "move fast and break things" mantra to new extremes. The whirlwind cadence of orders and reversals has left U.S. economic allies and adversaries alike trying to figure out where Trump's policies will land. Even U.S. financial assets — traditional safe havens in times of economic distress from recessions to wars — have shown signs of weakness. Trump on Tuesday signed a pair of executive orders that walked back some tariffs for carmakers, removing levies that Ford, General Motors and others have complained would backfire on U.S. manufacturing. Reuters: China has created a list of US-made goods exempt from 125 percent tariffs. IMMIGRATION: In Trump's first 100 days, the country has gotten a preview of the mass deportation agenda he has pledged to carry out over the next four years. From the battle over flights deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members that escalated all the way to the Supreme Court to crackdowns on pro-Palestine international students, the White House has pushed the bounds of recourse against immigrants in the U.S., writes The Hill's Rebecca Beitsch. "We're seeing the Trump administration really pursuing an attack on core democratic values and using immigration and immigrants as the battleground for that attack," said Nayna Gupta, policy director with the American Immigration Council. "We're seeing the president attack the right to free speech, the right to a fair day in court, these core American ideals." The New York Times: A federal judge in California on Tuesday blocked the administration's efforts to cut funding to nonprofits that provide legal services for undocumented migrants under 18 who entered the United States without adult guardians. FOREIGN POLICY: Trump moved quickly to remake American foreign policy, weaponizing his "America First" agenda with the slashing of foreign aid, expansionist threats toward friendly countries, and a massively disruptive tariff regime, which has already roiled global markets and relationships. The Hill's Laura Kelly reports that Americans have taken an increasingly dim view of Trump's major moves on the world stage. While Republicans are more favorable to the president, an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found a majority disapprove of how Trump is handling foreign policy. "I think Trump does think it's the U.S. versus everybody else," said Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. ▪ The Hill: Here are five ways that Trump has tried to weaken abortion access in his first 100 days. ▪ The Hill: The Trump administration has reversed Washington's tone on cryptocurrency, making good on its promises to the industry in a blitz of executive orders and regulatory shakeups. |
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Smart Take
with Blake Burman |
| For all the talk about the first 100 days, it seems like President Trump was also focused on roughly the next 100. While speaking to reporters at the White House and during his Tuesday night rally in Michigan, the president mentioned the upcoming tax cut legislation, or the "big, beautiful bill," as he referred to it several times. He also sent a message. "Every once in a while, you have a grandstander Republican," Trump said at his Michigan rally. "We have some grandstanders. Not many, not many — but remember who those grandstanders are and vote them the hell out of office." Republicans have a target of July 4 for the potential legislation. On Tuesday, it seemed like the president started to zero in on the upcoming bill. Get ready to hear more from the White House about it. |
Burman hosts "The Hill" weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation. |
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©️ Associated Press | Rahmat Gul |
Stormy weather: Trump's clashes with the federal judiciary over immigration and deportations leave some Republican lawmakers unnerved about substance and political optics, reports The Hill's Alexander Bolton. GOP senators, returning to Washington after a spring recess, on Monday tried to dodge questions about the administration's treatment of Maryland migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and imprisoned there. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have said the U.S. cannot bring Abrego Garcia back. "If he were the gentleman you say he is," Trump told ABC News during an interview Tuesday, he would return Abrego Garcia. But the president said that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and should not be returned. A federal judge has expressed doubt about that assertion. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently got an earful during town hall events in his state as constituents questioned the administration's deportation policies and opportunities for judicial due process. Democratic lawmakers have warned voters that what happened to Abrego Garcia under Trump's governance could happen to American citizens, and it has already impacted children who are U.S. citizens born to migrant parents without legal status. ▪ The New York Times: In an administrative action, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ordered the suspension of Judge Hannah Dugan of Milwaukee, who was arrested last week on charges of obstructing immigration enforcement. ▪ The Washington Post: The U.S. Postal Service Inspection Service is assisting federal deportation efforts aimed at migrants without legal status using data from mail and packages. Early GOP midterm jitters: Trump's sagging poll numbers worry Republicans as they begin to focus on next year's elections, The Hill's Amie Parnes reports. "It's still early, but the trend lines from the tariff policy are, so far, not looking good," Republican political strategist Kevin Madden said. Evidence of those GOP worries? Some Republican lawmakers believe if Democrats win the House majority in 2026, calls from the left to impeach Trump will take root. The president's political team is war-gaming for that fight. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) introduced articles of impeachment against Trump on Monday. And Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who is seeking reelection, last week signaled support for Trump's impeachment. House Republicans on Tuesday moved to shut down a separate avenue of controversy to prevent a House probe sought by Democrats of the Trump administration's use of Signal. "I think we learned: Maybe don't use Signal, okay?" Trump said last week during an interview with The Atlantic, adding that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who shared military attack information with civilians on a Signal chat group, "is gonna get it together" and is "safe" in his Cabinet. Public broadcasting has defenders on Capitol Hill: Lawmakers say they expect a formal request from the Trump administration to claw back millions of dollars in funding from public broadcasting during the GOP budget process. But some Republicans come to the defense of public media outlets, which conservatives frequently complain lean too far to the left. "I think most Nebraskans like our NPR, PBS," Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.) said, referring to local stations affiliated with the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR). "I could see some reductions, but don't just cut them out," Bacon said Tuesday. "I think they've been fair." ▪ The New York Times: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.) on Tuesday unveiled a $15 billion plan to modernize the nation's air traffic control systems. ▪ The Wall Street Journal: Republican lawmakers recently braved hostile crowds during town halls back home. ▪ The Hill: In Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) was met with backlash from state Republicans after he phoned lieutenant gubernatorial candidate John Reid, a Republican, urging him to end his campaign following allegations Reid shared pornographic material online. Reid, who is openly gay, says he has been falsely targeted. 2028: Gina Raimondo, who was Commerce secretary during the Biden administration and a former Democratic governor of Rhode Island, said Tuesday she is considering a presidential bid. She answered "yes" when asked by former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics if she might run. … CNN reports on another potential presidential contender, Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, and his public and private efforts to counter Trump. The Hill: Trump on Tuesday removed former second gentleman Doug Emhoff as well as an unknown number of other appointees from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, pending replacements. "To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve," said Emhoff, who is Jewish. |
- The House will meet at 10 a.m.
- The Senate will convene at 10 a.m.
- The president will hold a Cabinet meeting at 11 a.m. Trump will participate in the formal swearing-in for the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Warren Stephens at 2 p.m. in the Oval Office. Trump will deliver remarks at 4 p.m. about investing in the U.S. He will join by phone a town hall event hosted by NewsNation at 8 p.m. EDT.
- Economic indicators: The Bureau of Economic Analysis at 8:30 a.m. will estimate Gross Domestic Product in the first quarter, a much-watched economic yardstick. The bureau will report at 10 a.m. on personal income and spending during March, a look back at trendlines
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©️ Associated Press | Evan Vucci |
100 Days of Deregulation: To catch up with the status of Trump's promised deregulatory aims during his first months in office, Morning Report's Alexis Simendinger turned to an expert, Susan Dudley, former regulatory chief as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under former President George W. Bush. She's a professor of practice at George Washington University and director of its Regulatory Studies Center. (The conversation was edited for length and clarity.) Q. After the first 100 days, how is the administration pursuing deregulation to bolster the economy? Dudley: My sense is that they're trying to move very quickly in ways that push the boundaries of what the executive branch can do alone without following procedure. [The president] definitely sees deregulation as a way of reducing burdens [to] allow the economy to be more innovative and grow more. He's issued executive orders directing agencies to either remove regulations or change the process by which they regulate. One of his big areas of focus is in energy and the environment. He's proposing that each individual agency specific to regulations that affect energy write one big rule that automatically sunsets all of its rules that are under statutes he's identified — and do that by September. And then by the following September [2026], they have to have evaluated all of those. And if they have not evaluated them and determined that they were worth keeping, they're gone. Of course, there are concerns with the downsides of that. I like the idea of incentivizing agencies to evaluate because I think that's one of the biggest weaknesses in our regulatory system. Rules do accumulate. On the other hand, this is a very blunt way to do it. In essence, [the president] is forcing agencies to scramble to evaluate in a year all those regulations going back a long time, to see if they're still needed. It would be one thing to go back individually to those regulations and look at them and say, "Hey, this one maybe isn't working. We're going to put a sunset date and we're going to use that time period to evaluate whether it's working or not." They could put in a reasonable time period, which may well be a lot more