Latest news with #Trump-inspired
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Epstein problem could expose a GOP malaise
The big question on the tips of many political watchers' tongues right now is whether the Trump administration's botched handling of the Epstein files will do what virtually nothing has yet: turn President Donald Trump's devoted base against him. Through a multitude of controversies over the years – including a violent Trump-inspired uprising at the US Capitol, multiple indictments and a conviction on 34 felony counts – that base has stood resolutely and almost unshakably in his corner. The more apt question, though, is whether the Epstein saga exacerbates an already looming malaise on the right. Because the seeds of this problem had already been planted and fertilized. While Trump's overall approval rating among Republicans remains high, significant numbers of them disapprove of his handling of a range of issues. Many of his early actions have been unpopular with a significant cross-section of Republicans. And even with the big policies that appear to have widespread GOP backing, that support appears shallow. Trump has also taken a series of actions in recent weeks that appear to be out of sync with where much of MAGA has stood – including striking Iran, a big-spending agenda bill and funneling more weapons to Ukraine. The timing of the Epstein brouhaha, in other words, is not great for the president. A new CNN poll released this week is one of the first to get directly at how unenthused Trump's supporters appear to be right now. The poll found a record-low 21% of Americans strongly approved of Trump – the lowest number in either term so far. What's more, 25% of Republican-leaning voters said Trump hasn't paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. But perhaps most striking was the response to its question about the 2026 midterm elections. The poll found that while 72% of Democratic-leaning voters said they were 'extremely' motivated to vote next year, just 50% of Republican-leaning voters said the same. As CNN's Jennifer Agiesta noted, that 22-point gap is much bigger than we've seen in either the 2022 or 2024 elections. It's also one of the biggest gaps on record, if you include other pollsters. Polling late in the 2018 election, for example, showed Democrats with a 10-point advantage in those who were 'extremely' motivated. Gallup data from the five midterms before that showed the biggest gaps were 19 points in 2014 and 20 points in 2010 – both in the GOP's favor. Republicans dominated both of those elections. Comparing the new CNN data to these numbers isn't perfectly apt. These polls all came much later in the election cycle. It's relatively rare to ask this question in an off year, when things might fluctuate more. But the data certainly points to very different levels of enthusiasm right now. And it doesn't suggest Republicans are universally loving what they're seeing early in Trump's presidency. The CNN poll also tested Trump's approval on 10 individual issues. On all of them, at least 14% of Republican-leaning voters disapproved of him. On average, 18% disapproved. Quinnipiac University data this week showed an average of 14% of Republicans only (i.e. not including Republican-leaning independents) disapproved of Trump on issues ranging from immigration to the economy to foreign policy. Those aren't overwhelming portions of Trump's base, but they are significant numbers. And they don't come out of nowhere. If you look at big-ticket Trump policies, you also see the potential for a building malaise. Much of what Trump is doing isn't terribly popular with his base. The CNN poll this week found 81% of Republicans said they supported his recently passed agenda bill, which included substantial cuts to Medicaid. But only 30% supported it strongly – compared to 73% of Democrats who opposed it strongly. A CNN poll last month showed 82% of Republicans supported Trump's Iran strikes, but just 44% did so strongly – perhaps reflecting the discomfort many expressed before the strikes. The president's signature economic policy – his tariffs – have long lingered as a potential problem even with his base. While polling has shown many Republicans are willing to defer to Trump, they don't love the idea or think it will be good for them personally. An April CNN poll showed about as many Republicans said the tariffs would hurt their personal finances (28%) as said they would help (33%). Even some of his immigration and deportation policies are losing the support of as much as 1 in 5 Republicans or more. The Epstein mess might be a bigger deal than all of these combined for a certain segment of MAGA voters – the conspiratorial ones who have believed for nearly a decade that Trump would soon rip the lid off a massive sex-trafficking scandal involving powerful people – first with QAnon and then with Epstein. It also speaks to a more mainstream audience that just doesn't believe all of the Epstein stuff adds up and has now been given reason to believe the Trump administration isn't going to do anything about it or even might be in on the cover-up. But if it does push people away from Trump, we shouldn't just look at it in isolation. He's been risking alienating his base for a while. This could just be the straw that broke the camel's back for some.
Scotsman
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Ten things we can all do to save the ‘fragile experiment in democracy'
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... With a volatile and angry electorate, an unstable democracy, a deeply divided and insecure country experiencing long-term decline, a Tory legacy much worse than anyone could imagine, and chilling talk about a Farage premiership – sheer desperation politics – there was never much prospect of a measured view of Labour's first year in government. However, the political inquest, so far, has been self-serving and superficial, with some offering reassuring, but deeply misleading explanations of why this country faces such an uphill struggle to build a different future. The challenge is how to escape from a self-induced state of prolonged delusion, with nonsensical, populist claims like 'Britain Best in Class' and the fiction generated by not having an honest relationship with the electorate who some politicians appear to treat with disdain rather than the respect due to citizens of a democracy. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The long-term context matters. The financial crash of 2008, Brexit, Covid, the collapse of productive industries, a reliance on financial services, grotesque levels of inequality, the erosion of national resilience, and now Trump-inspired chaos in the global realm have all shaped a struggling country and helped to create an anxious and deeply mistrusting electorate. And, crucially, no one imagined how the Tory legacy would be much more than a 'black hole' in government finances and a tax trap that Labour fell into. These are the calamities that form the deep roots of our dysfunctional politics, long-term structural problems that must be addressed. We must do more than vote to be good citizens (Picture: Ian Forsyth) | Getty Images Citizens, not consumers However, while Labour inherited an extraordinary mess, this is not an excuse for their troubled first year in office. Long-term decline is rarely talked about by politicians. It may seem defeatist and negative, but it could inject realism into our politics, where trust has become a scarce commodity. Keir Starmer's government needs to deal with the true extent of Britain's decline if they are to restore confidence and lift the public's mood. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad To rescue our politics, we must elevate the importance of citizenship above an avalanche of market-driven descriptions such as consumers, customers, sellers, and investors. We are individuals but also members of a wider society. The concept of citizenship in ancient Greece arose from membership of city states, and the idea of citizens with rights, duties, privileges and responsibilities has always been key to effective democracies. In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau talked about the private will – what individuals want – and the general will, which is the common interest or what is really best for everyone. It is this commitment to the idea of general will or common good that is breaking down in the UK. Re-establishing trust between politicians and the public is vital to restoring it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Detoxifying UK politics In his ground-breaking book, The Bill of Obligations, The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, American diplomat Richard Haas argues that democracy is about more than rights, procedures and laws, and requires much more from each one of us. He believes that, in challenging times, we need 'clear and thoughtful statements of our obligations to one another and to our country if this fragile experiment in democracy is to survive'. Politics is too important to be left solely to the politicians. Obligations between individual citizens as well as between citizens and government matter, and 'the habits of citizenship are things that should happen but that the law cannot require'. Simple and common-sense ideas could change the toxic nature of UK politics. Haas's ten habits or obligations of a good citizen are: be informed; get involved; stay open to compromise; remain civil; reject violence; value norms; promote the common good; respect government service; support the teaching of civics; and put country first. Not the ten commandments, but they could save our politics, help us escape this spiral of long-term decline, and create greater political cohesion, giving meaning to the much discussed but rarely acted upon notion that 'we are all in it together'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A 'life proper to human beings' Starmer's government has made mistakes since coming to power, as evident in the rebellion against its benefits Bill by a significant number of frustrated Labour MPs. But for many in the party, this was an important reaffirmation of what Labour stands for and an early glimpse of backbenchers refusing to accept Treasury diktats and confirming Labour as having a political philosophy, or creed, as defined by RH Tawney in his famous 1931 article, The Choice before the Labour Party. 'A creed is not a rigid doctrine but a common conception of the ends of political action based on a common view of the life proper to human beings,' he wrote. For Labour, this was an avoidable crisis and despite the Prime Minister being described first and foremost as a manager, this was by parliamentary standards, and my own experience of Westminster, a fiasco. But it was one that also provided a reminder to the electorate of the Labour party's historic mission. The burning issue In the immediate future, the PM must provide: a vision of what kind of country we are striving for, giving people a sense of belonging and inclusion; a stronger bond of trust between government and the governed; and leadership, in so many different ways, on issues the public are angry or concerned about. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Welfare, workfare and now warfare will put enormous pressures on spending. But a 'social contract' engaging with the 'general will' of the people is crucial to prevent every political or social difference becoming a deeply divisive destroyer of the common good, generating more anger and resentment. Labour needs to update its political conversation with the people. This is the burning issue of British politics.
Scotsman
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Ten things we can all do to save the ‘fragile experiment in democracy'
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... With a volatile and angry electorate, an unstable democracy, a deeply divided and insecure country experiencing long-term decline, a Tory legacy much worse than anyone could imagine, and chilling talk about a Farage premiership – sheer desperation politics – there was never much prospect of a measured view of Labour's first year in government. However, the political inquest, so far, has been self-serving and superficial, with some offering reassuring, but deeply misleading explanations of why this country faces such an uphill struggle to build a different future. The challenge is how to escape from a self-induced state of prolonged delusion, with nonsensical, populist claims like 'Britain Best in Class' and the fiction generated by not having an honest relationship with the electorate who some politicians appear to treat with disdain rather than the respect due to citizens of a democracy. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The long-term context matters. The financial crash of 2008, Brexit, Covid, the collapse of productive industries, a reliance on financial services, grotesque levels of inequality, the erosion of national resilience, and now Trump-inspired chaos in the global realm have all shaped a struggling country and helped to create an anxious and deeply mistrusting electorate. And, crucially, no one imagined how the Tory legacy would be much more than a 'black hole' in government finances and a tax trap that Labour fell into. These are the calamities that form the deep roots of our dysfunctional politics, long-term structural problems that must be addressed. We must do more than vote to be good citizens (Picture: Ian Forsyth) | Getty Images Citizens, not consumers However, while Labour inherited an extraordinary mess, this is not an excuse for their troubled first year in office. Long-term decline is rarely talked about by politicians. It may seem defeatist and negative, but it could inject realism into our politics, where trust has become a scarce commodity. Keir Starmer's government needs to deal with the true extent of Britain's decline if they are to restore confidence and lift the public's mood. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad To rescue our politics, we must elevate the importance of citizenship above an avalanche of market-driven descriptions such as consumers, customers, sellers, and investors. We are individuals but also members of a wider society. The concept of citizenship in ancient Greece arose from membership of city states, and the idea of citizens with rights, duties, privileges and responsibilities has always been key to effective democracies. In The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau talked about the private will – what individuals want – and the general will, which is the common interest or what is really best for everyone. It is this commitment to the idea of general will or common good that is breaking down in the UK. Re-establishing trust between politicians and the public is vital to restoring it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Detoxifying UK politics In his ground-breaking book, The Bill of Obligations, The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, American diplomat Richard Haas argues that democracy is about more than rights, procedures and laws, and requires much more from each one of us. He believes that, in challenging times, we need 'clear and thoughtful statements of our obligations to one another and to our country if this fragile experiment in democracy is to survive'. Politics is too important to be left solely to the politicians. Obligations between individual citizens as well as between citizens and government matter, and 'the habits of citizenship are things that should happen but that the law cannot require'. Simple and common-sense ideas could change the toxic nature of UK politics. Haas's ten habits or obligations of a good citizen are: be informed; get involved; stay open to compromise; remain civil; reject violence; value norms; promote the common good; respect government service; support the teaching of civics; and put country first. Not the ten commandments, but they could save our politics, help us escape this spiral of long-term decline, and create greater political cohesion, giving meaning to the much discussed but rarely acted upon notion that 'we are all in it together'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A 'life proper to human beings' Starmer's government has made mistakes since coming to power, as evident in the rebellion against its benefits Bill by a significant number of frustrated Labour MPs. But for many in the party, this was an important reaffirmation of what Labour stands for and an early glimpse of backbenchers refusing to accept Treasury diktats and confirming Labour as having a political philosophy, or creed, as defined by RH Tawney in his famous 1931 article, The Choice before the Labour Party. 'A creed is not a rigid doctrine but a common conception of the ends of political action based on a common view of the life proper to human beings,' he wrote. For Labour, this was an avoidable crisis and despite the Prime Minister being described first and foremost as a manager, this was by parliamentary standards, and my own experience of Westminster, a fiasco. But it was one that also provided a reminder to the electorate of the Labour party's historic mission. The burning issue In the immediate future, the PM must provide: a vision of what kind of country we are striving for, giving people a sense of belonging and inclusion; a stronger bond of trust between government and the governed; and leadership, in so many different ways, on issues the public are angry or concerned about. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Welfare, workfare and now warfare will put enormous pressures on spending. But a 'social contract' engaging with the 'general will' of the people is crucial to prevent every political or social difference becoming a deeply divisive destroyer of the common good, generating more anger and resentment. Labour needs to update its political conversation with the people. This is the burning issue of British politics.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's EPA accidentally made the case against passing the Big Beautiful Bill
On the campaign trail last year, Donald Trump frequently criticized the Biden administration for new regulations targeting what he called 'clean, beautiful coal.' In April, he signed executive orders directing federal agencies to undo any regulations that 'discriminate' against coal. Coal-fired power plants produce a significant but shrinking share of U.S. electricity — about 16 percent in 2023 — and are by far the most polluting and planet-warming component of the power sector on a per-kilowatt basis. So it was no surprise when, on Wednesday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin gathered more than a half dozen Republican lawmakers at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters to announce the planned repeal of two rules, finalized under the Biden administration, that established limits on carbon and mercury emissions from U.S. power plants. Once finalized, the Trump administration's proposals will eliminate all caps on greenhouse gases from the plants and revert the mercury limit to a less strict standard from 2012, respectively. The Biden-era rules, Zeldin said Wednesday, were 'expensive, unreasonable, and burdensome' attempts 'to make all sorts of industries, including coal and more, disappear.' With demand for electricity poised to surge in the coming years, especially as tech companies make massive investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure, Zeldin said that the EPA's new proposals will boost electricity generation and 'make America the AI capital of the world.' His argument was echoed by the slate of Republican lawmakers who followed him at the podium. The old rules 'would have forced our most efficient and reliable power generation into early retirement, just as Ohio and the rest of the nation are seeing a historic rise in demand due to the AI revolution, new data centers, and a manufacturing resurgence,' said Representative Troy Balderson. 'Between data centers, AI, and the growing domestic manufacturing base, the simple fact is we need more electrons on the grid to power all of this,' added Representative Robert Bresnahan of Pennsylvania. But despite their vigorous agreement that as many energy sources as possible are needed to power America's future and keep utility bills affordable, every single representative who spoke on Wednesday had, just weeks earlier, cast a vote for a major bill in Congress that will almost certainly have the opposite effect. Analysts say that the pending legislation, which has the Trump-inspired title 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' will slow the country's buildout of new electricity sources and eventually lead the average U.S. household to incur hundreds of dollars in additional annual energy costs. That's because the new GOP legislation essentially repeals the Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark 2022 law that has resulted in roughly $800 billion in investments in clean energy technologies. By rolling back regulations on coal-fired power, the GOP's hope seems to be that some of those lost energy investments can be compensated by fossil fuels. However, analysts agree that this is highly unlikely, due largely to the sheer cost of new coal-fired power, as well as supply bottlenecks that have sharply limited the feasibility of new natural gas plants. Instead, the result will likely just be more expensive electricity. 'The economics of coal plants are the worst they've ever been,' said Robbie Orvis, a senior director for modeling and analysis at Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan think tank. 'Even just keeping existing coal plants online compared to building new renewables is more expensive.' To justify its repeal of the greenhouse gas emissions rule for power plants, the EPA is arguing that the U.S. power sector is responsible for just 3 percent of global emissions, and as a result is not a 'significant' contributor to air pollution, which is the threshold the Clean Air Act sets for when the government can regulate a stationary source of emissions. While the 3 percent figure is factually accurate, experts say the argument is misleading, especially given that the power sector is responsible for about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions within the country. 'You're dealing with something that has lots and lots and lots of sources, and you can't just throw up your hands and say, 'Well, this won't achieve anything,'' said David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit founded by former EPA enforcement attorneys. If the U.S. power industry relies more on coal and natural gas relative to renewables, as Republicans appear to hope, those emissions could remain stubbornly high, especially as demand for power grows. What's even more certain is that costs will continue to go up. The latest government inflation data shows that consumer electricity prices are already rising much more dramatically than overall consumer prices. In this environment, the technology companies building massive data centers to power cloud computing and AI have struggled to find adequate, cheap electricity. In fact, so many power-guzzling facilities are being built that lawmakers in Virginia, which is at the heart of the data center belt, have enacted legislation to prevent them from overwhelming the grid. Since utilities have been unable to meet the power needs of tech players like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services, some of these companies have begun directly contracting with renewables developers and striking deals with nuclear power plant operators. A trade group representing these companies recently asked the Senate to revise the pending legislation so it restores some of the clean energy provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act, saying the U.S. needs 'affordable and reliable power' in order to 'maintain its leadership in AI.' Analysts say such leadership is threatened if the Trump administration continues to try to tip the scales toward fossil fuel sources that are not competitive with newer sources of energy. 'The current administration is picking technology winners and losers and making trade-offs,' said Orvis. 'And the trade-off they want to make is: get rid of the clean energy tax incentives that are driving all of this new clean electricity onto the grid, which puts downward pressure on prices and will lower people's rates.' Orvis added that higher electricity costs raise the cost of doing business for manufacturers, including those at the leading edge of AI, making it more difficult to compete with China. 'We're at a pivotal crossroads,' said Orvis. 'We can either lean in and support the domestic growth of these industries by creating a policy environment with certainty, incentives, and support. Or we can do what the current administration is trying to do, and pull back on all of those things and allow China to step in.' This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump's EPA accidentally made the case against passing the Big Beautiful Bill on Jun 13, 2025.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Donald Tusk has found his own ‘special place in hell'
He once warned Brexiteers they faced their own 'special place in hell'. Now Donald Tusk is in a purgatory of his own. Poland's prime minister has narrowly won a vote of confidence in his warring coalition after his preferred centrist presidential candidate was defeated earlier this month. Instead, the Trump-inspired Eurosceptic Karol Narwocki crossed the line first in Poland's presidential elections. On Wednesday, a total of 243 MPs in the 460-seat parliament backed Mr Tusk's coalition, achieving the simple majority needed for the government to survive in a result he said will give his cabinet new momentum. 'We have a mandate to take full responsibility for what's going on in Poland,' Tusk told parliament in a debate ahead of the confidence vote. 'Governing Poland is a privilege.' But despite surviving the vote, the prime minister now faces two and a half years of being a lame duck leader hobbled by the new veto-wielding opposition president. While most of the power in Poland's political system rests with an elected parliament, and a government chosen by the parliament, the president can veto legislation. This will likely see Mr Narwocki block reform efforts planned by Mr Tusk, such as the planned introduction of same-sex partnerships or easing a near-total ban on abortion. There are therefore questions about what Mr Tusk can realistically achieve before the next parliamentary election, scheduled for late 2027, and analysts say many Polish voters are disillusioned with the government's failure to deliver on key promises, including reforming the judiciary and raising the threshold at which Poles start paying taxes. Mr Tusk's authority has also been badly damaged with murmurs that the time has come for him to hand over leadership of the alliance, something he has refused to do. 'I know the taste of victory, I know the bitterness of defeat, but I don't know the word surrender,' he said. Mr Tusk, the former president of the European Council, was withering about Brexit before he became Poland's prime minister. He said at the time there was a 'special place in hell' for 'those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan of how to carry it out safely'. Now he is facing the possible fall of his pro-EU government in what threatens to become his David Cameron moment. Emmanuel Macron, another fierce critic of Brexit, has already suffered a similar fate at the hands of Eurosceptic populists. He called snap elections in France after he was trounced by Marine Le Pen's National Rally in last year's European Parliament elections. The French president lost his majority, dramatically reducing his ability to act in domestic politics. He would have lost control of the government, had a 'front republican' of voters not united to keep the hard Right from power. There was an expectation that a similar 'front republican' would have prevented Mr Narwocki's victory in Poland, but it fell just short. That is a warning before the presidential elections in France in 2027, which the ardently Europhile Mr Macron will not be able to contest. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
