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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Trump is losing disengaged voters, and some Republicans on some issues [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-07
G Eliott Morris/Strength in Numbers:
What do disengaged voters think about Trump now? Trump's job approval rating is down 33 points among people who read or watch little to no news In the 2024 election, Donald Trump gained a surprising edge from an unlikely group: Americans who typically don’t vote. According to a New York Times analysis, these low-turnout voters backed Trump by a double-digit margin, flipping the script from prior years when non-voters leaned Democratic. This wasn’t just a quirk of the horse-race polls; Campaign operatives, analysts, and post-election surveys all pointed to the same conclusion: The less you followed politics, the more likely you were to vote for Trump. But now that he's president again, something’s shifted. New polling shows that the very voters who powered Trump’s return to office are now abandoning him. And if that trend holds, it could upend assumptions about how much campaign messaging and elite discourse really matter. Because it turns out the people who don’t read the Times, don’t watch the Sunday shows, and don’t care about the policy details... still care when the economy sours and their lives get harder.
x 🚨🚨NEW National polling from @NavigatorSurvey
Trump's tariff plan is now -19 (37-56%)
It was only -4 at inauguration day.
👀It's now -41 (20-61%) with independents. pic.twitter.com/9R4Iv48cSF — Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) May 6, 2025
Here’s where your engaged voter backlash matters. New York Times has been all over this story:
Trump Crypto Deals Provoke Senate Backlash and Calls for Investigation Some Democrats who had supported legislation for so-called stablecoins are now demanding tougher language to prevent fraud and money laundering. Senate Democrats are demanding changes to cryptocurrency legislation pending in Congress, responding partly to growing evidence that the Trump family is using its connections and President Trump’s power to profit from crypto trading. The pushback intensified late last week after a closed-door meeting among Senate Democrats in which Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, told colleagues they should not commit to voting for the so-called GENIUS Act, a bill backed by the crypto industry.
Joyce Vance/Civil Discourse:
The Outrage That Is Ed Martin A U.S. Attorney’s duties are outlined in a law passed by Congress. The statute charges each of the 93 U.S. Attorneys nationwide with prosecuting criminal cases, defending the government (or sometimes prosecuting) in civil actions, and collecting moneys owed to the government. They are also charged with making “such reports as the Attorney General may direct.” U.S. Attorneys take on responsibility for a wide array of issues that impact the Justice Department nationwide, as well as our work with other agencies and with our communities. Most U.S. Attorneys come to the job with a lot of legal experience and some exposure to management—running the office is part of the job. But none of that matters if you are Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee to be U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia, one of the largest and most important offices. Every nominee to be a U.S. Attorney has to submit answers to a document called the Senate Judiciary Questionnaire, which is used by senators during the advice and consent process. Martin’s can be found here, so you can take a look at how he presents himself.
x Senator Tom Tillis (R-#NorthCarolina) is doing the nation a service here. On the dangerous Ed Martin nomination for US Attorney in DC. Senator Thune: “I think that would suggest that [Martin] is probably not going to get out of committee." thehill.com/homenews/sen...
[image or embed] — Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw.bsky.social) May 6, 2025 at 12:37 PM
By the way, see NYT:
Republican Senator Says He’ll Vote Against Pick for U.S. Attorney The nomination of the prosecutor, Ed Martin, has been teetering amid revelations that he once compared former President Biden to Adolf Hitler.
Should Ed Martin fail and with Ron De Santis’ scandals (see below), maybe we have reached a point where no, anything and everything doesn’t go. And if you defy Trump on this, you can defy him on other things.
Crack the wall. Let the tide do the rest.
x It seems pretty silly to handicap the midterms until we see what they do with Medicaid, to say nothing of the tariffs/economy. — Conor Sen (@conorsen) May 6, 2025
CNBC:
Messaging app used by Trump official suspends operations after reported hack The messaging app seen being used by President Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Waltz, is temporarily suspending services following a reported hack.
“Out of an abundance of caution, all TeleMessage services have been temporarily suspended,” a spokesperson for TeleMessage’s parent company, Smarsh, said.
