Everyone knew. And they voted for him anyway. They either liked that agenda very much or … eggs. And they just couldn’t stomach an old man or a Black woman.
They got what they voted for.
"what digby sez..."
Digby's Hullabaloo Posts
When will MAGA shout, “You’re fired”?
According to a new national poll from the Washington Post and ABC News, 56% oppose the project, including 45% who say they strongly oppose it. Just 28% support it, with 16% unsure.
Republicans are more apt than Democrats or independents to favor the demolition of the East Wing, but strong support among Republicans is far smaller than strong opposition among Democrats. Among Republicans, 62% support the project, with 35% strongly in favor. Democratic opposition stands at 88%, including 78% who strongly oppose it, while 61% of independents oppose the project, including 49% who feel that way strongly.
That mere 28% of Americans supporting the demolition means the destruction is eating into Trump’s MAGA base.
Axios reports:
Evangelicals and Catholics uneasy with President Trump‘s rhetoric and immigration policies are subtly distancing themselves from MAGA — and taking some congregation members with them.
Driving the news: Some churches are seeing a “quiet quitting” trend as pastors avoid political sermons and help members disengage from Trump’s movement — without ostracizing family members who might still be MAGA devotees.
- “We’ve gotten more testimonials. I’m starting to now see ‘Leaving MAGA’ signs popping up on billboards, overpasses, and [at] No Kings protests,” said Rich Logis, a Catholic ex-Trump supporter who founded a group called Leaving MAGA.
-19 net approval rating: Trump’s approval rating dipped to a second-term low of 39% in Economist/YouGov polling, while 58% disapprove of his job performance in the survey taken Oct. 24-27 among 1,623 U.S. adults (margin of error 3.5).
Trump’s net approval rating in the poll is also lower than all but one Economist/YouGov survey taken during his first term.
Trump told reporters Tuesday he has the “highest [poll] numbers I ever had,” repeating a claim he made Monday on Truth Social, despite polling averages and most individual surveys showing his approval rating has declined significantly since he took office in January.
But that poll on the East Wing demolition is telling, even if, with Americans’ short memories, his numbers rebound slightly. Send him to bed without his Big Mac.
* * * * *
Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
No King’s One Million Rising movement
50501
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense
Who will split the baby?
Depending on which news outlets one trusts most, Republican support for Trump tariffs is beginning to flag or else Democrats are in increasing disarray and about to “blink” on the budget crisis and sacrifice Obamacare.
Republicans from farm states have had enough of the government shutdown now in its 30th day. Donald Trump’s suggestion on Oct.19 that he might import beef from Argentina has sent them over the edge, Politico reports:
Some of the president’s staunchest Hill allies watched for months as Trump’s tariffs devastated farmers. More recently, they begged his deputies to reopen key farm offices during the shutdown. Then came the beef beef, with one GOP senator granted anonymity to speak candidly calling it a “a betrayal of America First principles.”
Even in the Trump-loyal House, key Republicans are pushing back.
Trump’s whipsawing of his own supporters is eroding his support on Capitol Hill.
The frustrations are also playing out on the Senate floor this week on a series of votes to undo some of Trump’s global tariffs. On Tuesday, five GOP senators joined Democrats to reverse 50 percent tariffs on Brazil; four Republicans voted Wednesday to cancel tariffs on Canada. While the votes are largely symbolic — House Republicans have preempted any challenges to Trump tariffs until February — the message was sent.
Over in the Senate, 10 Republicans have signed to Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) bill to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) through the shutdown, The Hill reports:
The Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025 would fund the food aid program for states across the country until the nearly-month-long government shutdown ends and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) can receive its allotments through appropriations or stopgap measures.
“There is no reason any of these residents of my state — or any other American who qualifies for food assistance — should go hungry. We can afford to provide the help,” Hawley wrote in a Tuesday op-ed for The New York Times.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) indicated on Wednesday that Democrats would support Hawley’s bill, if Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R) of South Dakota would allow it to onto the floor for a vote. So far, he won’t. And the USDA refuses to release $6 billion in reserve funds, claiming (falsely) that they are “not legally available to cover regular benefits.“
The monthly cost for SNAP is estimated at $8 billion.
“The Republicans have been on a crusade against SNAP all year,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. “They slashed it by $200 billion this summer to pay for their tax cuts for billionaires. So they’ve never wanted SNAP, and they don’t want it now. Again, they’re using these 40 million innocent people as pawns.”
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., introduced a bill this week that would require the Trump administration to fund both SNAP and Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). It would also require the government to reimburse states for funding benefits during the shutdown. That’s also a nonstarter of Thune.
Thune on Wednesday shouted that if Democrats want to save SNAP, they must vote to reopen the government (ABC News):
“Let me just point out if I might that we are 29 days into a Democrat shutdown. And the senator from New Mexico is absolutely right. SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food. People should be getting paid in this country,” Thune said before escalating his voice to a full scream. “And we’ve tried to do that 13 times and you voted no 13 times. This isn’t a political game. These are real peoples lives that we are talking about and you all have just figured out 29 days in that, ‘Oh there might be some consequences, that people are running out of money.'”
Lujan’s bill came as 25 states have filed a lawsuit on the issue ahead of the halting of benefits at the start of November.
“The Trump administration has the authority and the funds to keep SNAP running during this shutdown,” Lujan said. “Any failure to do so right now falls squarely on the Trump administration and Republicans.”
A reminder from Heather Cox Richardson:
The Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill of July, the law they call the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” cut more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and made dramatic changes to SNAP, including cuts of $187 billion from SNAP over ten years. Crucially, the Republicans designed those cuts to go into effect after the 2026 midterm elections.
But their refusal to extend the premium tax credits and end the government shutdown has given Americans an early taste of what those changes will mean.
Democrats just need to “get off their ass,” the man shouted out the window at the traffic light during Wednesday rush hour. He was replying to my sign that declared 29,000 county residents will lose SNAP benefits on Saturday. Presumably, he prefers that Democrats cave on the Trump funding bill stalled in the House. It eliminates ACA premium subsidies that nearly 80 percent of Americans want extended. It would permanently more than double (if not triple) health premium costs for over 24 million Americans. Or 40 million Americans can go hungry until shutdown’s end. He’s willing to split that baby. Democrats so far are not.
* * * * *
Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?
No King’s One Million Rising movement
50501
May Day Strong
Freedom Over Fascism Toolkit
The Resistance Lab
Choose Democracy
Indivisible: A Guide to Democracy on the Brink
You Have Power
Chop Wood, Carry Water
Thirty lonely but beautiful actions
Attending a Protest Surveillance Self-Defense
Oh boy.
The markets are pouting about this one:
Can you say “stagflation?”
Trump’s going to have an aneurysm.
Jeanine Pirro’s office is on the job:
Two federal prosecutors have been placed on administrative leave just hours after describing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as perpetrated by “thousands of people comprising a mob of rioters,” according to two people familiar with the move who were granted anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
The accurate description of the attack came in a sentencing recommendation for Taylor Taranto, who was among those pardoned by President Donald Trump for his role in the riot. But Taranto had also been charged for unrelated threats and firearms crimes for which he is slated to be sentenced Friday.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carlos Valdivia and Samuel White urged U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to sentence Taranto to more than two years in prison for a hoax threat against the National Institute of Standards and Technology and for driving through former President Barack Obama’s neighborhood with a van full of firearms and ammunition.
[…]
The memo also describes an incident the same month in which Taranto visited an elementary school in Maryland while seeking Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a top Trump adversary.
The threat to Obama was precipitated by Donald Trump posting Obama’s address on Truth Social.
I’m not kidding.
The sentencing memo was submitted to the court and quickly withdrawn and the press only knows about it because someone had it on file before they managed to do it. And then the prosecutors were “suspended” and replaced by someone else.
Apparently, January 6th never happened. We all suffered from a mass hallucination. Maybe it was a hoax!
This is the second time in a week that we’re seeing excuses and cover-ups for January 6th pardon recipients threatening Democratic politicians, on explicitly political terms.
MIKE JOHNSON: I don’t know any of the details of this at all. I will tell you this — the violence on the left is far more prevalent than the violence on the right. The rhetoric that you saw on Saturday plays into this.
He was referring to the peaceful, lawful No Kings day protests in which nobody stormed building and beat up any cops. Ok.
They are all on board with this sophistry:
That shooting was not political violence. It was an ordinary every day mass shooting which these people don’t give a shit about.
I won’t bother to say there’s a double standard here. It’s way beyond that. They are simply defying reality in order to lick Dear Leaders boots. All of them.
He’s always posted 24/7 and I suppose it’s makes sense that once in a while he’d post something like this, right?
No actually, it doesn’t. I’m online most of my waking hours and I’m often sleep deprived and I’ve never done this. It requires an extra step to post something on Truth Social, just as it does on all the social media platforms. How does someone fall asleep while typing and then hit post?
Recall that this comes after he mistakenly posted his directive to Pam Bondi on Truth Social as well. Maybe somebody needs to take grandpa’s phone away?
