A new Gallup survey finds President Trump’s approval rating at 45%, the lowest initial approval rating in the modern polling era.
Become a member to get many great benefits -- exclusive analysis, trending news, a private podcast, no ads and more!
Pence Calls His Wife ‘Mother’
Rolling Stone offers an anecdote from when Mike Pence invited Democratic legislators to the governor’s mansion for dinner:
“Mother, Mother, who prepared our meal this evening?”
The legislators looked at one another, speaking with their eyes: He just called his wife “Mother.”
Maybe it was a joke, the legislator reasoned. But a few minutes later, Pence shouted again.
“Mother, Mother, whose china are we eating on?”
Mother Pence went on a long discourse about where the china was from. A little later, the legislators stumbled out, wondering what was weirder: Pence’s inability to make conversation, or calling his wife “Mother” in the second decade of the 21st century.
Trump Withdraws U.S. From Trans-Pacific Partnership
President Trump formally pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade agreement that was negotiated by Barack Obama and became a lightning rod for criticism in the 2016 election, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The memorandum announcing Mr. Trump’s decision was largely symbolic, because congressional leaders and the Obama administration had signaled in November that no near-term vote would be held on the TPP.”
Trump Brought Campaign Supporters to CIA Speech
U.S. government sources tell CBS News that President Trump’s visit to CIA headquarters on Saturday “made relations with the intelligence community worse” and described the visit as “uncomfortable.”
“Authorities are also pushing back against the perception that the CIA workforce was cheering for the president. They say the first three rows in front of the president were largely made up of supporters of Mr. Trump’s campaign.”
Caroline Kennedy Eyes a Political Run
“After three years as US ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy is coming home to New York and has big plans: a political run and penning a memoir,” the New York Post reports.
Said one source: “Caroline had a successful ambassadorial run in Japan and feels really very confident about putting her hat in the ring for a New York congressional or Senate seat, with even possibly bigger political objectives down the road.”
Flashback Quote of the Day
“It’s not like if you run a fast food company you’re hiring graduates of MIT or people that were gonna go work for Microsoft, you know. In the employment pool, you’re hiring the best of the worst. You know, it’s kind of the bottom of the pool. And at Hardee’s it was so bad, we were hiring the worst of the worst and hoping they would stay.”
— Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder, quoted by CNN in 2011 speech.
Rubio Will Vote for Tillerson
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) announced that he would support President Trump’s pick to lead the State Department, removing the last significant stumbling block to his nomination, The Hill reports.
“Rubio, who aggressively questioned Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson during his hearing earlier this month, had been the lone Republican holdout on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”
Will Rural Voters Swing Back?
Join now to continue reading.
Members get exclusive analysis, bonus features and no advertising. Learn more.
Look for Trump to Get Tested Early
Rick Klein: “His team has telegraphed an Israeli embassy move to Jerusalem so explicitly that it will be hard to walk back now. The same goes for undoing the Iran nuclear deal. North Korea, China, Russia – the list of countries that may want to provoke a response from the new and unpredictable Trump Administration is long. And the president stepped on his own message in his first meeting with US intelligence officials, when he used the appearance to declare ‘war’ on the media.”
America’s Great Political Divide
First Read: “So much happened during Donald Trump’s first weekend as president but don’t lose sight of the biggest political storyline over the last 72 hours: America’s continued divide. In fact, you could argue that the United States today is more politically divided than it was during the brass-knuckled 2016 campaign.”
“In his inaugural address on Friday, President Trump took aim at Washington’s political establishment (‘For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost’), big cities across America (‘Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones…; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives’), and globalization (‘From this moment on, it’s going to be America First’).”
“Then, 24 hours later, millions of women — as well as some men — protested against Trump across the country and throughout the world. It was Rural America vs. Urban America. Nationalism vs. Globalism. American Carnage vs. Women’s Power. And we have 1,457 days to go in Trump’s presidency.”
What the Fight Over Crowd Size Is Really About
Ezra Klein: “The Trump administration is creating a baseline expectation among its loyalists that they can’t trust anything said by the media. The spat over crowd size is a low-stakes, semi-comic dispute, but the groundwork is being laid for much more consequential debates over what is, and isn’t, true. Delegitimizing the institutions that might report inconvenient or damaging facts about the president is strategic for an administration that has made a slew of impossible promises and takes office amid a cloud of ethics concerns and potential scandals.”
Jack Shafer: “President Trump’s lies don’t call for extraordinary media measures. Just do your jobs.”
Jay Rosen has a suggestion for the media: “Put your most junior people in the White House briefing room. Recognize that the real story is elsewhere, and most likely hidden.”
Warren Shows Weakness In Massachusetts
A new WBUR poll in Massachusetts finds that only 44% of voters think Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “deserves reelection” while 46% think voters ought to “give someone else a chance.”
“Warren’s numbers contrast sharply with those of Gov. Charlie Baker (R). His favorability rating is 59% — 8 points better than Warren. But what’s more striking is that only 29% of poll respondents think someone else should get a chance at the governor’s office.”
Said pollster Steve Koczela: “No one’s going to look at a 44 percent reelect number and think that that’s a good number. No one’s going to look at it being close to even between ‘reelect’ and ‘give someone else a chance’ and think that that’s reassuring.”
How Trump Grew Agitated After the Inauguration
New York Times: “Mr. Trump grew increasingly angry on Inauguration Day after reading a series of Twitter messages pointing out that the size of his inaugural crowd did not rival that of Mr. Obama’s in 2009. But he spent his Friday night in a whirlwind of celebration and affirmation. When he awoke on Saturday morning, after his first night in the Executive Mansion, the glow was gone, several people close to him said, and the new president was filled anew with a sense of injury.”
What’s Next for Hillary?
“In a series of private meetings and phone calls at their home in Chappaqua, in New York City and in Washington, Bill and Hillary Clinton are slowly starting to puzzle through their political future, according to over a dozen people who have spoken directly with them, and nearly two dozen other Democrats who have been briefed on their thinking,” Politico reports.
“The recently vanquished candidate has told some associates she’s looking at a spring timeline for mapping out some of her next political steps… Among the potential political priorities she has mentioned to associates are building pipelines for young party leaders to rise and ensuring that a reconstructed Democratic National Committee functions as an effective hub that works seamlessly with other party campaign wings.”
Ted Cruz’s Political Operation Seeks a Purpose
Politico: “The ripples are visible across the Republican Party, but nowhere has the shock of Trump’s conquest been felt more acutely than inside the Texas senator’s sprawling electoral enterprise. Having spent the past two years constructing the most sophisticated operation in politics—an outfit that raised more cash than any Republican primary candidate in history—Cruz now has little choice but to garage it. There is no space inside Trump’s GOP for a rival political apparatus of that scale, nor is there money to sustain it.”
“The 125 square-foot office Cruz’s team rented last summer at 300 New Jersey Ave., against a breathtaking backdrop of the Capitol, will soon be vacant. The group will be repurposed to assist Cruz with some issue advocacy, but no longer is it a presidential campaign-in-waiting.”
Rocky First Weekend Troubles Top Trump Aides
New York Times: “To the extent that there was a plan to take advantage of the first days of his administration, when a president is usually at his maximum leverage, Mr. Trump threw it aside with a decision to lash out about crowd sizes at his swearing in and to rewrite the history of his dealings with intelligence agencies.”
“The lack of discipline troubled even senior members of Mr. Trump’s circle, some of whom had urged him not to indulge his simmering resentment at what he saw as unfair news coverage. Instead, Mr. Trump chose to listen to other aides who shared his outrage and desire to punch back. By the end of the weekend, he and his team were scrambling to get back on script.”
USA Today: Trump prepares for busy Monday.
Will Rubio Buck Trump on Tillerson?
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-AZ) “said that they will back the nomination of Rex Tillerson, clearing the way for the oil executive to become secretary of state and leaving just one drama unresolved: What will Marco Rubio do?,” the Washington Post asks.
“The Republican senator from Florida made clear during Tillerson’s confirmation hearing earlier this month that he had significant reservations… Since then, Rubio has come under significant pressure from Republican party leaders to back Tillerson and avoid a split within the GOP on one of President Trump’s most high-profile picks.”
Flynn’s Communications with Russia Investigated
“U.S. counterintelligence agents have investigated communications that President Trump’s national security adviser had with Russian officials,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Michael Flynn is the first person inside the White House under Mr. Trump whose communications are known to have faced scrutiny as part of investigations… to determine the extent of Russian government contacts with people close to Mr. Trump.”
