Latest news with #AmericanPresidencyProject


AFP
5 days ago
- Politics
- AFP
Clip shows Donald Trump praising former German chancellor, not Yoon Suk Yeol
"Shocking interview by Trump: 'Yoon Suk Yeol is the world's greatest leader'," reads the Korean-language caption of a video shared on the right-wing Ilbe forum on August 4, 2025. The video shows a clip from the "Mornings with Maria" show on the Fox Business channel (archived link). The host appears to be conducting a telephone interview with Trump, in which he says: "Fantastic leader. I was with somebody the other day that thinks she's the greatest leader in the world today. She's the smartest and the greatest leader in the world today." Korean-language subtitles superimposed on the clip, however, do not translate the pronoun "she", creating the false impression Trump was referring to Yoon. The former South Korean president, who was impeached in June 2025 after attempting to suspend decades of civilian rule on December 3, 2024, is currently in detention and resisting questioning by special prosecutors (archived link). Image Screenshot of the false post captured on August 5, 2025, with a red X added by AFP The same 10-second clip was also shared in similar posts on South Korean right-wing communities on Naver Band and YouTube. "Even the world's leader Trump understands that the true winner is President Yoon," read a comment on one of the posts. Another said: "President Trump surely will come to President Yoon's rescue." A keyword search on Google found the original footage was posted on the verified Fox Business YouTube channel on August 20, 2015 with the title, "Trump: Angela Merkel is the greatest leader in the world" (archived link). Trump, who at the time was running for the Republican presidential nomination, was speaking on the phone with host Maria Bartiromo. The clip used in the false posts was taken from the 4:02 mark of the Fox Business video, after Trump was asked to give his thoughts on Merkel. Image Screenshot comparison of the falsely shared clip (left) and the Fox Business video posted in August 2015 (right) The full transcript of the interview -- available on the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara -- shows Trump was responding to the question about Merkel (archived link). He was then asked for his opinion on then-UK prime minister David Cameron, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and China's President Xi Jinping. Trump's description of Merkel was also referenced in a report by US media outlet The Intercept in 2018, in the context of his criticism of Germany's immigration policies (archived link). As of August 6, 2025 there have been no official reports about Trump praising Yoon in such glowing terms. AFP has previously debunked similar instances of Trump remarks and social media posts being misrepresented as references to South Korea.

Miami Herald
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
On the streets, Americans gave Trump the biggest public rebuke of his second term
President Donald Trump's second term in the White House has been different from his first one — he's emboldened and has moved quicker and more aggressively on his agenda. He's governing like he has a mandate after the 2024 election — and in some ways, that's true. Unlike in his 2016 victory, he won not only the Electoral College but the popular vote — becoming only the second Republican to do so since 1988 — and carried all seven battleground states by comfortable margins. 'The American people have given us a mandate, a mandate like few people thought possible,' Trump said after the election. Since then, there's been a sense of 'This is what America wanted' as Trump moved to strip legal protection from certain migrants, ignored due process and concentrated more power in his own hands. But is this truly what America wants? The 'No Kings' protests that happened in Florida and across the nation suggest that Trump's mandate only goes so far. Indeed, his popular-vote winning margin of 1.5% was the smallest by an elected president since Richard Nixon's in 1968, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara. According to protest organizers, an estimated 5 million people attended more than 2,000 demonstrations planned nationwide on Saturday, NPR reported. Thousands attended protests in Miami, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale combined. Some might have expected larger crowds in Miami, given the large number of people affected by Trump's revocation of deportation protections for Venezuelans, Cubans and others. But Miami-Dade County also flipped from blue to red during last year's presidential election. Regardless, this was so far the largest public display of discontent with the second Trump presidency — and it was a loud one, taking at least some attention away from the military parade he wanted for so long, which also took place on Saturday in Washington, D.C. For a president who's obsessed with image and TV coverage, the footage and photos of people rebuking him as they flew American flags must not have sat well. The fact that the protests were largely peaceful also robbed him of an opportunity to instill fear and threaten to send Marines to Democratically-run cities to boost his 'law and order' credentials. The protesters were not 'foreign invaders,' Antifa or extremists, as Trump and his allies would like the American people to believe. The demonstrators who spoke to the Herald Editorial Board in Fort Lauderdale were everyday people, some of whom said they felt they had no option but to take to the streets to protect democracy. Some of them told the Editorial Board they believe the U.S. is already a dictatorship. It isn't, but Trump's undemocratic tendencies are