Somewhere between 36% and 40% of Americans still tell pollsters they approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as Chief Exec. I have friends who gasp audibly at those numbers and ask, "What stupid, corrupt thing does that man have to do to lose those supporters?" and my theory is this: They don't approve of him. They can't be pleased that their guy utters/tweets so many stupid statements they must defend and has so many scandals closing in on him. I think it's that they just prefer him to any visible alternative. They approve of most of the agenda they think they're getting and see Trump as a hero for wresting control of the country away from people they abhor like Obama and Hillary.
But I'll bet most of them would rather have someone else giving them that agenda. They loved Trump when he was the guy slapping everyone else around…but now every morning, he's the one getting slapped, often by those close to him. It's getting harder and harder to argue that he's not unstable and that there's no evidence out there of criminal activity. Here are some articles worth reading…
- If you still believe Trump is honest and knows what he's doing, note that you disagree with an awful lot of folks who work closely with him. William Saletan explains.
- Republicans feel they have to come up with some kind of health insurance guarantee for people with pre-existing conditions. It polls way too well to not do that. But every single thing that would make that work is something they said was evil when it was part of Obamacare. So what's their solution? Guarantee that people with pre-existing conditions will be able to buy health insurance. Just don't guarantee that they'll be able to afford it. Jonathan Chait explains.
- Christian Right leaders love to lecture people about morality. They're very quick to condemn people who do not fit their standard for decency…unless, of course, that person might give them a fifth vote on the Supreme Court. Ed Kilgore has the story.
- A man named Ed Whelan runs the Ethics & Public Policy Center, a right-wing organization that now seems to have no ethics and at least one incredibly stupid policy. In his zeal to defend Brett Kavanaugh, Whelan floated a baseless theory that someone else had tried to rape Christine Ford — and with close to zero evidence, accused that someone else by name. Absolutely no one is buying the theory and Whelan has retracted it and apologized…but it's still one of the sleaziest and dumbest attacks ever attempted in politics. Rod Dreher will tell you more about it.
- Some supporters of Mr. Kavanaugh are arguing that even if he did drunkenly try to rape a woman when he was 17, he was a teenager and that mistake shouldn't be held against him for the rest of his life. That might be a valid subject for debate and I'm not sure which side I'd be on. But those making it now are ignoring two points, one being that denying it now under oath (as Kavanaugh has) involves committing the current-day crime of perjury. Should a man who has just committed perjury be placed on the highest court in the land? Secondly, those making this argument are mostly of the mind that a 17-year-old who attempts to commit rape should be forgiven but a 17-year-old who commits the non-violent crime of selling drugs should go straight to friggin' prison for 20+ years and rot there. At least one Kavanaugh supporter — the author of this article — calls out the hypocrisy in holding both views.
- Hey, remember how Trump was going to get North Korea to denuclearize just because the two of them were buddies? As Fred Kaplan notes, that doesn't seem to be happening but we may be in for Trump trying to claim credit for making it happen when it doesn't. That's kind of Trump's style: You don't have to actually do the right thing for Puerto Rico if you can convince your supporters that you did.
Trump might get a bit of a break this coming week when most eyes will be on the sentencing hearing that may result in Bill Cosby wearing an orange "Hello, Friend!" shirt behind bars and recording an album called To Spider, My Fellow Inmate, Whom I Slept With. But hey, that may be a good time for the White House to release some bad news they can no longer contain or to fire someone Donald wants out.