Ted Cruz: "My advice is don't spend much time worrying about what Marjorie is saying. What I've found is that whenever an elected official decides that they are going to turn on Israel and hate Israel, you will very quickly see every other policy out of their mouth become very… pic.twitter.com/jowCodVfBl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 29, 2025
“My advice is don’t spend much time worrying about what Marjorie is saying. What I’ve found is that whenever an elected official decides that they are going to turn on Israel and hate Israel, you will very quickly see every other policy out of their mouth become very very liberal. And so suddenly Marjorie is for massive government spending.”
Interesting. Steve Bannon has been publicly worrying about support for Israel hurting the party with young Republicans. And there is a large and increasingly influential Nazi faction in the MAGA movement. I’m pretty sure they’re not pro-Israel. (Of course, they hate Arabs and Muslims too but that’s beside the point.)
Greene is an interesting case. She’s either a canary in the MAGA coal mine or she’s putting herself on her own island. She has a following and fundraising prowess, at least for now. Marge is actually a throwback to the old isolationist, pro-fascists of the pre-WWII era and she may just represent a legit faction in the MAGA coalition. In my lifetime, Republicans always get very aroused at the prospect of war and death so we’ll see how far that goes.
Meanwhile, in Alabama:
I don’t know at this moment if this man was left or right but if I had to guess …
Dan Pfeiffer says immigration isn’t the magic bullet they think it is:
Immigration is the defining issue of Donald Trump’s political life. His idiotic but evocative promise to build a wall fueled his 2016 campaign. His first term was defined by the cruelty of putting kids in cages. He won reelection largely because of anger over how Biden and Harris handled the border.
The horrifying videos of masked ICE agents terrorizing communities are now the signature images of Trump’s second term.
While revenge and graft seem to be Trump’s greatest passions, it’s his revanchist, extreme anti-immigration agenda that motivates the people around him. Stephen Miller speaks in apocalyptic terms about immigrants destroying American culture. The Department of Homeland Security is amplifying white supremacist dog whistles. The policy hacks are pulling every lever of government to expel as many legal immigrants as possible and treat anyone undocumented with maximum cruelty.
Guess what?
Trump began his term with broad support on immigration. In the 2024 exit polls, he held a nine-point advantage over Kamala Harris on the issue and won 12 percent of voters who said immigration was their top issue—by 80 points.
At the outset of his presidency, his immigration approval was in the low 50s, with disapproval in the low 40s. But as the true nature of his mass deportation agenda has become clear, his numbers have fallen. Today, Trump is more than three points underwater.
As a general rule of politics: you don’t want to be underwater on your “best issue.”
Especially when you’re underwater in double digits on all the other issues people say are most important to them.
A revealing Puck/Echelon Insights poll:
ICE Tactics Are Deeply Unpopular
- Only 34% support ICE agents wearing masks in public.
- 52% of independents oppose masked ICE agents.
Voters Don’t Trust Who ICE Is Targeting
- 47% say ICE is going after peaceful people, not criminals.
- Independents are 35 points more likely than Republicans to believe ICE is targeting non-threats.
Support Drops When Voters See How Deportations Happen
- 45% say deportations make them feel safer overall.
- But when deportations are described as “ICE raids in public spaces,” only 36% feel safer—34% say less safe.
They should feel less safe. These thugs are going after anyone they think is in their way and being an American citizen of any race is no barrier.
He says that Trump’s strategy of showing the images of his crackdown work against him and Democrats should make sure people see them. He points out the obvious, as reflected in that Gallup poll above, which I haven’t seen anyone else do, mainly because they’re terrified at the term “pro-immigration.”
Trump’s mass deportation agenda is so cruel, so extreme, and so visible that it is actually making Americans more pro-immigration.
And that means, Democrats could “restructure and reform ICE from the ground up, purge its leadership, end the cruelty baked into its enforcement practices and pass comprehensive immigration reform that secures the border and provides a path to citizenship for millions.”
I suspect that all the strategists are freaking out at the very idea since they believe that Democrats must avoid even thinking about any issue for which they (erroneously) believe the Republicans have an advantage. But truly smart pols would be looking to the future and casting off the pre-cooked assumptions about Republican dominance. This should be one of the issues they jump on.
Most Americans don’t want to live in a police state and they don’t like to see militarized thugs on their streets brutalizing people with impunity. If we manage to live through this phase, they need to realize that this is their advantage.
But are we sure it wasn’t an elaborate troll?
Lol. Nothing like an anonymous shower hook-up song to show respect. But here’s the Piece de Resistance:
