“Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is being ridiculed over an online photo she posted of herself and her new hunting dog — with social-media users urging her not to off him, too,” the New York Post reports.
CNN: Kristi Noem quietly moves to her third job in Trump administration.
A new Oregonian poll finds more than half, or 54%, of 18-29 year olds in Oregon said they were considering moving in the next five years.
“The poll results add a new dimension to concerns about Oregon’s stagnant population growth and who, exactly, will backfill its graying labor force amid declining birthrates and persistent worries about eroding affordability.”
“Young teenagers are less likely to identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual than they were a few years ago, according to a new analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data,” the Washington Post reports.
David Graham: “When Donald Trump completed his own presidential comeback in the 2024 U.S. election, one common explanation was that a fundamental change had occurred in American politics, realigning demographics, parties, and policy for the long run.”
“A competing narrative, especially popular among comparative scholars, focused on a wave of anti-incumbent results in elections around the world. In this view, the results were more a rejection of Joe Biden’s administration and his vice president, Kamala Harris, than they were an embrace of Trump—and part of a broad trend of dissatisfaction among voters in many countries.”
“The specific motivations of the global anti-incumbent wave have never been entirely obvious. They include a post-COVID hangover but also deeper running dissatisfaction with democratic systems of government. Whatever the reasons, the trend is an important shift.”
“There’s a political horseshoe forming,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Voters from the left and the right are finding a common, populist ground targeting American corporations. And this anger is going beyond just Big Tech.”
“There is a growing embrace of a bigger government role that could crack down on credit-card companies, healthcare companies, housing and child care.”
“The number of young Americans who say they’re ‘thriving’ is near a low point while the share of middle-age adults who say the same is at a nadir, underscoring the level of relative dissatisfaction among these key demographic groups ahead of the midterms,” Semafor reports.
“Only 44% of adults ages 18 to 29 describe themselves as thriving, according to Gallup, 20 points lower than the high measured in 2010. Forty-five percent of adults 30 to 44 say the same; both figures have declined in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Gallup: “Forty-three percent of Americans now have a positive view of socialism, marking the first time this figure has exceeded 39% in Gallup’s trend since 2010.”
“Socialism still trails capitalism and free enterprise in public favorability but now ranks ahead of big business. Small business remains the clear leader among the five economic concepts tested, with 95% viewing it positively.”
“The 2026 elections are shaping up to be another terrible year for working-class representation in Congress,” Bloomberg reports.
“Of the 919 candidates running as major-party nominees for the U.S. House and Senate this November, only seven had a working-class job when they got into politics. That’s less than 1%, despite working-class jobs making up about half of the U.S. labor force.”
“Call it the distrust election,” the New York Times reports.
“For as much as Americans disagree these days, one common denominator runs through American life: a profound distrust of the institutions and industries that make the country run. Whether on data centers, chemicals in food, the Epstein files or the war in Iran, Americans across the political spectrum say they have the feeling that they are being lied to.”
Wall Street Journal: “The socialists, it turns out, are highly social.”
“In chapters across the country, they enjoy DSA barbecues, beach days, running clubs, happy hours, karaoke, prom nights, transgender rights and bodily autonomy game nights, reading groups, Marxist study circles and more. The DSA is even moving into affairs of the heart with a recent ‘Socialist Speed Dating’ event in New York’s Lower East Side.”
“People 65 and older now outnumber children ages 5 and younger worldwide for the first time in recorded history, according to a new report by the U.S. Census,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: A global plunge in fertility — demographers’ term for the number of children being born — and increased longevity are creating a demographic inversion that’s projected to deepen for decades.”
A new American University Sine Institute of Policy & Politics poll finds 70 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 said they weren’t proud of “where America is heading as a nation.”
NBC News: “For more than a decade, one of Trump’s greatest strengths has been the devotion of his base — voters who were reluctant to criticize him and quick to defend him in public settings. Many of them have lost or strained friendships with their vehement support and insistence that he is virtually infallible.”
“But in late-August conversations with Trump voters across eight of the nation’s most competitive congressional districts, running along Interstate 80 from central New Jersey to Omaha, Nebraska, there was a new willingness among Trump voters to voice their critiques on issues including inflation, the war with Iran and the White House ballroom construction.”
Rana Foroohar: “People increasingly blame large corporations for the sense that they have ever less control over their own lives.”
The Economist: “In just the past two months Donald Trump has described unnamed Democratic candidates as ‘jihadists’ and ‘radical lunatics.’ He has mocked opponents’ weight and appearance, said he hated Adam Schiff, a Democratic senator from California, and referred to James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, as ‘Tal-a-freak-o.’ He has also attacked former Republican allies, calling Tucker Carlson and others ‘losers,’ while describing Marjorie Taylor Greene as ‘neurotic.'”
“The president’s rhetoric is insulting, combative and angry. Of course, he is hardly the first politician to cultivate outrage. Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s vice-president, delighted in attacking the press. Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, was a master of ginning up resentment. For decades righteous indignation has been the resting state of Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont. But new research suggests that American politics is angrier than ever.”
Semafor: “Seventeen percent of American adults say they smoke marijuana, tied with the high notched in 2023. That’s a big shift from 2013, the year Gallup started polling the question, when just 7% said they used pot. A record 15% of U.S. adults also say they use edibles.”
“Higher education is hitting a demographic cliff. After years of growth, the pipeline of 18-year-olds is dwindling—a result of lower birthrates,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The largest number of Americans born in a single year arrived on campus in the autumn of 2025, and now a falloff is looming. College enrollments are forecast to drop 13% by 2041… In some parts of the country—especially the Midwest and the Northeast—the declines have already begun.”
Robin Givhan: “The MAGA aesthetic has seeped into all the nooks and crannies of the culture as well as here in diplomatic Washington. You could just as easily find the look on the runway in Ronkonkoma, New York, where, in the fall of 2024, conservative women came to admire red-white-and-blue-bedazzled jewelry and skirts depicting the drafting of the Declaration of Independence at the America First Patriotic Designer Showcase…”
“MAGA is a style rooted in extremes. It is hostile to nuance and diversity. It views body positivity as a sign of weakness—but regards the president’s puffy, aging body through an exceptionally kind lens. And it believes gender fluidity is something to be stamped out.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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