Republicans have a responsibility to fix our democracy. GOP broke it and now they and MAGA own it. Fire Donald Trump

Congrats, America. You didn’t blow it.

In other words, it's time to abandon the Trumpism "Wayback Machine"

A reckoning is finally coming for the corruption and brutality of Trumpism. Echo opinion published in the Los Angeles Times by Jill Lawrence

Lots of people have a story about election night 2016. (Maine Writer- Frankly, I have am still unable to get over the catastrophic consequences of electing a creature who did not win a majority of the popular vote but was able to add up the electoral college numbers for a victory against the intelligent and competent Mrs. Hillary Clinton. It is time to abolish the electoral college❗)

Jill Lawrence writes about her memory, as a center-left opinion journalist at a big national newspaper, she was pre-writing a joint column with a libertarian conservative colleague who couldn’t stand Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. We both expected her to win.

Late that evening, they realized to their shock that they would have to start all over and write a new piece. The headline: “Congrats America. You blew it.”

Back then, it was astonishing that America would elect someone like Trump. He was far from an unknown. And what we knew — from bigotry, misogyny and sexual assault allegations to bankrupting businesses, stiffing contractors and utter ignorance about government, policy and the values that Joe Biden would call “the soul of America” — was disqualifying. Or should have been.

This year the astonishment is that voters finally said, “Enough❗” So many that Democrats have not only won the House, they could end up with a hefty 259-176 majority. And their 54 seats in the 100-member Senate (including seven flips this week) could rise to 56 after the Mississippi and Alaska races are called.

Young people and minorities drove the backlash. In a national poll of people after they voted, Democrats won 64% of the Hispanic/Latino vote, compared with 54% in 2024. The party’s 73% share of voters under 30 was an even larger shift, up from 56% in 2024. And Trump loomed large in their decisions, with 61% of those under 30, 61% of Black voters and 52% of Hispanic voters saying opposition to Trump was one reason for their vote.

The economy and “the state of democracy” were voters’ top issues. Six in 10 people under age 45 said the cost of living was crucial to their vote, the highest “crucial” rating of any issue in any age group. The top crucial issue for all age groups, and the only one with an overall majority, was “government corruption.”

None of this should be surprising, given Trump’s outright racism, brutal deportation and detention regime, and overt pursuit of power, gifts, profits and quid pro quos, on top of his callousness toward those starting out in life or working hard just to stay afloat. His mistakes have been legion.

Yet consequences have been rare, which may be why it was a jolt to both parties this week when the Great Blue Wave (tsunami🌊❗) rolled ashore. The hopes of doom-scrolling Democrats have been crushed repeatedly as they (OK, we) waited for Trump-MAGA fever to break, for that magic tipping point to appear. And Republicans apparently thought that they could coast forever on Teflon Don’s bizarre but seemingly untouchable brand — that voters would never notice his selfish preoccupations and careless directives, or his zeal to stop progress and even reverse it.

Trump’s second term feels as if the whole country is trapped in a super-sized Wayback Machine: Capricious, price-hiking tariffs that recall the late 19th century Gilded Age, when oligarchs flourished and the working class struggled. TLC for coal and fossil fuels while knifing renewable energy projects. The return of preventable diseases amid a war on science, and millions of people losing insurance as a result of Dickensian health cuts.

All that plus the war Trump started against Iran, and the terrible candidates he endorsed and sometimes handpicked to run against an excellent crop of Democrats. This is in itself a statement about the two parties: The Democrats were a motley crew. Some were recruited by establishment figures and some drew belated backing after winning primaries. They are centrists, liberals, progressives and Democratic Socialists of America members. They are in their 20s and in their 70s, from farm country, huge cities and all points between.

And they are clear evidence that despite Trump’s best efforts to stamp out diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI is very much alive and making a big splash this week in the winner’s circle. There will be more than 100 Democratic women in the House next year, up from 12 when Nancy Pelosi arrived in 1987. The party has elected Black governors of Georgia and Wisconsin, Hispanic governors of California and Texas, Native American women as governor of New Mexico and senator from Minnesota. The Senate will have its first Democratic doctor since 1938, first gay man, first Muslim and first Paralympic gold medalist. And lest we forget, Florida will have a Black, Trump-aligned Republican governor.

None of this means that MAGA or Trumpism or Republicans are done for. I asked in early 2022, a year after the January 6 Capitol attack, if fissures within the still-roiling GOP would be the beginning of the end for Trumpism or the Republican Party. It is now the beginning of the end of Trump’s time in office. But what happens to him and the party he commandeered, and how this nation will handle its next chapter, is still unknowable — and as worrying as ever.

President Obama triggered a bit of a furor early Wednesday morning with a social post that said voters had chosen “a politics that brings people together rather than divides them, and leaders who offer concrete solutions to the challenges they face.” Forget it, commenters told him, we want trials and justice and accountability.

In fact, President Obama went on to say the job of Democrats while Trump remains in office is to “make changes wherever we have the power to do so, prevent further damage, and lay the groundwork for the future.” A reckoning is part of that groundwork. Future officeholders and government officials must know that there are consequences for violating our laws and Constitution, and Congress must pass safeguards to protect the country from future authoritarians and kleptocrats.

That said, Mr. Obama is not wrong to promote civility and problem-solving. We need solutions and investigations. Democrats are preparing to deliver both. That’s how you bring people together.

Jill Lawrence is a journalist and the author of “The Art of the Political Deal: How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock.”

Donald Trump must resign❗

Republicans must put an end to Donald Trump's illegal activities and support our nation's election laws: accept the outcomes

Tech threats during campaign events.

Echo opinion published in the Philadelphia Inquirer: 

In raising the possibility of a Donald Trump-led coup if Democrats gain control of one or both chambers of Congress, Inquirer columnist Will Bunch asks whether Americans would come together to stop such an unthinkable act.

I wonder if we could, given how much we’ve come to depend on digital technology for both information and communication.

Meta’s deactivation of the No Kings Coalition’s Instagram account on Oct. 17 should scare anyone who wants to protect democracy and the free flow of information. Regardless of whether this incident was a mistake, as Meta maintains, it shows what Big Tech can do if it allows itself to become one of the Trump regime’s most useful tools.

Of course, I also worry about the harm Congress would continue to rubber-stamp if it remains in GOP hands. And I long for the days when elections were routine matters, not something to fear regardless of the outcome.

From: Lisa Von Ahn, in Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Donald Trump’s illegal actions:

•  undermining our voting system, 
• attacking the judiciary and the press 
• weaponizing the Justice Department, etc. — to the 
• potential creation of a totalitarian state 
• Trump’s imperialistic ambitions, which we see in his attack on Venezuela to seize the country’s oil 
• decrease in our critical support for Ukraine
• inhumane strangulation of Cuba 
• ongoing conflict with Canada 
• the quest to control Greenland

Added to these ominous signs, is the fact that those around Trump are involved in initiating, participating in, or approving these actions, including the GOP-controlled Congress. It brings to mind a goal of an attempt to divide up the world among dictators: Russia gets Europe, China gets Asia, and the U.S. gets North, Latin, and South America. Horror of all horrors. 

We Americans must recognize that the threats to our democracy and the world order are obvious. The coming elections will be critical. We desperately need leaders who will break the growing misdirection of our country.

From:  Luis W. Morales, Paoli

Donald Trump must have congressional guard rails because he has driven America "off the rails" he must become a lame duck

Neither political party has the best answer for our political system: President Biden didn’t on border control and Donald Trump is now off the rails.  Opinion letter published in TribLive.com

Trump wanted to give the 1,240 January 6 convicts 💲1.76 billion for the attempted assassination of Vice President Mike Pence, injuring police officers and trashing the houses of Congress. Our congressman Guy Reschenthaler has no spine and gave Trump a green light on inflation, multiple military and trade wars, mismanagement of ICE, major corruption, and now sleeping with dictators like Putin, Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping.

Elect Democrats who have experiences grounded in service to our country and who support the U.S. military. Trump must have guardrails imposed during the next two years. 

Democrats will put America on the right track towards democracy again.  

From: Dale Dix in Hempfield Pennsylvania

Vote Blue:  Let's make sure Donald Trump is a lame🦆 duck❕

Donald Trump and maga Republicans continue January 6th treason with threats to sabotage the 2026 mid term elections

Every one of America’s 39,000 full-time journalists should be using their voice and platform to report on the possibility that this year’s elections could be stolen, subverted, or canceled by Donald Trump and his allies.

January 6th insurrectionists - treason❗

New York Magazine Intelligencer by Errol Lewis

It’s a mistake to treat November 3 as a normal contest between Republicans and Democrats when powerful forces are pursuing a much darker outcome. And nobody should rule out the use of extraordinary measures after the violent January 6, attack on the Capitol, which was intended to halt the certification of an election Trump clearly lost.

Trump has claimed for years that “elections are unfair and has been working to undermine our election system,” Michael Waldman, president of the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, recently told me. “We should never lose track of how extraordinary that is, to have the federal government and the president of the United States trying to undermine confidence in elections. The more noise, the more confusion, the more people think maybe I can’t vote because of this or that, the easier it might be, not just to keep people from voting, but to cast doubt on the results.”

Earlier this month, the New York Times editorial board captured this ominous moment in a blunt and welcome piece: “Trump Is Sabotaging the Midterms. The Supreme Court Must Stop Him.” 

In the editorial, it sounded the alarm over Trump’s executive order, issued in March, that would have required all states to submit their voter-registration rolls to the U.S. Postal Service, which would then attach a barcode to each voter’s information and make decisions about whether they were eligible to get an absentee or mail-in ballot. It was a brazen flouting of the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which specifies that the “Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”

“The country has built a system in which Americans can have confidence,” the Times board wrote. “Trump is trying to wreck it. The Supreme Court should protect it.” The high court appears to have agreed, striking down Trump’s order in a terse three-sentence opinion this week.

But a serious threat remains: As Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan detailed in their best-selling book, Regime Change, top Trump officials have discussed scenarios in which widespread riots, protests, or other national disorder — provoked by ICE or other federal agencies — might provide an excuse to invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act, which allows for federal troops to be deployed in American communities. (The law was last invoked in 1992, in the wake of rioting in Los Angeles after the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King.)

“After January 6, 2021, you can’t rule anything out. And yes, there is a desire to use the Insurrection Act,” Haberman told me. “At this point, the Supreme Court has said that Trump’s National Guard deployments were unlawful to states that did not want it. That really only leaves them with active-duty troops to send in, with actual federal military, if they were going to do it. They’ve made no secret about how they’re trying to get control of voter rolls.”

In a possible dress rehearsal for post-midterms turmoil, the FBI seized 660 boxes of voting records in May from Fulton County in Georgia, where Trump has long claimed, without evidence, that voter fraud caused his loss of the state in the 2020 election. Why seize the records? “We don’t know what we don’t know. I am deeply concerned about interference,” Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlanta’s mayor and the Democratic candidate for governor, told NBC’s Blayne Alexander in August. “There’s been a constant erosion of access to the right to vote, from the removal of ballot boxes in Georgia to reducing the number of days that we can really vote in this state. So it’s been this gradual chipping away at the foundation of election integrity.”

We don’t know exactly what and where a possible attack on voting will take place. When asked by a member of Congress if the military is planning to mobilize around Election Day, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, gave a less than reassuring answer: “I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections,” he replied.

This week, at a contentious Senate hearing, FBI director Kash Patel would not rule out deploying FBI agents at polling sites. “Do you pledge that you will not in any way interfere in the will of the American people when they go to the polls in November❓” asked Senator Peter Welch of Vermont. “I pledge unequivocally that I will not participate in your charade of lies,” Patel replied.

The good news is that a determined, bipartisan army of current and former elected officials, attorneys, and journalists have organized to defend against election interference. The States United Democracy Center is providing legal assistance to help local communities safeguard elections, including by running a website, ElectionDeniers.org, that identifies those who supported Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020, election and are currently running for office. “Our tracking tool helps define the democracy landscape, so that we can understand and counter dangerous efforts to change the rules of how elections are run and change the referees (the people who oversee our elections),” the organization’s website notes.

The Democracy Docket website is also an indispensable clearinghouse for updates on litigation designed to block election subversion. And Nikole Hannah-Jones, a New York Times Magazine journalist who founded and runs the Center for Journalism and Democracy at Howard University, is hosting a Democracy Summit for journalists to get up to speed on how to report on the midterms.

“Part of your work is actually convincing your bosses that we might be objective about a lot of things, but democracy cannot be one of them,” she recently told a group of young reporters during a workshop sponsored by the National Association of Black Journalists. “When the Washington Post says ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness,’ it is taking a side and saying our job as journalists is the protection of democracy. 

So, instead of framing these stories as about partisan politics and about racial politics, we have to frame them about democracy.”

Americans living in France are asked about Donald Trump

When it comes to politics, the French appear to exercise free speech rights with more consistency than many Americans are comfortable with. I recall one visit to Paris when the husband of our hotel concierge identified my husband as an American who is fluent in French.  He got himself off of his couch potato position seated in the hotel's small lounge to give my husband a long lecture in French about why it was so stupid for Americans to fight in Vietnam....he talked on and on for over 20 minutes, while my husband, who is a Vietnam war veteran, patiently and politely listened.

This echo report was published in The Connexion newsletter by 

Sujena Soumyanath

Americans in France on being asked 'are you for Trump❓'

Democrats and Republicans tell of conversations ranging from rewarding to challenging.

Ruth Miller’s backpack is worth a thousand words.

This Brittany resident, 71, carries on her back a bag with a picture of US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s face. Next to Ocasio-Cortez, in white letters, reads “a woman’s place is in the resistance.”

Miller, who moved to France from the US in 2015, has had the backpack for about two years and decorated it herself. Since then, she says more than half the time she goes out with it, someone comments on the bag’s display of American politics.

Miller is far from the only American in France to find themselves repeatedly unpacking US politics. Americans from both sides of the political spectrum say moving to France has sparked frequent, sometimes unexpected discussions about their home country.

The conversations come at a time when more Americans are moving to France. At the same time, according to an early 2026 poll, French respondents said they increasingly view the US under Trump as an enemy country. As a result, for some Americans in the Hexagon, sharing their nationality with a French person quickly sparks a discussion about everything from the electoral college and gerrymandering to New York mayor Zohran Mamdani. Or, their interlocutor may skip the chatter entirely, and ask, ‘you’re not for Trump, are you?’

At the heart of these interactions lies a key cultural difference. A 2025 Alliance Francaise article notes that while Americans prefer more casual small talk, the French enter quickly into deep, bold topics.

Members of the US Republican party in France find the French not only question their political affiliations, they sometimes challenge them, said Republicans Overseas France media director Paul Reen. The organization has about 200 members.

“Unfortunately, many French people think Trump is racist and fascist and sexist, so they just get angry and walk away,” Reen told The Connexion.

Despite this, there’s a growing number of French people willing to have an open dialogue and migrating to the right, he said.

Reen noted French people bring up a wide range of global-facing US policy issues, like tariffs, Ukraine, Palestine and, more recently, the Iran War. Most share similar opinions - from condemning the Iran War to supporting Palestine.

“The minority will stay and listen,” Reen said. “The majority just get angry.”

Leila Meresman, spokesperson for Democrats Abroad France, said American politics remain a fixture of French fascination: “I don't think a day goes by when I talk to French people [...] where somebody will not ask me once they figure out that I'm American, ‘what the heck is going on with Trump and the US administration❓’”

Democrats Abroad France does not publish membership numbers per country, spokesperson Amy Porter said.

Meresman noted that French people are “extremely well informed” and it's always a pleasure for her to talk about politics. However, that was not the case for one American who contacted The Connexion last June.