A recent photo of Waltz indicated he was communicating on TeleMessage with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
Matt Yglesias/Slow Boring:
Dog-whistle moderation is not the way Say what you mean! If you are terminally online, you may have noticed recently the cavalcade of progressive-minded posters slagging Senator Elissa Slotkin for saying that the use of the term “oligarchy” by Bernie Sanders and AOC goes over the heads of too many voters. Sanders clapped back, quipping, “I think the American people are not quite as dumb as Ms. Slotkin thinks they are.” Narrowly, I think Slotkin is probably right about how dumb people are. There’s decent evidence that the average American reads at a sixth grade level, and while there is some reason to doubt that conclusion, it’s also not the case that I would expect the median eighth-grader to fully understand the meaning of oligarchy. ... Back to Slotkin, though. All these progressives are clearly not mad at her because they have passionate feelings about this technical question of how widely understood the word oligarchy is. They’re mad at her because the subtext of everything that she’s saying in her “war plan” rollout (Politico coverage, PBS coverage) is that Democrats should move to the center.
On some issues, maybe they should. On other issues, maybe not. Can’t say until you name the issue. Just remember that the strongest Democratic constituency (Black women) are who you should be working with. And for. Do that, and you won’t go wrong.
x Recent polls have shown:
-A 20-point increase in support for "global free trade"
-A double-digit spike in pro-immigrant sentiment
-A 16-point rise in support for doing more for Ukraine
Call it the thermostatic Trump effect. pic.twitter.com/oeRLfhQKrj — Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) May 5, 2025
The Bulwark:
Brian Kemp and the Dream of a Post-Trump GOP In a Trump-led GOP, the U.S. Senate isn’t an inviting destination for anyone but enthusiastic cheerleaders. When Kemp trounced Perdue by 50 points, many read it as a sign that Trump’s previously formidable sway over the GOP was on the wane. And when he easily won reelection over Democrat Stacey Abrams, it seemed proof of concept that MAGA voters weren’t strong enough to exercise a heckler’s veto over Republicans who didn’t kiss the ring. What a difference a few years make! In 2022, Kemp, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, seemed poised to contend for the mantle of what some thought would shortly be a post-Trump GOP. Instead, as Trump came roaring back last year, Kemp again found himself in uneasy territory. Trump, campaigning in the state, turned on the charm: “Loved being in Georgia today,” he tweeted in October. “Great people, incredible spirit, Governor Kemp is doing a really good job.” Kemp was more of a cipher. Asked to discuss his relationship with Trump two weeks out from the election, the governor replied: “I want him to win—we are making sure we fight for the win from the top of the ticket to the bottom.” Kemp’s decision to pass on the Senate may be driven by a personal affinity for the trappings of an executive office. But it also feels like a commentary on the state of the GOP.
Derek Thompson/The Atlantic:
Something Alarming Is Happening to the Job Market A new sign that AI is competing with college grads According to the New York Federal Reserve, labor conditions for recent college graduates have “deteriorated noticeably” in the past few months, and the unemployment rate now stands at an unusually high 5.8 percent. Even newly minted M.B.A.s from elite programs are struggling to find work. Meanwhile, law-school applications are surging—an ominous echo of when young people used graduate school to bunker down during the great financial crisis. What’s going on? I see three plausible explanations, and each might be a little bit true.
Probably a combo of things including Covid disruption and AI.
x I don’t think you understand some of the hyper-weirdness coming out of safe state Republican Party platforms. Wanting to ban 5G because of “frequency” pseudoscience, banning funding increases for public schools, and other policies so weird their own director won’t defend them
https://t.co/ELcPRihyxV — Blake Allen (@Blake_Allen13) May 6, 2025
Marc Caputo/Axios:
Inside DeSantis' "made-for-TV" fall in Florida Not that long ago, Ron DeSantis looked like the future of MAGA, the iron-fisted ruler of Florida politics who was set up for a White House run. his wife's charity. Now the Republican governor faces potential political obscurity, unable to control legislators in his own party who are calling for a federal investigation of Why it matters: Nothing exemplifies DeSantis' striking loss of mojo in Tallahassee like the scandal surrounding Hope Florida, the state-backed charity of First Lady Casey DeSantis, who's been eyeing a bid to succeed her husband as governor. The charity received $10 million in secret settlement money from a Medicaid provider just days before the charity sent that same amount to two political groups favored by the DeSantises.
$10 million in secret settlement money from a Medicaid provider just days before the charity sent that same amount to two political groups favored by the DeSantises. House Republicans and independent observers allege that the arrangement amounted to an illegal siphoning of Medicaid funds.
independent observers allege that the arrangement amounted to an illegal siphoning of Medicaid funds. The governor has denied wrongdoing and accused fellow Republicans of a "bogus" political smear.
x (cont) from @NavigatorSurvey
Who is getting hurt by Trump's tariffs?
- American Consumers: 58%
- Foreign Countries: 28% pic.twitter.com/8OdrycsdBA — Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) May 6, 2025
Trump can’t misdirect this political failure by blaming Biden or FDR.
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