undeniable. He's attacked judges who ruled against his administration, used his power to penalize law firms that did legal work he doesn't like and deported people without giving them due process. Meanwhile, he's trying to turn nonpartisan federal service into a politicized system where loyalty to him by federal workers would be rewarded over merit, the Washington Post reported Monday. Protests certainly won't be enough to force Trump to change course, and it's still early to say whether they mean the Republican Party will underperform in next year's midterms. But the millions of Americans wondering whether they are alone in their concern about America's undemocratic turn or Trump's cruelty toward migrants here, legally and illegally, don't need to wonder anymore. On Saturday, it was clear that there are many people who know this is not what America is about. Click here to send the letter.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US presidents ranked by their approval ratings when they left office
For the past 70 years, Gallup has measured US presidents' approval ratings. Bill Clinton had the highest approval ratings at the time he left the Oval Office. Donald Trump's first-term rating is tied for eighth place with George W. Bush's and Jimmy Carter's. President Donald Trump is seeking to rewrite US immigration policies, has reshaped how world leaders use social media, and has made historic changes to the federal workforce. But in his first term, he made history in a way he may wish to forget: He was the first president since Gallup began tracking presidential job approval in the 1930s to fail to exceed a 50% approval rating at any point during his term. In Gallup's latest poll, conducted during the first half of May, 43% of respondents said they approved of Trump's performance, down from 47% in polling conducted during the first six days of his second term in January. In the recent poll, 53% said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. This number has held steady since March, a month rocked by leaked Signal chats and the economic shake-up of tariff policies. (A handful of people in each poll said they had no opinion of Trump's job performance.) For nearly a century, the polls have been used to measure the public's perception of US presidents' performance, with Gallup asking Americans: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way [the current president] is handling his job as president?" The American Presidency Project from the University of California, Santa Barbara, compiled the final Gallup ratings of each president's term from the past 70 years, signaling how popular each leader was when they left the Oval Office. See how US presidents from Harry Truman to Joe Biden rank in this end-of-term polling. We've ordered them from the lowest approval rating to the highest. Richard Nixon Approval rating: 24% Even though Nixon won the 1972 election in a historic landslide, the end of his presidency was tainted by the Watergate scandal that led him to resign on August 9, 1974, when faced with the threat of an impeachment and removal. Surveyed August 2 to 5, 1974, after the House Judiciary Committee passed articles of impeachment against the president but before he resigned, 66% of respondents to the Gallup poll said they disapproved of Nixon's presidency, the highest of any president on the list. Harry S. Truman Approval rating: 32% Assuming the presidency after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, Truman served two terms covering the aftermath of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, including the Korean War, which was widely unpopular and contributed to Truman's low approval rating by the end of his second term in 1953. When asked December 11 to 16, 1952, 56% of poll respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. Jimmy Carter Approval rating: 34% Carter had high approval ratings — and a disapproval rating in the single digits — during the early days of his term, but his handling of international affairs, such as the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, along with a struggling economy, ultimately made him unpopular by the end of his term. He lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan and faced a disapproval rating of 55% in polling conducted December 5 to 8, when he was readying to leave the White House. George W. Bush Approval rating: 34% Despite uniting the nation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Bush saw his public approval fade during his second term. His approval rating spiked after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, and the capture of Saddam Hussein. After his reelection, his popularity began to decline as the Iraq War extended. His handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the onset of the 2008 financial crisis also contributed to his growing unpopularity. From January 9 to 11, 2009, as Bush prepared to hand over the presidency to Barack Obama, 61% of poll respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. Donald Trump Approval rating: 34% Trump's presidency was divisive from the start, as he entered the White House with an approval rating below 50%. He's the first president in modern history to never exceed 50% approval on the Gallup polls during his presidency. While his approval ratings dwindled over the course of his four years in office, his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in particular came under scrutiny ahead of his loss in the 2020 election. His lowest approval ratings in office came during the final Gallup poll, conducted January 4 to 15, 2021. Most of that polling period took place immediately after the Capitol insurrection on January 6, and Trump faced a disapproval rating