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What about Trump’s next 100 days? President amps up pressure on Putin House GOP hardliners eye gubernatorial leaps DOJ’s Civil Rights Division takes a hitPresident Trump, straining to maintain the nation’s confidence as he completes 100 days in office, is impatient as he strives to deliver on ambitious promises.
Congressional Republicans return to Washington today anxious to show voters they can anchor Trump’s policies in major legislation, but that slower moving endeavor will test House and Senate GOP cohesion during their own 100 day sprint.
“We're resetting a table,” Trump told Time last week during an interview. “I feel that we've had a very successful presidency in 100 days. ... If you look at all of the years that I've been doing this, I've been right on things. You're gonna have the wealthiest country we've ever had, and you're gonna have an explosion upward in the not-too-distant future.”
Democrats on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, predict the public next year will register their less enthusiastic assessment. They predict Americans will recoil from what they view as costly GOP economic wreckage and assaults on the Constitution and the judiciary.
The Associated Press: Trump’s first 100 days.
Public opinion about Trump’s second term took a dramatic downward turn between February and April, according to the most recent Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll of 2,464 adults. Granted, there is a significant partisan split when it comes to Trump. But notably, his approval on the economy, at 39 percent, is only 2 points better than former President Biden’s (37 percent) roughly a year ago.
Trump this morning challenged the most recent New York Times and Washington Post-ABC News survey results in a Truth Social statement calling them “fake.”
The president’s overall disapproval is at 55 percent, according to the Post-ABC poll. None of Trump’s policies received majority support in the survey, including higher tariffs (64 percent dislike), the economy (61 percent oppose), looking out for the interests of average Americans (58 percent disapprove), managing the federal government (57 percent dislike) and immigration (53 percent disapprove).
The Washington Post’s Dan Balz wrote in his analysis Sunday that the president and his advisers are unlikely to be deterred by some softening in Trump’s poll numbers unless the numbers get “materially worse” or “more robust resistance gathers force.” Trump “has begun his second term with a zeal for controversial policies and so far has tried to carry them out by bulldozing whatever checks lie in his path,” Balz noted.
The Wall Street Journal reported comments from voters who said the president’s actions have directly affected their day-to-day lives in a way they can’t remember a previous administration doing. Trump’s base commends that trait. “I think what he’s doing is needed,” Doug Wyatt, 71, a retired police officer from Eatonton, Ga., told the Journal. “He’s brave enough to do it.”
“I CHOOSE”: The shock-and-awe pace of Trump’s first 100 days was intended to show the world that the promises he made as a candidate would be carried out with assertive executive force. That has been applied broadly across his early moves, from his fights with the judiciary and break from governance norms to bucking diplomatic niceties and hitting allies with steep tariffs.
Not all has gone according to plan, and Trump has pivoted, including with a pause on reciprocal tariffs after his moves sent the financial and bond markets reeling.
But Trump claims victory even during his reboots. “I’ve made 200 deals,” the president told Time when describing offstage discussions about tariffs with trading partners and companies. “The deal is a deal that I choose,” Trump said.
“The public hates what they're doing and they know it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told MSNBC over the weekend when speaking about the summer’s legislative drama ahead. “We're going to fight them tooth and nail,” he added. “We're going to make every Republican senator … and every Republican House member take vote after vote to show the people just who they are and who they're for and who they're against.”
▪ The Hill: House and Senate Democrats held a Sunday Capitol sit-in with livestreaming to protest the GOP’s budget blueprint.
▪ The Hill: Republicans dive into a key four-week stretch.
The legislative timeline is another GOP challenge: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wants a border security, energy, defense and tax bill on the House floor the week of May 19.
▪ The Hill: A simmering controversy that divides Republicans over cutting Medicaid will quickly heat up during a House committee markup scheduled for May 7.
Democratic lawmakers spent the spring recess trying to stoke public opposition to GOP aims, including during town hall events held in Republican congressional districts. Their targets included proposed GOP cuts to federal Medicaid spending and “efficiency” changes at the Social Security Administration.
Trump lashed out at "disruptors and troublemakers" at GOP town halls in a post on Sunday evening, urging Republicans to quickly eject such individuals. “You must allow your audience to know what you are up against, or else they will think they are Republicans, and that there is dissension in the Party. There is not, there is only LOVE and UNITY,” the president wrote
Democratic leaders who face divisions within their own party over strategy and policy are trying to band together to exploit public misgivings about Trump’s approach to governance.
“If House Republicans push ahead with their plan to gut Medicaid and rip health care away from millions of Americans just to fund another tax cut for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk, Democrats will fight them every step of the way — and we’ll make it as painful as possible,” Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) told Politico.
SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN
What do state politics tell us about the future of the Democratic Party?
Florida state Sen. Jason Pizzo announced his departure from the party last week, saying, “The Democratic Party in Florida is dead.” He told me Friday he believes the party has lost its direction.
“I have belonged to a party that’s far more concerned, I think at times, about pronouns than property insurance,” Pizzo told me. “It's the opportunity cost that’s lost by taking the bait on socially divisive issues, which are just simply loud distractions by the other side of the aisle.”
Just up the road in Georgia, Democrats are wondering what might happen with Stacey Abrams as she considers a third run for governor. While much of the attention is focused on Democrats’ fate in Washington, state-level movements could also reveal the party’s next steps.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY
▪ Airplane tickets are getting cheaper as domestic travel demand weakens.
▪ Chatbots on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are empowered to engage in “romantic role-play” that can turn explicit, including with children. Some people inside Meta are concerned.
▪ A New York Times investigation reveals that failures were more complex than previously described before a midair collision killed 67 people at Reagan National Airport in January.
LEADING THE DAY
© Associated Press | photo by Ukrainian Presidential Press Office
“IT’S STILL NOT THERE”: Trump is voicing increasing impatience over the lack of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, even as his administration says it continues to back peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
The president warned last week that Washington would withdraw from its mediating role in the absence of substantial progress, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio says this week will be critical for deciding whether to press on with talks.
After Russia attacked Kyiv last week, its deadliest strike in nine months, Trump suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin might not actually want peace. “I was very disappointed that missiles were flying by Russia,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. Trump said, "there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian cities and towns."
The president huddled Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome, telling reporters Sunday back in the U.S. that Zelensky wants more U.S. weapons and briefly objected again to U.S. willingness to recognize Russia’s occupation of Crimea as part of a ceasefire accord.
“He told me that he needs more weapons, but he's been saying that for three years,” Trump said. “I don't know how you can bring up Crimea. That's been a long time,” he added, blaming former Presidents Obama and Biden for Crimea’s situation.
“I want to see what happens with respect to Russia,” he continued when asked about Putin. “I wanted him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal. We have the confines of a deal, I believe. And I want him to sign it.”
Both Russia and Ukraine must “give up something” to achieve a solution after Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in 2022, Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “We think we’ve brought the sides closer together,” he said. “We’re close, but we’re not close enough. This is going to be a critical week.”
“There is no military solution to this war,” Rubio asserted. A negotiated settlement means “both sides … are going to have to give the other side something they wish they didn’t.”
U.S. AND CHINA: Washington and Beijing are locked in a standoff on tariffs and global supply chains are feeling the pressure. Disruption from tariffs is evident at multiple points in commercial supply lines, reports The Hill’s Tobias Burns with a detailed look at supply chains.
The changes appear on factory floors in East Asia, in the shipping and transportation industry, at U.S. ports of entry and among U.S. retailers that warn of empty shelves. A quick resolution with Beijing, while desirable for U.S. importers, could spell additional interference. A demand surge would likely bullwhip through the commercial pipeline.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday told ABC’s “This Week” that he did not know whether Trump had talked with Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the president asserted last week and the Chinese denied.
Asked by reporters about China on Sunday, Trump said without any details there was “a little bit” of movement in Beijing on trade, but “now they're not doing any business with us.”
NORTH KOREA: The U.S. has consulted outside experts as the administration considers options for potentially restarting dialogue with Pyongyang, Axios reports. Meanwhile, Putin in a Monday statement thanked North Korea for providing troops to fight with Russia against Ukraine. North Korea acknowledged its assistance for the first time.
WHERE AND WHEN
Morning Report’s Kristina Karisch returns midweek. The House will meet at noon. The Senate will convene at 3 p.m. The president and Vice President JD Vance will have lunch at the White House at 12:30 p.m. Trump will meet with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) at 2 p.m. in the Oval Office along with several lieutenants focused on the midterms. The president will host the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles on the South Lawn at 4 p.m. Trump will sign executive orders at 5 p.m. in the Oval Office. The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and the press secretary.ZOOM IN
© Associated Press | Jose Luis Magana
POLITICS: House Freedom Caucus GOP hardliners see their group as a launchpad for gubernatorial aspirations in red states.
“I've always believed that [the caucus has] been perfectly lined up — if not perfectly — closely aligned with the Republican Party platform,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) told The Hill. “I think it's conducive to statewide candidacies.”
Biggs and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) are candidates for governor in their respective states. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), also a member of the conservative House caucus, is considering a run for governor.
Senate Democrats: Schumer, 74, affirmed over the weekend that he’s staying put as Democratic leader in the Senate, a vow he’s repeated as younger progressives in his party publicly call on veterans leading the minority in Congress to step aside or retire to make way for a deeper bench.
“I'm staying put because I have been able to unite my caucus in a very strong fight against Trump, and that's what we have to do,” the senator told MSNBC. “I am raring to go. I have as much energy as anybody. And I'm fighting hard and good.”
Schumer was first elected in 1998 to represent New York in the Senate.
White House 2028: Rahm Emanuel, a fast-talking former Democratic House member, controversial Chicago mayor, ex-White House chief of staff, former ambassador to Japan and political adviser in and out of government, has stirred speculation he could be plotting a presidential run. Other options he hasn’t ruled out: another contest for mayor or a bid to be Illinois governor. Emanuel, 65, has offered opinions about why the Democratic presidential ticket lost in 2024 and why he should be speaking out.
The Hill: The language of politics requires breaking through. And Democrats’ use of four-letter vernacular says a lot about the party. “The swearing reflects their sense of crisis,” said Michael Adams, a lexicography expert and writer. “There's just a point at which the usual vocabulary will not be sufficiently expressive in the moment.”
ELSEWHERE
© Associated Press | Jose Luis Magana
Department of Justice: The administration shifted staff at the department and embarked on a series of policy changes in the Civil Rights Division that current and former staff members say strike at the heart of the division's mission, reports The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch.
State Department: Rubio’s announcement of a major reorganization of the State Department was meant to signal a leaner foreign policy machine, removing layers of bureaucracy he says slowed quick action in a crisis-ridden world. But critics warn the Trump administration is kneecapping America’s influence on the international stage, reports The Hill’s Laura Kelly.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement: Controversy over U.S. deportation of children who are citizens along with parents who do not have legal status has erupted over two alleged instances. Last week, a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old with U.S. citizenship were deported Friday alongside their mother to Honduras, according to the family’s lawyer. Also on Friday, a 2-year-old girl with U.S. citizenship was flown to that country with her undocumented mother. The administration says the mother of the 2-year-old voluntarily opted to take her child with her.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM): The administration is moving to consolidate control over the hiring and firing of federal workers, positioning an office in OPM to continue some of Elon Musk’s federal efforts as the Tesla CEO pulls back from his advisory role in Washington. The office, a hub of the Department of Government Efficiency, has begun approving positions that federal agencies seek to add, according to agency bulletins reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. That is a change; agencies have typically decided which positions they filled.
Health and Human Services: Recent layoffs at the reproductive health division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could undercut Trump’s pledge to be the “fertilization president.”
OPINION
■ Supreme Court test: Can St. Isidore be a religious charter school? by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.
■ Trump is laying a potentially deadly trap for the U.S. auto industry, by Brian Deese, guest essayist, The New York Times.
THE CLOSER
© Associated Press | File photo, 1967
And finally … ? On this day in 1967 at the height of the Vietnam War, boxer Muhammad Ali refused induction into the U.S. Army as a conscientious objector, citing religious reasons. “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong,” he said.
Formerly known as Cassius Clay, the Olympic gold medal winner and celebrity, was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to five years in prison and was immediately stripped of his heavyweight title.
The events surrounding “the Greatest” spanned years and involved politics, opposition to an unpopular war, racial prejudice, sports and fame, and Ali’s 1964 conversion to Islam. The Supreme Court in 1971 in Clay v. United States overturned the conviction, finding the government failed to specify why the boxer’s application for conscientious objector classification had been denied.
Ali reasserted his boxing dominance in the 1970s and was the only professional fighter to be heavyweight champion three times. He left the ring for good in 1981 and disclosed in 1984 that he had Parkinson’s disease. He died at age 74 in 2016.
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