than a year. It does create more uncertainty. It's not going to change businesses' behavior [if companies] incorporated [a federal rule] into how they operate. In that sense, it may not have as huge an impact. Some regulations do require big upfront capital costs, and those companies are going to be less than pleased because it means their competitor can come in and not have to put this pollution control device on their power plant, or whatever. Q. Can the administration sunset regulations without public comment? Dudley: I am very skeptical of that — that a blanket regulation, even if the blanket regulation goes through notice and comment — can change dozens of regulations and put an end date on dozens of regulations. I'm not a lawyer. There are many ways that private parties can bring action against federal agencies in the regulatory space, but one of the main ones is whether it's arbitrary and capricious under the statutory authority the agency has. I would think it would be a pretty easy case to say this is arbitrary and capricious because "you just decided to put an end date on it without going through serious evaluation." I think they will backfire. In their haste to move quickly to achieve [Trump's] deregulatory goals, they may not be achieving durable changes that I think they're hoping for. ▪ The Hill: Trump ordered agencies to "sunset" environmental protections. ▪ Politico: Legislation written by the House Judiciary Committee would allow Trump to delete reams of regulations from the federal rulebook. A draft is set to be adopted by the panel today. ▪ Axios: "The three components of the Trump economic agenda — tariffs, tax cuts and deregulation — are not standalone policies," says Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The "hidden cost" on goods is regulation, he told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. ▪ "What is OIRA, and why is it about to remake the federal government?" NPR's Planet Money (with Dudley interview). ▪ "Starting this week, independent regulatory agencies face White House review of their regulations," Forbes, by contributor Dudley. ▪ "No comment: Reducing opportunities for public engagement in rulemaking," by Dudley and Sarah Hay, George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. ▪ On Balance: "Whither cost-benefit analysis in Trump's second term," by Dudley, Society for Cost-Benefit Analysis blog. |
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©️ Associated Press | Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik |
UKRAINE: The Kremlin said Tuesday that Ukraine had not responded to offers by Russian President Vladimir Putin to start direct peace negotiations, and that it was unclear whether Kyiv would join a three-day ceasefire he has announced for next month. Ukrainian officials dismissed Putin's declaration of a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire next week as an attempt "to deceive the United States." In his interview with ABC News, Trump acknowledged that Putin might be "tapping him along" when it comes to a peace deal to end the war with Ukraine. Trump also said explicitly that he believes Putin wants the entire country and that the Krelim would have succeeded in that mission had Trump not won in 2024. "He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war. I think, if it weren't for me, I think he would like to take over the whole country personally," Trump said. "I believe that Putin wanted to get all of Ukraine, once he went in." Putin's offer of a ceasefire — to coincide with Moscow's defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, known as Victory Day — came as Russia struck civilian areas of Ukraine with drones in another deadly nighttime attack. Moscow has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions. Ukraine, meanwhile, has accepted it, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump told ABC News that his Saturday meeting with Zelensky, held while the two attended Pope Francis's funeral in Rome, was a "moment of solace," because so many Ukrainian people were dying. "A lot of his people are dying," Trump said of Zelensky, adding that he felt "very badly about it." The Economist: Russian and Ukrainian red lines appear as incompatible as ever, but momentum may be shifting towards peace. "ON OUR TERMS": Newly-elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the BBC his country deserves respect from the U.S. and will only enter trade and security talks with Trump "on our terms." Carney, who on Monday led Canada's Liberal Party to a victory on the heels of sanctions and annexation threats from Trump, said he would only visit Washington when there was a "serious discussion to be had" that respected Canada's sovereignty. "There is a partnership to be had, an economic and security partnership," he said of the U.S. "It's going to be a very different one than we've had in the past." ▪ The New York Times: Four takeaways from Canada's Trump-centric election. ▪ The Wall Street Journal: A Canadian technocrat's new mission: A radical breakup with the U.S. |
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©️ Associated Press | Ng Han Guan |
And finally … 🤖 Young women like the idea of dating — just not with a real man. The Chinese video game "Love and Deepspace" has taken off in China and other countries across Asia, with its lifelike 3D characters, engaging storylines and futuristic romance scenarios. It's not the only way artificial intelligence has shaped romance: Chatbot romances are becoming more popular, but even the best programming can't provide what they lack. ▪ Business Insider: This Chinese mobile dating game is getting single women across Asia to open their hearts — and wallets. ▪ Deseret News: Dating is harder than ever. Are AI companions a solution — or a distraction? |
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