AM: REPUBLICANS DHS MESS Let’s be abundantly clear — this record-breaking, 44-day DHS funding impasse has turned into a political disaster for Republicans.
At one point, Republicans seemed to be breaking through with their message that Democrats instigated the DHS fight over undocumented immigrants. But now, House and Senate Republicans are publicly warring with each other over who’s at fault for last week’s debacle. The GOP-run Congress has left town until mid-April, while President Donald Trump was forced to issue an executive order to pay TSA employees. …
This episode illustrates how adrift the GOP-run Congress is when Trump remains on the sidelines. Trump was completely silent about the Senate’s proposal, although his staff was telling lawmakers he approved. When it became clear that the House would reject it, Trump sided with them. …
But now the House Republican Conference has ownership of the impasse. Johnson’s rejection of Thune’s approach ensures that the next two weeks will be all about how GOP infighting is prolonging the shutdown.
A new national University of Massachusetts Amherst Poll finds President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 33%, the lowest rating of his second term in office. The poll of 1,000 respondents, conducted March 20-25, finds Trump’s approval down five points from July 2025 and 11 points lower than last April.
“In the midst of skyrocketing prices, significant declines in the stock market, an unpopular war in the Middle East, a government shutdown that has led to lines at airports and nationwide protests against his presidency, it is no shock that President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have taken a hit in our latest polling,” Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll, says. “What is surprising, and of likely grave concern to the White House, are the dips in support from the very groups that helped Trump take back the presidency in 2024. Among men, working class Americans and African Americans, Trump’s approval ratings have dropped by close to 20 points since April 2025. Similar drops in support are also seen among moderates (down 18 points) and independents (down 13 points), key constituencies in Trump’s victory and in the upcoming midterm election.”
“Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans say the president is handling Iran poorly, including 52% who say ‘not well at all.’ This appears to create a weak foundation for Trump to attempt to escalate the war,” La Raja says. “These views are sharply polarized, though, with 71% of Republicans saying Trump is handling Iran well, compared to only 1% of Democrats. Nearly 9 in 10 (89%) strong MAGA supporters say he is handling Iran well, and 82% say that attacking Iran is putting America first, but that support drops sharply among other Trump voters, revealing a clear divide within the Republican coalition. Strong MAGA voters appear to rally behind the president, while more conditional supporters are far more skeptical, suggesting potential cracks beneath the surface.”
How about this?
“Trump and his supporters may have hoped that public concerns about Trump’s relationship with disgraced sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein would fade with the Justice Department’s release of millions of pages of documents relating to Epstein, but this hope has gone unfulfilled,” Rhodes says. “Two-thirds of Americans say that Trump is not handling the release of information concerning Epstein well, with 54% saying he is not handling it well at all. Negative perceptions of Trump’s handling of the Epstein affair are widespread – large majorities of virtually every demographic group say Trump is not handling the issue well, and only bare majorities of Republicans and conservatives say he’s handling the release of information about Epstein well. Clearly, this issue is not going away anytime soon.”
Aand:
