“Tens of millions of Americans have joined protests and rallies in the past two years, their activism often driven by admiration or outrage toward President Trump,” according to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll showing a new activism that could affect November elections.
“One in five Americans have protested in the streets or participated in political rallies since the beginning of 2016. Of those, 19 percent said they had never before joined a march or a political gathering.”
Mike Allen: “We can’t overstate the severity of President Trump’s buyer’s remorse from signing last month’s spending bill. It could even be a turning point in his presidency, on the issue of immigration and his level of cooperation with Republican leaders.”
“Sources who’ve discussed it with Trump say it freaked him out to see the array of usually friendly faces on Fox News’ opinion shows — Pete Hegseth, Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, et al. — ripping into him for signing a bill that spent a ton of money, but gave lots away to liberal priorities and did little for his signature promise to build a wall.”
“Truth is that Trump had little clue what was in the largest spending bill ever passed.”
“Republicans want President Trump to stick to a simple message ahead of the 2018 midterm elections: cutting taxes and slashing regulations,” Politico reports.
“But the president, who regards himself as a master communicator, seems to have a different plan. After repeatedly deriding the marketing of the landmark tax reform passed in December — which he wanted to call the ‘Cut Cut Cut Act’ — Trump has shifted gears, instead launching into a tit-for-tat war on trade with China.”
For members: Playing to the Base Won’t Help the GOP In the Midterms
“EPA chief Scott Pruitt’s concern with his safety came at a steep cost to taxpayers as his swollen security detail blew through overtime budgets and at times diverted officers away from investigating environmental crimes,” the AP reports.
“Altogether, the agency spent millions of dollars for a 20-member full-time detail that is three times the size of his predecessor’s part-time security contingent.”
President Trump “has begun the initial steps of preparing for a possible interview with the special counsel, a White House official and a person familiar with the situation said Friday, a sign the President’s legal team is intensifying its deliberations over whether to allow him to come under Robert Mueller’s questioning,” CNN reports.
“The preparations have been short and informal and included going over potential topics with the President that Mueller would likely raise in an interview.”
Pat Robertson said on The 700 Club that homosexuals are drowning out voices like his.
Said Robertson: “We have given the ground to a small minority. You figure, lesbians, one percent of the population; homosexuals, two percent of the population. That’s all. That’s statistically all. But they have dominated — dominated the media, they’ve dominated the cultural shift and they have infiltrated the major universities.”
He added: “It’s just unbelievable what’s being done. A tiny, tiny minority makes a huge difference. The majority — it’s time it wakes up.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) “is not backing down from critics after he pulled out his own personal — and loaded — .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun during a meeting with constituents Friday,” the Charleston Post and Courier reports.
Said Norman: “I’m not going to be a Gabby Giffords. I don’t mind dying, but whoever shoots me better shoot well or I’m shooting back.”
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) abruptly resigned from his seat in the House of Representative on Friday afternoon, the Dallas Morning News reports.
Texas Tribune: “The decision marks the capstone of a tumultuous few months for the four-term congressman, who has been dogged by sexual harassment allegations.”
[alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]Does this mean he’s not paying back the $84,000?[/alert]
“Scott Pruitt was only supposed to be living in the Capitol Hill condominium that has become a focal point of his latest ethics controversy for six weeks last year, while he got settled in Washington,” Politico reports.
“But the new EPA administrator didn’t leave when his lease ended, instead asking the lobbyist couple who became his disgruntled landlords to revise his lease several times.”
“The couple, Vicki and Steve Hart, became so frustrated by their lingering tenant that they eventually pushed him out and changed their locks.”
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that President Trump doesn’t want to enter a trade war with China, but if he does, he “absolutely” still believes they are easy to win, Axios reports.
Said Sanders: “If he is in charge of those negotiations then absolutely. He’s the best negotiator at the table.”
“Early in President Trump’s term, when White House officials heard him complain vociferously about Amazon.com Inc. they arranged private briefings in the Oval Office to make sure that he would talk knowledgeably about the company,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Gary Cohn, his top economic adviser, and other officials gave PowerPoint presentations and briefing papers they believed debunked his concerns that Amazon was dodging taxes and exploiting the U.S. Postal Service.”
“It made little difference. Mr. Trump persisted in attacks that ran counter to the material they had showed him.”
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow “was apparently blindsided Thursday night by President Trump’s threat to impose an additional $100 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports,” Politico reports.
“Asked by reporters Friday when he first learned of the president’s decision to instruct his top trade official to consider the new tariffs, Kudlow took a lengthy pause before responding: ‘Last evening.’ The White House statement announcing the move went out shortly after 6:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.”
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told President Trump last week “that he is convinced EPA chief Scott Pruitt needs to step down after a series of negative reports about his spending habits and management style,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Though Mr. Kelly and other White House aides have concluded Mr. Pruitt should leave, the president is not ready to fire him… Mr. Trump welcomes the deregulatory measures taken by Mr. Pruitt and also values him as a strong advocate for the president’s agenda.”
“I sort of feel that the press is so bad, it’s so fake, it’s so made up. I mean ‘sources say,’ and they have no sources. They’re like novelists. I call them novelists.”
— President Trump, quoted by CBS News, on why he won’t attend the White House Correspondent’s Association dinner.
A trio of South Carolina state House Republicans quietly introduced a bill that would allow lawmakers to debate seceding from the U.S. “if the federal government confiscates legally purchased firearms in this State,” the AP reports.
Out next month: To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz.
President Trump “insisted that his approval rating is considerably higher than a recent survey suggests, and that voters will ultimately cast their ballots for him, regardless of what they tell pollsters,” The Hill reports.
Said Trump: “A poll just came out now, Rasmussen, it’s now 51. They say that it’s 51 but add another 7 or 8 points to it. They don’t want to talk about it, but when they get into the booth they’re going to vote for Trump.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.