New Polls Show More Voters Rejecting Trump Policies

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1:21Right now, save 25 % on your first order at Zazzle.com. That's Zazzle.com. Make it z-amazing. Welcome to The Beat. I'm Antonia Hilton in this evening for Ari Melber. Today, six months from the midterms, the sputtering economy and an unpopular war, they're dragging down Donald Trump. And I suppose, arguably, the rest of us with him. In the last few hours, the fragile, month-long ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. has started to teeter. The Pentagon says it shot down Iranian missiles and drones aimed at American military and commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz, sinking six Iranian military boats.

2:01The U.S. says it will, quote, guide ships through the strait and that two American ships have passed through. All this comes amid brutal new polling numbers for Trump on the war, the economy and so much more. Today, a new sign the Trump White House knows things aren't looking so good. The Washington Post reporting White House lawyers are prepping staff to deal with oversight from a new Democratic Congress as they, quote, brace for the likelihood of significant Democratic victories in the November midterm elections. A Republican operative telling Politico the warning signs are flashing. In a new Washington Post ABC poll, more Americans disapprove of the job Trump is doing than at any point in his second term.

2:4762 percent. It's not just overall job performance where he's 25 points underwater. It's also cost of living, inflation, economy, taxes, immigration, the border, Iran. Trump has negative ratings on all of them. Gas prices are now approaching$4.50 per gallon, up almost$1.50 since the start of this war. Trump's Republican support also softening. His ratings among Republican-leaning independents have now reached a new low of 56 percent, as the Post notes. Among independents overall, he's at a staggering 25 percent. Trump trying to rally his base by going to a retirement community in Florida. You can see the banner right there behind him.

3:35Golden age for your golden years. A sort of strange slogan to spotlight right now, inadvertently revealing a giant blind spot. As young voters and young parents couldn't be more clear right now. They're anxious about the job market. They're worried they don't have real wealth in the stock market. They're wondering if they're ever going to own their own homes, all while the president touts a golden age of tax cuts designed to benefit the wealthy few. But 15 months into his second term, Trump is still trying to place the blame for all these problems on the Democrats. You know, it's amazing. I come into office and I say, wow, look at how high these prices are.

4:21And the Democrats start screaming affordability, affordability. They're the ones that caused the problem. I'll tell you one thing. They got one good line of... That's one thing I'll say about it. But if these polls are to be believed, then it's the voters who are calling BS. For months, they've been saying it's Trump's economy and they don't like it. Instead of addressing tariffs, taxes, or rising prices, top Trump officials are echoing Trump and blaming Biden. This is just more of the mess we inherited from the Biden administration. The last administration moving cattle, doing everything they could to basically eviscerate the cattle industry.

5:04To be really clear, yeah, I feel prices have gone up. This story was not written because of the Iran war. This story was written years ago because of what Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg. We continue to give relief in other areas, cutting six trillion dollars in regulation that the Biden administration put in place. And joining me now is Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School and writer for The New Yorker magazine and E.J. Dionne, Georgetown professor and New York Times opinion writer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. It is great to have both of you guys with me tonight.

5:38Jelani, I'll start with you, though. So I want to just begin with your basic reaction. I saw you out of the corner of my eye while I was ticking through some of those numbers. What strikes you the most here? So, I mean, one of the things that strikes me about this is that, you know, the word that hasn't popped up in this has been tariffs. that from the outset, when we started with the idea that the Biden economy, that Biden, his candidacy was weighted down before he stepped down, was weighted down by inflation. Kamala Harris inherited some of that when she became the nominee. And we move into a new administration, which is theoretically supposed to tackle that question.

6:20Instead, they pivot to tariffs, which further the difficulty people are having with being able to afford basic food necessities and the like. And then we tack on a war on top of that, an optional war that sends gas prices skyrocketing and the ripple effect that that has on all sorts of things, transportation, groceries that are being transported across the country, etc. We understand how these things are integrally connected in the economy. That is how we wind up here. It has nothing to do with being able to say, oh, this was the previous, you know, 15 months ago. This was the previous administration.

7:01They own this. And this is, you know, what you're seeing is basic avoidance there. Yeah, and they have tried and tried again to pin everything on Biden. But the one thing I would add to what you just spelled out there is it's not even like he introduced tariffs and it made things that were bad already worse. things were actually starting to turn around. There was really like the beginning of an uplift, numbers improving, that he could have, frankly, capitalized, taken all the credit for. Right. And then he sort of torpedoed his own free gift from the Biden administration. Yeah. But also, I think the way in which the tariffs were imposed was wildly haphazard, really based upon retribution for who he liked or didn't like at the moment, imposed tariffs on allies, imposed tariffs on places that we have poor relationships with.

7:47And there was no kind of prevailing logic. And also, you know, there's the counter tariffs that come as a result of this. And so we wind up in a trade war that is, again, completely optional. And none of that is part of the conversation. Nobody, Sean Duffy is not talking about that. When you talk about spirit, you know, none of these things are coming up. That's not the conversation we're having. And it's interesting, but I don't think that voters are necessarily going to be that naive if the poll numbers are to believe. E.J., do you think that the voters can possibly buy any of this and buy that Democrats or Biden specifically is still to blame here?

8:25And I also want your thoughts just on that banner and what that may represent about the president's message right now, specifically going to retirees in Florida, golden age for your golden years at a time when so many people of every age range, they've been screaming about how this economy is not working for them. I was really struck when you showed the clips of the Trump folks blaming Biden and all kinds of other Democrats. I'm surprised they didn't go back to John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman or Franklin Roosevelt. It was all back there. And none of that is working. There was a very interesting poll that came out today from the Generation Lab, Abbott had asked people, whom do you blame for the economy?

9:1041 percent said Trump. Another 9 percent said the Republican Congress. Three percent said Joe Biden and three percent said Democrats in Congress. Interestingly, a big whopping number, 31 percent blame corporate greed. So what you have is a combination of blaming Trump, Republicans in corporate greed and nobody blaming the Democrats. This is Trump's economy now. And I think you really underscored something when you showed those golden years. I think one of the problems in this economy is you can have fabulous stock market numbers, which are particularly good for retirees who have money saved. But what you've got in the concentration of purchasing power is a lot of people at the top being able to spend a lot of money.

9:59Earlier this year, Moody's Analytics had a really powerful number that 20 percent, the top 20 percent of all earners accounted for 60 percent of consumer spending. That means everybody else has a much, much smaller share to spend and they can't afford the housing that's on offer. They can't afford the cars that are on offer. My friend Harold Meyerson had a great piece today. There are only four hard brands of cars left that cost$25 ,000 and under. Things are priced for people with the money to pay for them at the top of the economy. Yeah, there are quite a few people up there, but a lot of people at the bottom, and especially young people, aren't feeling it.

10:45And the frustration among the young at not being able to afford a house and entering a really difficult job market is enormous. And Trump has lost all the ground he gained among young people in the last election. Can I add something to that? Please. You know, EJ, the interesting point here as well is that, you know, those people are not spending money on the same things. When you have all of that spending concentrated at the upper tier of the economy, they're buying luxury goods, they're buying second homes, they're buying, you know, all those things. But when you talk about the things that really drive the economy, when you talk about, you know, the the whether people are buying necessities and buying food stock and those kinds of things, that's where you wind up getting compression.

11:26People are not buying people are shop not shopping in those areas that are vital for the well-being of the mom and pop shop, the small businesses and all those things around that are really the lifeblood of many communities. Jelani and E.J., you're both. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, E.J. Oh, no, I know. I think that's an extremely important point. And it really goes especially to communities that aren't that well off, that do count on that poor consumer spending that you're talking about. Those left out places help build Donald Trump's majority. And now those left out places still feel very left out.

12:03Absolutely. It's shocking at a time when the White House clearly is aware of the alienation and anger over all of this because they are preparing to go to war, basically, with Democrats in the House in the coming months. And they understand the affordability message that is out there. And yet they just continue to double down on things that are creating or worsening this K-shaped economy, which is what the two of you are really describing so vividly here. Jelani and EJ, you're sticking with me, though. We're going to continue this conversation and specifically dig into more on young voters when we're back in just 90 seconds.

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14:01A new warning sign for Donald Trump as he loses his grip over a constituency that helped propel his political comeback. Young men. The Economist notes Trump's macho magic appears to be fading, especially among young men. In 2024, 49 percent of men aged 18 to 29 voted for him. Now only 28 percent approve of him. That's according to the new polling. Influential podcaster Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump in 2024, is now routinely criticizing him. So what do you think of what's going on in Iran? It's terrifying. Yeah. All of it's terrifying. I'm scared of this tariff stuff. Oh, FBI concluded Jeffrey Epstein wasn't running a sex trafficking ring.

14:46That's the gaslightiest gaslighting I've ever heard in my life. It's all so crooked. 86-47 is get rid of 47. Right. Free speech. But it's just like arresting a guy for that is nuts. And we're back with Jelani Cobb and E.J. Dion. E.J., I'll start with you. Is the economist right there? Is Trump's macho appeal falling apart with young guys? It really is, and you're seeing that across the polls. And I think in the last election, there was a sort of analytical trope towards saying this whole thing among young men is explained by culture and macho stuff. They were dissatisfied with the economy back then.

15:28And I think we underestimate how much of a role just this economic discontent played in people's decision, those folks' decision to take another plier on Donald Trump. And the fact not only that he hasn't dealt with those problems, but that he is dealing with other topics that have nothing to do with the core concerns of those younger men is really pushing them away. And, you know, two good examples, the war itself, which is deeply unpopular among young people, and he has made no case for it. And Joe Rogan's commentary, I think, is typical of what a lot of feeling among former Trump voters are.

16:10But the other stuff is this random stuff he's engaged in, like the new ballroom. I personally think the ballroom has been more harmful to Trump than you might think, because it just raises the question in people's minds. I want a job. I want to be able to afford stuff. And he's worried about a ballroom or an arch, a new arch. And I think it betrays a lack of seriousness about the things that these very voters are worried about. Jelani, what do you think this does to our social fabric, especially for young men for whom, you know, so many politicians seem to care right now about their interior lives, their alienation, their loneliness.

16:51But then they do all of these things that make their lives incredibly difficult, their dreams impossible. Well, I mean, the interesting thing about this is that, you know, on the right, they were the people saying, you know, get out, get a job, you know, get married, be responsible, you know, the kind of so-called traditional benchmarks of what masculine achievement or masculine maturity was supposed to be. But nothing is facilitating, actually not even facilitating. It is actively making that more difficult to achieve. And so what I think you do is that you risk breeding a kind of social discontent that only gets worse over time.

17:32We're talking about people who are young in their teens, their early and mid-20s. What happens at the end of this term when these people are further along, maybe in their late 20s and maybe close to 30? They still haven't been able to purchase a home. They still haven't been able to reach the level of development that their parents had reached by that point in life. And then you wind up finding that that sours into what could be a fairly volatile social force. And I think societies know that. You really don't want to do that. You want to actually do the opposite to create the kind of pathways.

18:06And I'll add one other thing in here. While these things we're talking about have been kind of been in blue collar kinds of concerns, it also is going to be more difficult to afford a college education. You know, we've seen things with the cutbacks and the caps and all the things that are happening. College is less attainable as well. So we're closing off avenues to young people and not really offering anything else in its place. Jelani Khan, EJ Dionne, so good to have you both. Thank you. Later, explosive report on alleged widespread use of force at ICE detention centers all across the country.

18:41Also, Trump judicial nominees failing to answer basic constitutional questions. And it's all on camera. Mr. Mark, is President Trump eligible to run for president again in 2028? Is he eligible to run for a third term under our Constitution?

19:04Plus, Trump's Attorney General, Todd Blanche, he's grilled over the Comey indictment, and it didn't go well.

19:28or pill may be right for you. Call 1-833-OZEMPIC or visit ozempic.com to view the medication guide and learn more about Ozempic semaglutide tablets, 9 milligrams, and Ozempic semaglutide injection, 2 milligrams. There's a pill version of Ozempic. Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally breathe. Home to The Rachel Maddow Show. Morning Joe. The briefing with Jen Psaki and more voices you know and trust. MS Now is your source for news, opinion and the world.

20:13Learn more at MS.now. We turn now to Trump's Justice Department charging ahead with retribution prosecutions that keep blurring the line between law enforcement and the president's personal payback. The Atlantic calling it a hyper-aggressive new era for the department under acting attorney general Todd Blanche, saying they are, quote, cutting legal corners in service of getting President Trump the headlines. Under any other president, DOJ's recent activity would represent an astonishing abuse of power. Since Pam Bondi's firing, Blanche has unleashed a wave of investigations targeting Trump's enemies as he guns for the top job.