of 62%, the worst after Richard Nixon's at the time he left the office. Joe Biden Approval rating: 40% While Biden saw continuous approval ratings over 50% during his first six months in office, rises in inflation and illegal immigration, as well as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, contributed to lowering approval ratings. His lowest-ranking Gallup poll, in which 36% of respondents said they approved of his handling of the role, came in July 2024, a month after his debate performance against Trump shifted focus toward his age and fitness for office. As he left office, in polls collected January 2 to 16, 2025, Biden received a disapproval rating of 54%. Lyndon B. Johnson Approval rating: 49% After assuming the presidency because of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Johnson won the 1964 election in a historic landslide, but he faced decreasing approval ratings over his handling of the Vietnam War. Low approval ratings, along with a divided party, led Johnson to withdraw from the presidential race in 1968. At the time of his withdrawal, 36% of poll respondents said they approved of his handling of the presidency. By the time he left the office, however, his ratings had gone up to 49% approval. In polling conducted January 1 to 6, 1969, 37% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the role, and 14% said they had no opinion, one of the higher percentages among the listed presidents. Gerald Ford Approval rating: 53% Assuming the presidency at the time of Nixon's resignation, Ford served as US president from August 1974 until January 1977, after he lost the election to Jimmy Carter. During his presidency, Ford faced mixed reviews, with his approval dropping after he pardoned Nixon and introduced conditional amnesty for draft dodgers in September 1974. Polled December 10 to 13, 1976, after he had lost the reelection to Jimmy Carter, 32% of respondents said they disapproved of Ford's handling of the presidency, and 15% said they had no opinion on it, the highest percentage of the listed presidents. George H. W. Bush Approval rating: 56% Though the elder Bush lost his reelection bid in the 1992 presidential election against Bill Clinton, the public opinion of him was positive by the end of his term. In the weeks before his nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidency in 1992, however, he had only a 29% approval rating, the lowest of his presidency. A recession and a reversal of his tax policy contributed to his drop in popularity. In polling conducted January 8 to 11, 1993, 37% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency, while 56% said they approved. Barack Obama Approval rating: 59% Since the beginning of his presidency in 2009, Obama had a high approval rating for a modern-day president; he averaged nearly 47% approval over eight years. At his lowest point, in polling conducted September 8 to 11, 2011, 37% of poll respondents said they approved of his presidency, the decline most likely influenced by the president's healthcare policies and his handling of the 2008 economic crisis and the following rise in unemployment rates. In polls conducted January 17 to 19, 2017, when Obama was leaving office, 37% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the role, with 59% saying they approved. Dwight D. Eisenhower Approval rating: 59% After winning the 1952 election in a landslide, Eisenhower saw high approval ratings throughout his presidency, never dropping below the disapproval rating. Holding office during critical Cold War years, Eisenhower saw his stay positive throughout the end of his second term, with only 28% of respondents polled December 8 to 13, 1960, saying they disapproved of his handling of the presidency, the lowest of the presidents listed. Ronald Reagan Approval rating: 63% Reagan's strong leadership toward ending the Cold War and implementing his economic policies contributed to consistently positive ratings during his presidency and the subsequent election of his vice president, George H. W. Bush, as his successor to the presidency. By the time he left office, 29% of respondents in a Gallup poll conducted December 27 to 29, 1988, said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. Bill Clinton Approval rating: 66% After winning the 1992 elections against the incumbent George H. W. Bush, Clinton saw high approval ratings throughout his presidency, though he faced mixed opinions at times during his first term because of his domestic agenda, including tax policy and social issues. Despite being impeached in 1998 by the House of Representatives over his testimony describing the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Clinton continued to see positive approval ratings during his second term. Near the time he left the White House, he had an approval rating of 66%, the highest of all the presidents on this list. In the poll conducted January 10 to 14, 2001, 29% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. Read the original article on Business Insider

Business Insider
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
US presidents ranked by their approval ratings when they left office