“I am fed up with having to be responsible for and explain my native country’s decisions to people in France,” the reader wrote.

A master’s student in Paris from the US, Micah Polsky said some people immediately ask them if they support Trump.

“That’s not how you start a conversation,” they said.

Still, Polsky told The Connexion that they enjoy discussing politics and explaining how the US government works. They have even developed some “canned responses” to explain concepts like the voting system that come up often.

Addressing the Trump question is particularly tricky for members of the Republican party.

“'Oh you’re American, you don’t like Trump I hope’ - that's how a Frenchman will start the conversation,” Reen said. “So you’re immediately on your backfoot.”

It is an experience Republicans coming from the States don’t expect at first, Reen said. He suggested joining groups like Republicans Overseas France and having some facts ready to share in a discussion.

From there usually sparks one of the many conversations she has had with French people over the years about the US. Sometimes it’s someone expressing support for Ocasio-Cortez. Other times, it’s a person asking her about the presidential election. She’s even discussed politics with her doctor and veterinarian here in France.

“I’m always happy to talk about it,” said Miller, who is active with Democrats Abroad Brittany. “I feel like it’s part of my responsibility.”

“Try to stay friendly and don't get confrontational,” he said. “Maybe you can change some hearts and minds.”

While in France political discussions spark frequently, in a 2024, survey by the American Psychology Association, 72％ of US adults polled said they hoped to avoid discussing politics with their family over the holidays. That was shortly after the divisive election that sealed Trump’s second term.

Christopher Davis, a Franco-American teacher in Lille, has integrated that election’s results into his teaching. He often explains the American political situation to his post graduate-level students and said they are curious about everything from immigration, to understanding the Republican voter base.

In the wake of Trump's re-election and his tariffs on Europe, some Americans worried about their safety when visiting France. A tourist interviewed by BBC last year said he covered the US flag logo on his hat before stepping out in Paris.

Most Americans The Connexion spoke to said they haven’t encountered any politics-related hostility.

“People have the ability to differentiate a citizen from the government,” Davis said. He added that making an effort to speak French and respecting the local culture greatly improves Americans’ perception in France.

As a word of advice for those less willing to discuss politics: “you’re allowed to say, this isn’t really my area of expertise,” Polsky said.

According to a recent analysis cited last year by BBC, the US expat community in France is overwhelmingly pessimistic about their home country’s future. But for Davis, like many others, the chance to talk about the US situation is more of an opportunity than a burden.

“I'm sad for my country, in a sense, where I don't recognize the direction we're taking,” he said. “That's why I feel that it's important to explain it, rather than to just let it by.”

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must support equal justice under the law for legal an innocent immigrants

Boston Globe Editorial Board echo:

Massachusetts can’t stop (evil❗) ICE. But it can help its vulnerable immigrant population. The horror of Minneapolis can happen here.

Some 1.2 million immigrants call Massachusetts their home. They are, as Governor Maura Healey put it, “workers, parents, caregivers, business owners, and essential contributors to the Commonwealth’s economy and civic life.” And, sadly, they are, at this moment, extremely vulnerable.

The nation has watched day after day the countless affronts to human dignity in Minneapolis as a Trump administration-ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement “surge” separates families and devastates a community. And, yes, it can happen here.

The unfortunate reality is that immigration enforcement is the federal government’s prerogative. There’s not much that the state can do about it if the federal government seeks to deport Massachusetts residents who are in the country illegally or revoke the legal status of those who are here legally.

But, given the terrible impact such indiscriminate actions would have on Massachusetts communities and on the economy, Healey and lawmakers are right to look for ways to at least reduce the harm (evil❗) ICE could do in the Commonwealth.

ICE is Ku Klux Klan with different color face masks.

And, so Healey issued a raft of measures last week, including new proposed legislation designed to codify immigrant protections. 

Some Democrats wish she’d gone further. But she is attempting to walk a fine line, protecting immigrants without overstepping the state’s authority and without taking actions that could boomerang on state residents.

Take the controversial agreements that some public agencies strike with ICE called 287(g) agreements. Some immigration advocates want to ban them altogether.

Healey doesn’t go quite that far — but for good reasons. Under her executive order, no executive branch office or agency may enter into a new 287(g) agreement to partner with ICE unless approved in writing by the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, which must certify it is based on “a specific, articulable public safety risk or need.”

Currently, only the state Department of Correction has such an agreement. But that agreement serves a legitimate public safety purpose, allowing the state to turn over convicted criminals to ICE for deportation.

The Plymouth County House of Correction, which does house criminally charged detainees, currently operates under a separate, narrower agreement that would not be impacted by Healey’s order. The latter agreement is actually supported by many members of the immigrant community as a way to keep detained family members nearby.

Healey’s proposals would also bolster the protections for immigrants at state courthouses and in certain other spaces.

Under the so-called Lunn decision, handed down by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court in 2017, Massachusetts court officers have no power to hold a prisoner on a civil immigration detainer — unless a warrant has been issued for their arrest.

But, ICE agents often hang around at courthouses — which impedes the justice system by scaring away immigrants who are witnesses or participants in cases.

House Speaker Ron Mariano said in a statement that he has had “productive conversations” with caucus members, adding, “At the same time, we understand the deep nuance on this issue and the limitations of what the Commonwealth can do on immigration policy.”