20:52most recently securing another indictment against former FBI Director James Comey after the first one failed. The case hinging on a social media post of seashells depicting 8647, which they say is a direct threat against President Trump. But now Blanche, without offering any evidence, is suggesting there's more there, that the indictment goes beyond the seashell photo. When pressed on this during Meet the Press, Blanche appears to admit Trump's DOJ is not applying the law fairly. On Amazon.com, we looked this up. There are dozens of products with the same terminology. We're showing it right here.

21:338647 being sold and purchased right now. Should individuals selling or buying 8647 merchandise be concerned that they're going to be prosecuted by the DOJ? This isn't about a single incident. OK, this isn't. I mean, of course not. That's posted constantly. That phrase is used constantly. So that phrase is used constantly, yet only Comey gets indicted for it. This indictment is getting strong pushback, of course, from Democrats and even some skepticism from Republicans. James Comey is a political opponent of the president's. Todd Blanch wants to keep this job. If this whole case is based on a picture in the sand of a North Carolina beach, it again makes no sense to me.

22:21I can't find any evidence where 86 is used as a call for violence. I think it is the weaponization of the Department of Justice to go after Trump's enemies. I'm not a fan of his. I think you should go to prison, quite honestly. But for this, I don't know. This, as the U.S. attorney in D.C., Janine Pirro, signaled that prosecutors could revive the investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell even after they just dropped the case last month. Joining me now is Maya Wiley, former SDNY civil prosecutor and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Maya, it's great to see you. Good to see you, Antonia.

23:02So you heard it there. Blanche is insisting that there is more here than just seashells on the beach. Basically, they didn't spend 11 months investigating just a picture on Instagram. What do you imagine is there that we don't yet know about? You're not buying it? I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it for a couple of reasons. One is that Donald Trump promised retribution. James Comey was always very high on his list. You already had the first attempt to indict Comey on something totally unrelated to this. And we just heard, at least in one news story last week, that from an unnamed source at the White House that Todd Blanche was doing a great job.

23:45If he just kept doing what he's doing, going after essentially, my words, not the articles, but Trump's enemies, then he's good for the job that he's auditioning for. And that was related to the Southern Poverty Law Center's indictment, which looks pretty flimsy, too. But I think the point here is if you want to survive a motion to dismiss this kind of indictment, you do have to put enough evidence in it to survive. I mean, well, I mean, does it help you? Does it help you, Maya, to avoid having your your case dismissed if you go on national television and you basically admit that when other people say 8647, you are not taking it that seriously?

24:29I'm no lawyer. I'm just wondering. Unless you're going to amend the supersede, as we call it, but change this indictment by adding more information. No, you're actually admitting that you don't have enough. Because, look, what Todd Blanche is right about is you have to take all of the circumstances into account. But where the Department of Justice has prosecuted people for threatening Donald Trump or President Biden when he was former President Joe Biden was when people said things like, I'm going to kill Donald Trump or I'm going to burn Mar-a-Lago down when you're in it. Things that are very hard to interpret as anything else.

25:13And that's because we do have this Constitution. We still have it. And it still has an amendment in it called the First Amendment. And it still protects free speech. And political speech is among the highest you protect. In other words, 86ing a president is commonly understood as we don't like him, don't vote for him. But so unless you have a lot of other evidence that points to the fact that it should be understood as a threat of violence, no, you got a flimsy case. I have to ask you, too, Maya, about what's happening right now with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The White House posted this, it appears to be, AI-generated image of Jerome Powell being, you see it right there, tossed into a dumpster.

26:00And then Jeanine Pirro, she was on CNN making clear that he is not actually off the hook after it appeared the whole reason they she announced that they were going to stop going after Powell was basically because they wanted Senator Tom Tillis to move through their preferred replacement, Kevin Warsh. So do you just remember something else about that, Jerome Powell? And I mean, you had a federal judge who thought it was so blatantly, obviously political that he said, I am not going to let your grand jury subpoenas to the Fed go forward. Right. I mean, and he said it in a 27 page scathing opinion that it's clearly persecution, not legitimate prosecution.

26:44If you're Jerome Powell, are you taking that post that the White House, that the president shared in whatever may come next from U.S. Attorney Pirro? Well, certainly I can't speak for him, but I would say I hope that Jerome Powell does what he did the first time, which is say, I'm not going anywhere. You don't have the power to do this. And look, remember what this is about, refurbishing the offices of the Fed? You've got the White House shows up in images we post on this and other networks all the time, and Donald Trump destroyed a whole wing of it. But we have an indictment about refurbishing offices.