President Donald Trump is seeking to rewrite US immigration policies, has reshaped how world leaders use social media, and has made historic changes to the federal workforce. But in his first term, he made history in a way he may wish to forget: He was the first president since Gallup began tracking presidential job approval in the 1930s to fail to exceed a 50% approval rating at any point during his term. In Gallup's latest poll, conducted during the first half of May, 43% of respondents said they approved of Trump's performance, down from 47% in polling conducted during the first six days of his second term in January. In the recent poll, 53% said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. This number has held steady since March, a month rocked by leaked Signal chats and the economic shake-up of tariff policies. (A handful of people in each poll said they had no opinion of Trump's job performance.) For nearly a century, the polls have been used to measure the public's perception of US presidents' performance, with Gallup asking Americans: "Do you approve or disapprove of the way [the current president] is handling his job as president?" The American Presidency Project from the University of California, Santa Barbara, compiled the final Gallup ratings of each president's term from the past 70 years, signaling how popular each leader was when they left the Oval Office. See how US presidents from Harry Truman to Joe Biden rank in this end-of-term polling. We've ordered them from the lowest approval rating to the highest. Richard Nixon Approval rating: 24% Even though Nixon won the 1972 election in a historic landslide, the end of his presidency was tainted by the Watergate scandal that led him to resign on August 9, 1974, when faced with the threat of an impeachment and removal. Surveyed August 2 to 5, 1974, after the House Judiciary Committee passed articles of impeachment against the president but before he resigned, 66% of respondents to the Gallup poll said they disapproved of Nixon's presidency, the highest of any president on the list. Harry S. Truman Approval rating: 32% Assuming the presidency after Franklin D. Roosevelt's death, Truman served two terms covering the aftermath of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, including the Korean War, which was widely unpopular and contributed to Truman's low approval rating by the end of his second term in 1953. When asked December 11 to 16, 1952, 56% of poll respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. Jimmy Carter Approval rating: 34% Carter had high approval ratings — and a disapproval rating in the single digits — during the early days of his term, but his handling of international affairs, such as the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, along with a struggling economy, ultimately made him unpopular by the end of his term. He lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan and faced a disapproval rating of 55% in polling conducted December 5 to 8, when he was readying to leave the White House. George W. Bush Approval rating: 34% Despite uniting the nation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Bush saw his public approval fade during his second term. His approval rating spiked after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003, and the capture of Saddam Hussein. After his reelection, his popularity began to decline as the Iraq War extended. His handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the onset of the 2008 financial crisis also contributed to his growing unpopularity. From January 9 to 11, 2009, as Bush prepared to hand over the presidency to Barack Obama, 61% of poll respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. Donald Trump Approval rating: 34% Trump's presidency was divisive from the start, as he entered the White House with an approval rating below 50%. He's the first president in modern history to never exceed 50% approval on the Gallup polls during his presidency. While his approval ratings dwindled over the course of his four years in office, his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in particular came under scrutiny ahead of his loss in the 2020 election. His lowest approval ratings in office came during the final Gallup poll, conducted January 4 to 15, 2021. Most of that polling period took place immediately after the Capitol insurrection on January 6, and Trump faced a disapproval rating of 62%, the worst after Richard Nixon's at the time he left the office. Joe Biden Approval rating: 40% While Biden saw continuous approval ratings over 50% during his first six months in office, rises in inflation and illegal immigration, as well as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, contributed to lowering approval ratings. His lowest-ranking Gallup poll, in which 36% of respondents said they approved of his handling of the role, came in July 2024, a month after his debate performance against Trump shifted focus toward his age and fitness for office. As he left office, in polls collected January 2 to 16, 2025, Biden received a disapproval rating of 54%. Lyndon B. Johnson Approval rating: 49% After assuming the presidency because of John F. Kennedy's assassination, Johnson won the 1964 election in a historic landslide, but he faced decreasing approval ratings over his handling of the Vietnam War. Low approval ratings, along with a divided party, led Johnson to withdraw from the presidential race in 1968. At the time of his withdrawal, 36% of poll respondents said they approved of his handling of the presidency. By the time he left the office, however, his ratings had gone up to 49% approval. In polling conducted January 1 to 6, 1969, 37% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the role, and 14% said they had no opinion, one of the higher percentages among the listed presidents. Gerald Ford Approval rating: 53% Assuming the presidency at the time of Nixon's resignation, Ford served as US president from August 1974 until January 1977, after he lost the election to Jimmy Carter. During his presidency, Ford faced mixed reviews, with his approval dropping after he pardoned Nixon and introduced conditional amnesty for draft dodgers in September 1974. Polled December 10 to 13, 1976, after he had lost the reelection to Jimmy Carter, 32% of