The Legislature’s goal should be to lay out a clear policy that would withstand judicial scrutiny. The state may not be able to stop ICE, but it can guide state actors and state facilities in order to protect those who are indeed a critical part of our community.

In doing so the state would be standing up for Massachusetts values and the protections long offered by our own constitution, which guarantees “equality under the law” to all regardless of national origin. There is nothing ambiguous about that.

Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us @GlobeOpinion.

“Access to justice cannot coexist with a threat of civil arrest looming over those who enter a courthouse to assert their right to defend themselves or to fulfill their civic obligations,” Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker said, appearing with Healey last week.

Tucker said recent ICE activity has deterred people from vulnerable populations from appearing as witnesses or as victims of crimes in the state’s courts. Healey’s bill, he said, “will help to relieve that fear and enhance public safety.”

The bill would also add the nonpublic areas of schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and child-care programs to the list of protected spaces that ICE is prohibited from accessing without a warrant.

And the bill would allow parents to prearrange guardianship in the event of detention or deportation.

“I’m really sorry to even have to utter those words,” Healey said, “but at the end of the day, we’ve seen here in Massachusetts and around this country, little kids taken away from their parents, left alone or in the care of maybe a neighbor, maybe the state. It’s wrong.”

The protections offered in Healey’s bill are attached to a supplementary budget, which provides both a certain urgency to its passage and requires — because it is a money bill — that it is first passed by the House, which is scheduled to caucus twice this week to consider Healey’s version and a bill, the PROTECT Act, offered by the Legislature’s Black and Latino caucus.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans in denial about the 2025 special election results- Trumpzi-ism WAS on the ballot!

Hip❗ Hip❗ Hurray❗  🎈❗ Somebody must roadblock this despicable Trumpzi tyrant.: Trump’s Low Approval Rating Is Hurting Republicans in Polls- opinion published in New York Magazine  Intelligencer, by Ed Kilgore.

One of the major narratives that came out of the very poor showing of Republicans in the 2025, elections is that the GOP struggles to win when Donald Trump is not on the ballot. 

Certainly Donald Trump himself shares that (delusional😕😦😟) belief, as he said on Election Night in no uncertain terms on social media: “‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT.”

This was cold comfort for Republicans who understand that Trump isn’t going to be on the ballot in 2026, either. 

Nevertheless, the narrative may not even be true. Polls keep showing that Trump is increasingly a drag on his party and that his weaknesses in the electorate very much resemble the GOP’s weaknesses on November 4. (Duh❗ Ya'think❓- Mr. Kilgore is insulting my intelligence with this logic....like the folksy sage Yogi Berra is supposed to have observed, "You can see👀 a lot by just lookin'❗)

There’s now little question that Donald Trump's low job-approval ratings have been steadily sliding downward for the past couple of months. On September 20, his net approval average at Silver Bulletin was at minus-7.5 percent (44.9 percent approval, 52.4 percent disapproval). On November 20, it was at minus-14.1. percent, which is a new low for his second term. The intensity of his unpopularity is high and rising: 45.2 percent of Americans strongly disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president, again per the averages at Silver Bulletin.

On particular issues, his net approval remains underwater on all the major categories: immigration (minus-7.2 percent), trade (minus-18.8), the economy (minus-20.2), and inflation (minus-34). The numbers for immigration, the economy, and inflation are at second-term lows. The last two are noteworthy given the importance of “affordability” in the 2025, Democratic victories (reflected in Trump’s own messaging beginning the moment the November 4 results were in) and, beyond that, the importance of these issues in Trump’s 2024 victory.

A poll from Fox (Fake❗) News released on Wednesday probed more deeply into public sentiment on the economy and showed that the administration’s argument that high prices were caused by Joe Biden isn’t working anymore:

By a nearly 2-to-1 margin, voters say Trump is more responsible for the current economy than Biden (62% vs. 32%). Unsurprisingly, there’s a large partisan gap, as Democrats are nearly 40 percentage points more likely than Republicans to blame Trump. Somewhat surprisingly though, 42% of Republicans blame him, while a 53% majority says Biden is responsible. Among independents, 62% say Trump and 29% Biden.

Not all polls break down the electorate, but those that do are pretty consistent in showing that Trump’s 2024, coalition is shrinking back from the hard-core MAGA base. New polling from The Argument reinforces that impression forcefully:

Republicans are hemorrhaging support with the young, nonwhite, and disengaged voters who powered Trump’s victory in 2024. Here are a few tidbits to show just what I’m talking about:

• Democrats are winning 25% of nonwhite Trump 2024, voters. Among white voters, this number is just 4%.
• Among registered voters who didn’t vote for either Harris or Trump in 2024, Democrats receive 62% of the vote — a 25-percentage-point lead. Among the white voters of this group, Democrats lead by two points; among nonwhite nonvoters, they lead by 48 points.

Democrats win 64% of young voters in our survey, for a lead of 28 points. (For context, in 2024, they won this group by just 10 points.)

Exit polls from the 2025, elections showed exactly the same pro-Democratic trends among young and non-white voters in New Jersey and Virginia. If the numbers persist into 2026, it’s hard to imagine Republicans hanging on to their control of the House — particularly if Trump’s effort to change the landscape through gerrymandering continues to flounder. In addition to Trump’s popularity issues, and despite their own well-known problems, Democrats are now opening up a significant lead in the congressional generic ballot, an approximation of the House popular vote next year. 

