Month: January 2017

Plurality of Americans Pessimistic About U.S.-China Relations Under Trump

Buck Banks

47%

Of Americans expect U.S.-China relations to deteriorate under the Trump administration, according to a YouGov poll from December. Just 19% expect them to improve, while 17% expect them to remain the same. The same poll asked if it was more important to punish China or maintain good relations, and 59% of respondents said maintaining good relations and only 13% wanted to punish China.

Most Americans Say Artists Have the Option to Refuse to Perform at a President’s Inauguration

Buck Banks

56%

Of American voters say artists should have the option to choose not to perform at the inauguration of a president with whom they disagree, according to a new Morning Consult poll, while 31% say artists should perform if asked. The numbers shifted along party lines, with 77% of Democrats saying artists should have the option, versus 15%. Among Republicans, the split was narrower: 53% to 31%, respectively.

‘Make America Sick Again’

Buck Banks

“It’s a world where health insurance companies are jacking up rates, Americans are losing benefits and illness is racking the nation,” Politico reports.

“This is the apocalyptic picture of America offered by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to describe how he sees the health-care landscape after Republicans gut Obamacare. And he has found a slogan — borrowing from perhaps the most successful branding campaigns in modern political history — that he hopes to turn against the GOP repeal plan: ‘Make America Sick Again.’”

Democrats to Focus Opposition on Eight Trump Cabinet Picks

Buck Banks

8

Number of Trump cabinet picks Democrats will oppose, reports the Washington Post: “Incoming Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) has told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) that Democrats will home in especially on Rex Tillerson, Trump’s choice for secretary of state; Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), his pick for attorney general; Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC), tapped to lead the Office of Management and Budget; and Betsy DeVos, selected to serve as education secretary. … There’s also Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and oversee changes to Obamacare, who is expected to be attacked by Democrats for his support for privatizing Medicare. Andrew Puzder, a restaurant executive set to serve as labor secretary, will face scrutiny for past comments on the minimum wage, among other policies. Steve Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs partner set to serve as treasury secretary, and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Trump’s pick to lead the EPA, will also be the focus of Democratic attacks, aides said.”

Gingrich Worried Trump Team Will ‘Lose Their Nerve’

Buck Banks

Look, they’re going to arrive in Washington, and for them to be successful they have to stake out positions that DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile will not like and the left will hate. I’m worried that when they realize how big the problem is, that they decide that they’re just going to do the best they can and give in.

— Newt Gingrich, telling ABC News that his greatest worry is that President-elect Donald Trump and his team will “lose their nerve” once in office.

Next Four Years Critical for American Journalism

Buck Banks

Given everything we know about Donald Trump from his divisive, demagogic presidential campaign, the next four years will be a stress test for the American system. … The Trump Years promise to be full of Oval Office insults, Twitter attacks and disregard for facts. But rather than viewing the prospect of covering a Trump administration with exhaustion, we should feel invigorated. Because when this time is done, we will look back on it as the best and most important time to be a journalist – not because it was easy, but because it was hard and our sense of mission was clear: to respect the office of the President while holding the person in power accountable against a standard of enduring American values.

— John Avlon