respondents said they disapproved of Ford's handling of the presidency, and 15% said they had no opinion on it, the highest percentage of the listed presidents. George H. W. Bush Approval rating: 56% Though the elder Bush lost his reelection bid in the 1992 presidential election against Bill Clinton, the public opinion of him was positive by the end of his term. In the weeks before his nomination as the Republican candidate for the presidency in 1992, however, he had only a 29% approval rating, the lowest of his presidency. A recession and a reversal of his tax policy contributed to his drop in popularity. In polling conducted January 8 to 11, 1993, 37% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency, while 56% said they approved. Barack Obama Approval rating: 59% Since the beginning of his presidency in 2009, Obama had a high approval rating for a modern-day president; he averaged nearly 47% approval over eight years. At his lowest point, in polling conducted September 8 to 11, 2011, 37% of poll respondents said they approved of his presidency, the decline most likely influenced by the president's healthcare policies and his handling of the 2008 economic crisis and the following rise in unemployment rates. In polls conducted January 17 to 19, 2017, when Obama was leaving office, 37% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the role, with 59% saying they approved. Dwight D. Eisenhower Approval rating: 59% After winning the 1952 election in a landslide, Eisenhower saw high approval ratings throughout his presidency, never dropping below the disapproval rating. Holding office during critical Cold War years, Eisenhower saw his stay positive throughout the end of his second term, with only 28% of respondents polled December 8 to 13, 1960, saying they disapproved of his handling of the presidency, the lowest of the presidents listed. Ronald Reagan Approval rating: 63% Reagan's strong leadership toward ending the Cold War and implementing his economic policies contributed to consistently positive ratings during his presidency and the subsequent election of his vice president, George H. W. Bush, as his successor to the presidency. By the time he left office, 29% of respondents in a Gallup poll conducted December 27 to 29, 1988, said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency. Bill Clinton Approval rating: 66% After winning the 1992 elections against the incumbent George H. W. Bush, Clinton saw high approval ratings throughout his presidency, though he faced mixed opinions at times during his first term because of his domestic agenda, including tax policy and social issues. Despite being impeached in 1998 by the House of Representatives over his testimony describing the nature of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Clinton continued to see positive approval ratings during his second term. Near the time he left the White House, he had an approval rating of 66%, the highest of all the presidents on this list. In the poll conducted January 10 to 14, 2001, 29% of respondents said they disapproved of his handling of the presidency.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Did you know Memorial Day may have originated in Pennsylvania?
(WHTM) — Although Waterloo, New York, is officially recognized as the origin of Memorial Day, a city in Pennsylvania claims to be the birthplace of the historic holiday. Many communities have made this claim; however, according to the Pennsylvania Center for the Book (PCB), two have merit: Waterloo, New York, and a small village in Centre County, Pennsylvania called Boalsburg. The PCB says the village of Boalsburg claims to be the site of the earliest observation of Memorial Day, then known as Decoration Day. According to the PCB, the Men of Boalsburg, an abolitionist community led by Professor James Patterson, answered President Abraham Lincoln's call for Union Army volunteers, leaving their wives, sisters, and daughters behind. The PCB says the women of Boalsburg organized daily meetings, prepared packages and uniforms, and arranged concerts to raise funds for their wounded husbands, sons, and fathers. On September 19, 1864, five men of Boalsburg, including Dr. Reuben Hunter, were killed during the Civil War, which inspired three women to visit the fallen soldiers' graves. The PCB says Emma Hunter, Dr. Hunter's daughter, Elizabeth Meyer, whose son, Amos Meyer, was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, and Sophie Keller shared a bouquet of flowers to decorate the graves of their fallen family members and friends. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now According to the three women made a pact to return to the gravesite the next year to honor their loved ones again, as well as others who may not have loved ones to mourn them. They met on July 4, 1865, where they turned the event into a community service and decorated every grave in the cemetery. The event became known as 'Decoration Day,' and then General John A. Logan decreed that 'The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion…[and] will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades.' The holiday was recognized until it was changed to Memorial Day in 1967 and moved to the last Monday of May in 1971 to create the three-day weekend, per the PCG. Memorial Day's true origins are disputed, as Boalsburg's timeline has raised some concerns, and other cities claim they are the origins of the holiday, including Columbus, Georgia, and Columbus, Mississippi. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson designated Waterloo, New York, as the official birthplace of Memorial Day on May 26, 1966, according to the American Presidency Project. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.