According to RealClearPolling, the average Democratic lead on the generic ballot is 4.8 percent, another 2025, high. At Decision Desk HQ, the Democratic lead is 5.4 percent; Republicans led by 5.3 percent there at the beginning of 2025. The Argument explains what these trends might mean in the results:

If the election were held today, Republicans may be facing a blue wave larger than the 2018 midterms, which resulted in a commanding Democratic House majority. Put simply, they are in really bad shape.

How bad❓ Consider this: In our survey fielded right after the election, Nov. 10-17, Republicans trailed by four percentage points among registered voters. When we pushed undecided voters to pick a side, that deficit expanded to six percentage points. And after that was filtered to just those who said they were likely to vote, it grew even further, to 7.6 points.

So neither the GOP nor its leader are doing that well at the moment, particularly on the affordability issues* that they now recognize are so crucial to swing voters. Some Republican candidates in 2026 will choose to cleave to Trump even more fiercely, and others may try to achieve some distance, but they’re probably joined at the hip for better or worse.

*Meanwhile, ⚠️ Tresury Secretary Scott Bessent says parts of the Trumpzi economy are in recession:  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that some parts of the U.S. economy have already slipped into an economic downturn.  "I think we are in good shape, but I think that there are sectors of the economy that are in recession," Bessent told CNN host Jake Tapper.

#ImpeachTrumpNOW #25thAmendment

Let me get this? No one denies the purpose of Jeffrey Epstein's recruitment of young girls was sexual but is more intel beneath the service?

Opinion echo published in The New York Times by Ross Douthat:  

Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were friends and neighbors in Manhattan where they lived only a few blocks away from each other.

Ross Douthat writes: For those of us with a sincere, nonpartisan interest (I swear😉😜😂) in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, it was a good week:

• First the Democrats, with an eye to hammering Donald Trump, released a few redacted Epstein emails in which the president’s name featured prominently; 
• Then, the Republicans, presumably with an eye to burying the Democratic leak, released thousands more Epstein documents.
• Ho-ho-ho❗😮🎅With this kind of tag-team effort, we’ll have the whole story out in the open by 🎄Christmas❗

A word of caution, though, for those liberals who are relative newcomers to the tragic Epstein saga, for so long a mostly conservative (obsession❗) fixation. 

Instead, there is a dark conspiratorial thrill that comes with encountering the reality, amply displayed in the latest round of disclosures, that so many American elites were perfectly comfortable being buddy-buddy with a trafficker of teenage girls.😳 

And because both right and left have pivoted away from the Bill Clinton-era neoliberal center, the fact that Epstein had (to quote the left-wing writer Jeet Heer) “very banal centrist politics with the same gestalt as 90 percent of U.S. elite since 1990s” makes him an ideal symbol of elite perfidy  (i.e. deceitfulness) for both progressives and populists alike. (Maine Writer: IMO Bill Clinton has paid plenty for his "perfidy" regarding his history with women because the right wing "perfidy" won't allow him to forget about it. So, going back over this same old history is useless intelligence.)

But, it’s important not to let that conspiratorial thrill outrun the actual facts. The new tranche of information confirms, yet again, the moral squalor of various powerful Americans. 

Yet, it still leaves us short of definitive answers about the outstanding Epstein questions: Did other powerful men have sex with the underage girls that he trafficked❓ What were his connections, if any, to the world of intelligence❓ And what unrevealed details have made Trump so intent on preventing further disclosure❓

I thought we might be closer to answers to the last question when I read the first email that the Democrats released, a 2011, note from Epstein to (the evil😈) Ghislaine Maxwell, shortly after his release from prison: “I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump … [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned. Police chief, etc. I’m 75 percent there.”

With the name redacted, this email suggested there might well be an as-yet-unknown victim with whom Epstein assumed that Trump had a sexual encounter. 

But, the hidden name turned out to be the late Virginia Giuffre, the most famous of Epstein’s victims, who had worked for Trump at Mar-a-Lago and who specifically and repeatedly denied that the future president had sex with her or any other girl, even as she made allegations against many other powerful figures.

Just because she denied it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, the suspicious reader might say, which is true. 

There are reasons to doubt the reliability of some of Giuffre’s accusations, so it’s possible she was also unreliable in her non-accusations. But still, those non-accusations mean that this email is not the smoking gun proving Trump’s complicity in sex crimes. 

And you could also read it as Epstein speculating that Trump was the person who ratted him out to the Palm Beach police, which would actually dovetail with a narrative some of Trump’s defenders have tried to spin up.

Meanwhile, the documents release also includes a much later email from Epstein, a stream-of-consciousness ramble sent to himself shortly before his last arrest in 2019, in which the financier seems to describe his operation (“200 dollars for a rub and tug … no sex … most in thier mid twenties …”) and then says Trump “came to my house many times in that period” but “never got a massage,” before turning to a long complaint about how Trump took advantage of him in a real estate deal (duh, ya' think❓). The emails suggest:

• First, that it was normal for Epstein’s friends to have sexual encounters (if not sexual intercourse); 
• Second, that Epstein at least wanted people to think the girls in involved were not minors; 
• And third, that Epstein had a longstanding grudge against Trump but probably did not have some secret tape of Trump getting a massage or more.

In which case the ultimate truth could be squalid (powerful men getting "hand jobs" from masseuses whom they thought were over 18) without being a Grand Guignol conspiracy (powerful men knowingly trafficking minors to facilitate some kind of “Eyes Wide Shut” scenario). And something similar could be the case with the intelligence-world questions: YES❕ There is evidence that Epstein used his connections to assist Israel intelligence on various projects, but nothing indicating that he was running a sex-and-blackmail operation on its behalf.

But then, the great question remains: Why doesn’t Trump want more disclosure❓

It’s possible that he just doesn’t like the embarrassment of having everyone reminded that he was one of the rich creeps in the Epstein circle. Or, it’s possible that there’s something truly sensitive related to Epstein and intelligence that has yet to be revealed.

Or, it’s possible that there is some thread remaining here, and not necessarily the obvious one, that the president really, really doesn’t want to see get pulled.

Ross Douthat has been an Opinion columnist for The Times since 2009.

Governor Gavin Newsom created a political current for his future success with PROP 50 strategic victory

Excellent echo essay published The New York Magazine Intelligencer by Ed Kilgore.

Truth be told, when California governor Gavin Newsom announced back on July 31, 2025, that he was going to pursue a constitutional amendment to retaliate against Donald Trump’s Texas gerrymandering power grab, I was skeptical it could work.

First of all, it involved firing at a moving target. Though there was never any doubt Texas Republicans would do as they were told, the actual new congressional map wasn’t finally put into place until the end of August, nearly a month after Newsom made his move. 

Second of all, the time frame was really constrained: Any proposed amendment had to clear the California legislature almost instantly and then survive legal challenges. 

Third of all, the nonpartisan citizens redistricting commission that Newsom wanted to push aside was well-established (created by voters in 2008, and extended to congressional redistricting two years later) and widely popular, particularly among Democrats and good-government types. 

And fourth of all, he and his allies would have very little time to raise the vast funds necessary to explain this arcane issue to voters, persuade them to give redistricting (albeit temporarily) back to politicians, and mobilize them to vote in an off-year special election.

In addition, Newsom was picking a fight with one of the few Californians better known than himself: his predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who regarded the nonpartisan redistricting system as an important part of his own legacy.

Newsom and his allies (including virtually every Democratic pol in the state, along with national Democratic celebrities and pro-Democratic constituency groups, especially unions) methodically got the job done. 

They didn’t wait for the Texas power grab to be consummated before laying the groundwork for the ballot initiative, making it initially contingent on what happened in the Lone Star State. 

They went right ahead and secured legislative approval of an actual congressional map so that voters could see what they were voting for instead of trusting the pols to get it right. Enough money was lined up to give Prop 50 (as it came to be known) a big financial advantage over its opponents (a coalition of Republicans and allegedly independent good-government advocates). 

And most of all, Newsom & Co. settled quickly on a message that made Prop 50 a referendum on Donald Trump and his many terrible works.

The strategy closely resembled what Newsom did to defeat a Republican-led 2021 recall effort that would have removed him from office: making it a partisan contest in which the Democrats who outnumber Republicans about five to three in the Golden State would prevail if motivated and united. 

But beyond that, the Prop 50 campaign focused on Trump — not just the gerrymandering scheme the initiative countered, but his ongoing battle with California across a broad landscape of legal and policy issues. So, while Prop 50 opponents were consigned to abstract arguments over complex systems for drafting and approving congressional maps, Prop 50 proponents could simply produce visceral and threatening images of a very unpopular president. 

And because Trump really did start the redistricting fight, Prop 50 could be presented as a righteous measure to prevent a proliferation of gerrymandering this year and on into the future. The campaign turned a retaliatory power grab into a good-government measure of its own.

Prop 50 got some breaks, too. The “No on 50” coalition was divided on tactics and strategy between those who wanted to keep the high nonpartisan ground and those who wanted to demonize Newsom. 

Schwarzenegger, who was probably unhappy with any association, however indirect, with Trump (the nominally Republican actor went so far as to endorse Kamala Harris in 2024), gave the “No on 50” cause little more than lip service. And Trump himself seemed to be on his worst behavior in the months that preceded the vote.

In the end, it was no contest, but still, the numbers are remarkable. With 75 percent of the vote counted (California, which sends mail ballots to all registered voters, counts votes slowly), Prop 50 is leading by a margin of 63.8 percent to 36.2 percent, and the “yes” margin is likely to go up as a “blue shift” (the typical Democratic lean in the last-counted mail ballots) develops. 

That’s already a higher percentage of the vote than the last three Democratic presidential candidates secured in California, and for that matter, a higher percentage than Newsom’s in his two gubernatorial elections and his recall win. On a bad Election Night for Donald Trump, it was the largest and noisiest blow to the 47th president of them all. And most obviously, Prop 50, intended to flip five U.S. House seats, could pay major dividends in the 2026 midterms, particularly since Republican gerrymandering efforts are currently stalling in Indiana and Kansas.

The big win for Prop 50 will also boost Gavin Newsom’s all-but-certain 2028 presidential candidacy. 

To this Californian, it feels like Newsom has been running for that office for decades. But he deserves whatever juice he gets from his anti-Trump efforts in 2025. Prop 50 represented a master class in persuasion and a strategy executed to perfection. If Newsom’s future campaign is as competent, he’ll be in good shape.

Donald Trump and maga Republicans must pay attention to successful No Kings demonstrations- Donald Trump is a fascist that must be impeached

The value of the ‘No👑 Kings’ protests.  

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win" is widely attributed to Mahatma Gandhi" (1869-1948).

Opinion published in the Boston Globe by Renée Graham.

No, the marches didn’t eradicate the problems that protesters hope will be addressed. But, in community, our souls found the sustenance to keep pushing forward.

Many more than 7 ➕million people nationwide — in states blue and red, in large cities and small towns — participated in “No👑 Kings” rallies and marches on October 18, 2025,  to defend democracy and decry Donald Trump’s authoritarian rule. It was one of the largest single-day protests in American history.

Even before the last echoes of “No 👑Kings” chants, the “What did it achieve❓” postmortems kicked in. 

It was as if any public gathering of dissent that failed to end with Trump and his entire administration’s spontaneous expulsion from the White House could only be judged as a waste of time. (BUT, that was not the point.....the peaceful protest was to show how Donald Trump is not qualified to be president, he is a racist and a fascist....and Gloge columnist Renée Graham missed this salient message in her ambiguous post-mortem of the successful No 👑Kings peaceful demonstrations.) 

This, from a popular Bluesky user, captures that general sentiment: “Can I ask, what did the No 👑Kings protest actually accomplish❓ I mean, in real terms, what have these protests materially changed❓ ".....(please name this Bluesky user, it is public social media, afterall....)

Bu,t believe these peaceful No👑 Kings protests are a cauldron for political energy, and anger, and provides a grass roots path for meaningful change and disruption of the evil 👿Donld Trump Nazi regime.

“I don’t know what the answer is. A lot of people are energized and renewed by it. I really don’t because this is now the 3rd one of these and nothing seems to be changing at the ground level and they all seem to coincide with a major drain of energy and anger at what is happening.”

Nine months into the most destructive, corrupt, incompetent, lawless, and antidemocratic presidency this nation has ever suffered, people are still desperately looking for an antidote. 

Millions want to halt and reverse what’s happening. But other than wishing and hoping that Democrats show up and show out in next year’s midterm elections, they don’t have a clear sense of what can make a difference right now.

So Americns - Democrats, Independents and Republicans have taken to the streets to be seen, and heard and to find community.

I wasn’t at last weekend’s “No 👑Kings” rally in Boston.

But, in every march I’ve participated in, dating back to antiapartheid protests in college, I’ve met people who’ve said some version of this: “I’ve never done something like this before, but it felt important to be here.” They were doing, at the time, what they could do — make colorful signs, leave their homes, and let the world know where they stood.

Alone, they might often seems small. Among the millions in the dense throngs, they felt their own power, perhaps for the first time.

No, the marches didn’t quickly eradicate the problems that protesters want to see addressed. But in community their souls found the sustenance to keep pushing through and forward.

Fascism overwhelms. It breeds mistrust. It is designed to isolate us because of its bad actors, that know it is easier to conquer individuals than to confront a crowd. 

There’s reassurance in finding that you’re not alone and that, yes, things are as bad as — if not worse than — they seem.

Unlike the big-name law firms, tech billionaires, universities, and corporations that can’t capitulate to Trump fast enough, those who stand and march shoulder to shoulder among family, friends, and strangers are the ones saying “no” to this hideous regime.

That’s the importance of community in a moment that feels like an upside-down world without end, everyday.

But this is also crucial — Trump and his sycophants noticed. In fact, they were complaining days before the first protesters hit the streets. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson denigrated “No 👑Kings” as “Hate America”🤥 ( rallies and compared those exercising their patriotic right to dissent as “pro-Hamas.” There were claims that the protesters were “antifa” (which is not a thing, and the GOP knows it❗), and were being funded by George Soros, one of the few billionaires that Republicans despise because he supports Democrats.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas (Cruz to lose) falsely claimed that MSNBC’s video of massive crowds at “No👑 Kings” was actually footage from 2017, protests. 

Trump dismissed the protests as “a joke” and posted a vile AI-generated video of “No 👑Kings” marchers being doused in what looked like feces dropped from a fighter jet with Trump in the cockpit.

But, Donald Trump should also recognize that the most recent protests drew 2 ➕million more people than the ones in June. That momentum isn’t likely to flag. 

Now, Cruz (aka "Cruz to lose") is begging his party to “take political peril seriously.” In an interview on Bloomberg Television, he said, “There is a lot of energy. There is a lot of anger on the left.  And, of course, as Republicans know, elections are dangerous when one side is mobilized and angry.”😠💥

From the civil rights movement to the fight against AIDS, the impacts of political protests are never instantaneous because the corrupt do not yield power easily. But those in the streets aren’t just fighting for power — they’re fighting for their lives and their rights. Those who find the rallies frivolous should spend their energy strategizing and organizing in ways that they find effective. Protests aren’t one-size-fits-all endeavors.

But what happens in these streets can translate into work that’s not easily seen but can be effective in toppling tyranny and corruption. So, too, will the solidarity many will find and need in communities of like-minded strangers joined together to do whatever it takes to save this nation from its president.

This is an excerpt from Outtakes, a Globe Opinion newsletter from columnist Renée Graham. Sign up to get Outtakes in your inbox each.