Wheels falling off the Trump train before his first 100 days, polls show

Happy to have you here. So here's the headline tonight at The Washington Post.

Are things falling apart for Trump? About 100 days in, the signs are almost uniformly negative for the second term Trump project. Very provocative headline there.
Are things falling apart for Trump? I don't know, but let's look. Let's look at the evidence from the Post tonight.
Multiple polls this week showed Trump hitting new lows. His approval rating has been double digits underwater in surveys from the Pew Research Center, where he's minus 19, the Economist YouGov poll, where he's minus 13, the Reuters Ipsos poll, where he's minus 11, and now Fox News, where he is also minus 11.
Trump was already more unpopular at this point in his presidency than any modern president not named Donald Trump. He's now flirting with falling below where he was even at this point in his historically unpopular first term.
Quote, perhaps more troubling for Trump, most of his major policies are even more unpopular than he is. That suggests his image is largely buoyed by loyalists who might not like what they are seeing from him, but they still say they support him for now.
Quote, around six in 10 Americans have been critical of both his tariffs and Elon Musk's roughshod efforts to cut government programs and employees. In one poll this week, Americans said by a nearly two-to-one proportion that the Trump administration should abide by a court order to facilitate the return of a man wrongly deported to prison in El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
That's a court order the administration is apparently flouting. Polling also suggests Americans strongly reject the Trump administration sending hundreds of men to the brutal El Salvador prison without due process, as well as Trump's efforts to deport student visa holders.
Quote, in some, in some, it's all an increasing mess. Trump might try to muddle through, including by pressing forward on tariffs and risking a constitutional crisis by challenging the courts to actually make him abide by their orders.
But with the courts asserting themselves and the public taking an increasingly dim view of what he is doing, political gravity is taking a heavy toll. It took a little less than 100 days.
Yeah, well, when you put it like that way, it does sound bad. It does sound like things are falling apart for Trump.
But you know, we've also got the receipts, like we've got the actual numbers. So you don't just have to trust the characterization of them in the Washington Post tonight.
We can actually just look. Let's start with the Fox News poll.
Why not? I should say that while Fox News on TV is all pro-Trump all the time, it's also true that their polling unit is just a normal polling unit that does normal scientifically sound polling. So you hear Fox News poll doesn't mean it's like a Foxy poll.
It just means it's a poll that's done by the Fox News organization. That said, this is what they're turning up right now as Trump hits his 100 days benchmark.
And it is really, really not good for Trump. Do you think the Trump administration has been competent and effective in managing the federal government? No, by a nine point margin.
Do you approve of the job

Donald Trump is doing as president? No, by an 11 point margin. In the long run, do you think Donald Trump's policies will help the country? No, by an 11 point margin.
So, you know, not positive on the big picture for President Trump. Well, what about the other president? Do you approve of the job Elon Musk is doing working with Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency? Fox News poll respondents say no, resoundingly, by a 17-point margin.
Do you approve of the way Donald Trump is handling the economy? No, by an 18-point margin. 18 points on the economy.
Do you think Donald Trump's policies are helping the U.S. economy? No, by a 22-point margin.
Do you think imposing tariffs on products imported from other countries helps the U.S. economy? No, by a 23-point margin.
Do you approve of the way Trump is handling tariffs? No, 25-point margin. Do you approve of the way Trump is handling inflation? No, 26-point margin Oh, and here's a really good one.
This is again, the Fox News poll. If President Trump thinks the Supreme Court is overstepping its constitutional authority, can he ignore the court? No, by a 49 point margin.
So that's the Fox News poll. Obviously, that's all terrible news for Trump.
The others are worse. Here's the Economist YouGov poll.
They pulled on a bunch of policy issues, asking people not just how they feel about how Trump is handling himself generally, but how he's doing on basically every issue area of policy. And the answer to every single one of those questions was basically the same answer.
I mean, look, I'll just show you what I mean. Do you approve of Trump's handling of jobs in the economy? No, by a 12-point margin.
Do you approve of Trump's handling of trade? No, 16-point margin. Do you approve of his handling of inflation? No.
Do you approve of his handling of immigration? No. Do you approve of Trump's handling of foreign policy? No.
National security? No. Education? No.
Crime? How about crime? No. Not crime either.
Do you believe Donald Trump should bring Kilmer Abrego Garcia back to the United States? Yes. Yes.
Americans say Trump should bring Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.
and they say so emphatically by a 22 point margin. Quote, since President Trump took office again this year, have his actions on the economy helped or hurt the United States? Hurt by a 33 point margin.
Do you think Donald Trump has the temperament to be the president? No, by a 10-point margin. Are you confident in Donald Trump's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis? No, 13-point margin.
Are you satisfied with what Trump has accomplished in his first 100 days as president? No, 15-point margin. Trump has been president for about 100 days.
Has he performed better or worse

than you expected when he became president? Worse by a 17 point margin. Since President Trump took office, has his behavior in the United States, excuse me, has his behavior in the White House helped or hurt the United States? Not just the economy, but has he hurt the nation?

Hurt.

Has he helped or hurt?

He has hurt the nation, Americans say, by a 24-point margin.

Other than that, Mr. President, how's your first 100 days been?

A couple more.

And this is interesting.

NBC News has brand new polling on young people's views. This is people age 18 to 29.
People age 18 to 29 disapprove of Trump's handling of inflation and the cost of living by a 39-point margin. People age 18 to 29 disapprove of Trump deporting people for participating in protests about Israel's actions in Gaza.

They disapprove of that by a 52-point margin.

And look at this.

Should people in the U.S. who hold student visas, work visas, and green cards be given due process protections when facing criminal or civil charges?

Should they get due process protections?

92% say yes.

92%. I don't know.

Maybe they might be overestimating the appeal

of performatively cruel, tyrannical secret police

snatch-and-grabs off American streets.

Yeah, funny.

They thought Americans would love that.

Turns out Americans do not love that. Okay, one more.
This is the Pew poll. And this one is put together a little different than the others in terms of the type of questions they're asking.
And you'll see what I mean when I give you these questions. But again, I'll tell you the bottom line here, the answers for Trump are all the same as those ones that I just read.

None of it is good for him.

Just look at this.

This is the Pew poll.

When it comes to cuts the Trump administration is making to federal departments and agencies,

would you say that the Trump administration's approach will save Americans money in the long run?

No.

No, by a seven-point margin.

Do you approve of the Trump administration's actions to end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the federal government? No. No, by a seven-point margin.
Do you approve of the Trump administration's actions to end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in the federal government? No, by a nine-point margin. Do you approve of the cuts the administration is making to federal departments and agencies? No, by an 11-point margin.
When it comes to cuts the Trump administration is making to federal departments and agencies, do you think the administration's approach will make the government run better? No, by a 15-point margin. Okay, so this is all very bad, right? Well, how about this Trump signature issue, right? The big splash he wants to make, the thing he wants to be known for, the thing he says is the most beautiful word in the English language, the thing he celebrated was something he called Liberation Day.
How do we feel about that? Because that's where Donald Trump thinks he's best positioned with the American public. Do you approve of the Trump administration's substantially increasing tariffs on goods imported from most countries that trade with the United States? Do you approve of Trump's tariffs? No, by a 20-point margin.

He does in the Pew poll get one big yes, though, a really big one.

The question is, if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that a Trump administration action is

illegal, do you think the Trump administration has to follow the court's ruling and stop

that action?

Americans say yes, by a 79-point margin. So yeah, what was the headline in the post tonight again? Are things falling apart for Trump? Yep.
Uh-huh. Yep.
On every front. And I mean that the top-line takeaways in terms of how the country feels about him, it's just brutal.
I mean, in that Pew poll, his overall approval, disapproval number is negative 19. He is 19 points underwater while he is still in his first hundred days in office.
He is 19 points underwater in terms of overall approval versus disapproval. That's crazy.
This is the headline Pew put on its article presenting the results of its poll, which makes it seem like even they were a little shocked. Quote, Trump's job rating drops.
Key policies draw majority disapproval as he nears 100 days. Outlets like CNBC are pulling results from that poll to show not just how bad things are for Trump right now as he approaches 100 days, but also how quickly he is dropping over time.
Quote, Americans' confidence in President Donald Trump's ability to manage the U.S. economy has plummeted since he has regained the White House.
According to a new Reuters-Ipsos survey, just 37 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy. That's a rating lower than at any point during his first term in office.
A new Pew Research Center survey also found that less than half of U.S. adults, 45 percent, have confidence in Trump's ability to make good decisions about the economy.
That represents a 14-point drop from the same poll in November of last year. And again, that's whether people have confidence in Trump's ability to make good decisions about the economy.
He's well below 50 percent. He's at 45 percent.
But that's a 14-point drop just from November. CNBC, quote, those polls follow a CNBC All-America Economic Survey released earlier this week, which also registered Trump's lowest economic approval ratings of his entire White House career.
Ta-da! He is tanking. He is tanking on the stuff he wants to be known for and on everything else.
And he is tanking in general and he is tanking in the specific. And the most radical stuff he has been floating, hinting that he might potentially do, right, is the most radically unpopular stuff that they are polling.
I mean, what was that last result we put up from the Pew poll? Can we put up that last? Yes.

Can Trump defy a Supreme Court ruling? 88% of the country says no. No, he cannot defy a Supreme Court ruling.
Only 9% say yes, he can. And, you know, it's not the same thing, but I should mention that 9% is also 9%.
9% is also the proportion of Americans who told YouGov this week that they have a favorable view of the Black Plague. So that's the demographic we're working with here.
9% in favor of what Trump keeps hinting at, right, that he'll defy the courts and just become a full-on dictator. 9 percent also in favor of the Black Plague, which killed like, you know, 50 percent of the population of Europe.
Nine percent of Americans think that's good. You know, and of course, there's no reason to think those are the same nine percent of people, but you do kind of wonder, don't you? Things are going very, very dramatically south for Trump with the american public in truly overwhelming numbers and over the widest possible breadth of issues and you know correlation is not causation but that is happening at the same time that things are going south for trump in terms of him just being stopped when he's trying to do stuff.
Americans of various stripes and in various positions associated with various institutions just stopping him from doing what he's trying to get away with. This week, for example, Trump has been blocked by two more judges, one in Colorado, one in New York, both prohibiting him from using the Alien Enemies Act from the freaking 1700s to try to disappear any more people without giving them the opportunity to contest what he's calling them and what he's doing to them.
In New York, a federal district court judge extended his earlier order blocking Trump on this issue. He said in his ruling this week, quote, this is not the Inquisition.
It is not medieval times. This is the United States of America.
Yeah, speaking of the Black Death. Now, yet another federal judge has ordered Trump to return to the United States, yet another man who Trump sent to that prison in El Salvador.
Everybody in the country has now been following closely this case of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia. The administration is still trying to dodge and delay its response to the Supreme Court's directive that Mr.
Abrego-Garcia needs to be returned to the United States. But now there's another man.
Now a Maryland federal judge has ordered that Trump must return yet another young man who he sent to El Salvador, a man identified only by the name Christian in court proceedings. Simultaneously, Frederica Wilson is the latest Democratic member of Congress to show up bodily at one of these black hole sites where Trump has been shipping people.
We spoke earlier this week on this program with Congressman Troy Carter, who led a delegation of U.S. members of Congress and one senator down to the two Trump administration prisons in Louisiana.
Now, Frederica Wilson, the Democratic congresswoman from Florida, has gone to another one of these facilities, the one in South Florida that's the so-called Chrome immigration prison in Miami. And it's important that she is there.
Part of not disappearing people is making sure that the places people are taken to stay on the map and get high profile visitors and oversight and press attention. And Democratic members of Congress, including Federica Wilson today, are starting now to make that happen.
Trump lost in court again this week on his transgender military ban. He's now asking the United States Supreme Court to take it up.
Trump lost in court this week on denying passports to transgender people as well. Trump lost in court this week on trying to shut down the Voice of America media service.
Trump lost in court this week on his bizarre executive order trying to mount a federal takeover of elections. This is, you might remember this, this is where he said he wanted to hand over all state voter rolls to his top campaign donor, Elon Musk.

Because, yeah, what could possibly go wrong with that?

That was blocked today in court.

Trump lost today in court as well on denying so-called sanctuary cities and counties federal funds. Trump lost in court today on trying to impose ideological anti-diversity punishments on American school districts.
And to add insult to injury, Trump also today got to enjoy the spectacle of the Republican governor of North Dakota vetoing a North Dakota, excuse me, vetoing a Trump-inspired North Dakota book ban that would have sentenced librarians in North Dakota to prison terms for violating that ban. He vetoed it.
Republicans in the state legislature passed it, but he vetoed it. That's too far, even for the Republican governor of North Dakota, who can probably read a poll.
Yeah, that's how it's going over with the Republican governor of North Dakota. How do you think it's going over with the American public that they're trying to pull this book ban stuff at places like the U.S.
Naval Academy in Annapolis? This was St. Augustine, Florida.
Yesterday, people protesting against Trump's cuts to the national parks. Protect our national parks.
We love our national park rangers. Protect our public lands.
This was Modesto, California, on the left side of your screen, at the offices of Republican Congressman Tom McClintock. On the right side of your screen, that's Pueblo, Colorado, at the offices of republican congressman jeff heard in both cases yesterday people protesting against trump and the republicans planned huge cuts to medicaid this was des moines iowa iowans rally for the rights of the deported people rallying in des moines on the left side of your screen and on the right side of your screen people rallying at the Federal Building in Rochester, New York, in both cases telling Trump to obey court orders to stop disappearing people without due process.
This was the courthouse in Charlottesville, Virginia. On the left side of your screen, people turned up there furious yesterday to protest after Trump's agents arrested immigrants inside the courthouse yesterday.
And on the right side of your screen, that's Burlington, Vermont, where people again protested at the federal building in support of Vermont resident Mohsen Madawi, who was arrested, you will remember, at his U.S. citizenship test.
How's Trump doing turning around public opinion about his behavior in office? Well, he's cutting meals on wheels for the elderly and disabled, dismantling the agency that does that. Trump is trying to have millions of people who are alive legally classified as dead in the Social Security Administration without any due process and without any process in place for these people to correct it if and when they can show up at a Social Security office to try to prove that they are alive.
Trump is apparently keeping in place his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who the AP is reporting tonight, installed an insecure internet connection in his office, a public-facing insecure internet connection in his office that bypassed Pentagon security protocols, apparently specifically so he could use a commercial messaging app for texting because maybe he didn't understand why his cell phone wasn't working inside the Pentagon for his texting habits. Oh, weird.
How come your cell phone isn't working good in there? Better rig something up to bypass security.

He's turning out to be a real peach on national security.

Trump is apparently keeping him in place.

Trump tonight has signed an executive order targeting, apparently trying to criminalize,

the largest fundraising platform for Democratic political candidates and causes in the United States. We're going to speak exclusively with the CEO of that platform, ActBlue, in just a moment.
We're also going to speak tonight with a member of Congress who led her constituents in what appears to have been a successful campaign to keep open her district's Social Security field office, which Trump was inexplicably going to close.

So, are things falling apart for Donald Trump before his first hundred days are even up?

Are they? Survey says yes. But the American people are pushing very, very hard to make

very sure of it as well. And we've got lots to get to tonight on that front.
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It's important that individuals understand that in our system of justice, that there are judges independently analyzing all that we put forth. They make a determination as to whether or not our cause of action, our claim has any merit based on the law.
Politics stops at the door. That's this week on Why Is This Happening.
Search for Why Is This Happening wherever you're listening right now and follow. Okay, I have to show you something.
It's not like a scary thing. I'm not saying like, oh, this is going to be gory.
You might want to look away. It's just that I could try to describe what you're about to see.
But if I just try to describe it, you won't believe me. It won't prepare you.
You just have to see it. Ready? Here it is.
Have dinner with President Trump. Okay, first of all, who's that guy? Is that what they think? Is that what they think Donald Trump looks like? Yeah, look at that big hand.
I don't think that's, quote, join President Donald J. Trump at his private members-only club in Washington, D.C.
for dinner. They are talking, I should tell you, about his golf club, which is not actually in D.C.
It's in Northern Virginia, but who's counting? How can you join this private exclusive dinner with the president and his big hand? Simple. You just have to buy his meme coin.
What is a meme coin? It doesn't matter. It is a thing Donald Trump advertises that makes him money

if lots of people invest in it. He personally makes that money.
It's just personal income for him

while he is serving as president of the United States. His meme coin thing is called,

actually, I don't even know how to spell it. I don't know how to pronounce it.

It's a dollar sign in front of the word Trump. Money Trump.
Strump. We'll call it strump.
The top 220 strump owners will be joining President Trump for a gala dinner. Our leaderboard updates hourly in real time.
Your strump coin count puts you in the running. So the way this works is the more of Donald Trump's coin thing you buy, which is essentially just a way for you to give him money, the higher up the leaderboard you rise.
And if you get all the way to the top of the leaderboard, then you get to join the president of the United States for a private dinner at his club. They even have a helpful diagram if you're not getting it, right? There's President Trump and there's you.
Will you be having dinner with the sitting president of the United States? And again, this isn't a political fundraising thing. This is just to give Trump personally, to personally give the president money that he gets to keep for himself.
As of last night, this website also included this, quote, for the top 25 coin holders, you were invited to an exclusive reception before dinner with your favorite president. Plus, we have separately, we have separately by us, what does that mean, arranged for a special VIP White House tour for you.
So make sure you stay in town. so if you get to be one of the top 25 people, if you buy really a lot of Donald Trump's coin things, meaning you pay Donald Trump a lot of money, you will get special VIP access to the White House.
Helpfully at the top of the page, you can click on how to buy, which takes you right to this page. Well, yeah, there's that guy again.

Boy, his hand looks big there too.

And these helpful buttons, buy now with debit card, buy now with crypto.

By the way, if you have any questions about this, there is an FAQ, a frequently asked

questions section at the bottom.

It has really, really helpful stuff like this.

Question, how do I know this is real? Answer, this is 100% real. Oh, okay then.
I mean, my lawyer told me to check, but now I feel... Now, I will tell you that that is what the website for this dinner with Donald Trump thing looked like as of last night.
As of tonight, all references to this White House tour thing have been removed. Now it says for the top 25 coin holders, we have separately by us, by us, arranged for a special VIP tour.
But it doesn't say of what? A special VIP tour of something. Not sure.
Washington, D.C. has lots of, you know, parks.
Maybe they're going to tour like, I don't know, the airport or something. Who knows? We have reached out to the White House as well as this website advertising this dinner sweepstakes thing to ask about that change.
We have not heard back. We'll let you know if we do.
The Washington Post reports tonight that unnamed buyers have already poured tens of millions of dollars into Trump's coin thing since this contest to have dinner with him was announced. Quote, the coin's price has surged more than 30 percent since the announcement, which is excellent personal financial news for the president.
The Post says that their analysis indicates that, quote, several of the coin's recent acquirers may not be Americans. The account at the top of the leaderboard right now, with a stake worth more than $13 million on paper, is registered by a crypto exchange founded in China, whose global advisory board does include a billionaire.
A billionaire who previously invested tens of millions of dollars in a different Trump crypto venture, and then miraculously had a U.S. government investigation into him called off.
Weird. But now anyone anywhere in the world can just buy themselves dinner with the president of the United States by goosing the value of Donald Trump's meme coin thing and, not incidentally, putting tons of money right into the pocket of the sitting president of the United States.
And so, of course, of course, right as he is doing that, Donald Trump announced today that he is sicking the U.S. Justice Department on the largest fundraising platform for his political opposition, the Democratic Party.
He is directing his attorney general to investigate the Democratic fundraising powerhouse, ActBlue, for what else? Supposed unlawful contributions from foreign nationals. Really? ActBlue basically is the fundraising infrastructure of the Democratic Party.
If you have ever donated to a Democratic politician at any level, you have likely done it through ActBlue. So this new executive order targeting ActBlue is essentially trying to make it at least seem like a criminal enterprise to be part of the political opposition to Donald Trump, in this case, by fundraising for the political opposition.
The president of ActBlue joins us live here next. Stay with us.
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Tonight, after Donald Trump directed the attorney general to investigate ActBlue, the largest fundraising platform for the Democratic Party and Democratic causes, the top Democratic member of Congress serving on the House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin, said this in response. He said, quote, what a striking development.
Foreign nationals are spending millions on Trump owned cryptocurrencies right now in apparent hopes of buying their way out of federal criminal investigations through undisclosed payments. So it's rich indeed for Americans to read now that Trump has launched a big initiative to, quote, crack down on foreign influence in American politics.
With one purpose, crippling the fundraising platform of his political opponents. Today's presidential decree targeting the campaign infrastructure of the Democratic Party with precisely zero evidence of wrongdoing is the kind of edict you would expect from a power-mad dictator in a banana republic.
That's the reaction tonight from Congressman Jamie Raskin after the president did sign a bizarre executive order targeting the main Democratic fundraising platform, ActBlue. Joining us exclusively now is the CEO and president of ActBlue, Regina Wallace-Jones.
Ms. Wallace-Jones, thank you very much for being here.
I know it's been a pretty intense day. Thank you for having me.
Indeed it has. I gather you've been expecting some kind of order, some kind of action from Trump for some time.
Is this what you expected? Yeah, actually, we have been engaged, obviously, in deep cooperation with several congressional committees for the last year and a half that have been looking into the fundraising practices of ActBlue. The escalation that happened over the last couple of days was something I would not say we were expecting, but are certainly not surprised by the actions that are taking place here.
And the one thing that I wanted to do, and which I feel really grateful for, is that you've allowed me to come here and say to the over 28 million donors who have given on ActBlue and to the 40,000 entities who raise on ActBlue, that we are here to fight for you and with you to continue to preserve an institution that we have all grown to love, appreciate, and respect. And that there is nothing that Donald Trump has put out in front of, President Trump, excuse me, has put out in the atmosphere that we feel worried about.
We are undeterred, unbothered, and we will continue to do the work that we are doing to raise for democratic wins. How will you fight back against this order? Is this something where you sort of want to see what the attorney general does, want to see what the practical impact of it is before you act, or do you expect to go to court right away? We have no expectations for how this will unfold.
It's a memorandum, and it was effectively guiding the attorney general to look into our activities and report back to the Council of Presidents, which is an unusual outcome for an investigation of this sort. But it is one that we will cooperate with, however, in whatever pace it moves.
And the thing that I know about ActBlue is that we are an organization that has consistently been the most transparent, the most reliable, the most fraud-free, the most effective in the work that we do in democratic fundraising. And we expect the Attorney General to appreciate that as they're looking into our practices, and we're expecting her to report back exactly the goodness that we know about ourselves to the Council of Presidents when she moves.
You know, you mentioned 28 million donors. That's a huge proportion of the American public that has made a donation of one kind or another through ActBlue.
40,000 different entities, campaigns, and causes. For people who may have donated to ActBlue, through ActBlue, for people who have maybe benefited from them, have been associated with an entity or campaign that has raised funds on it.
If people want to support you as you try to maneuver through this experience with the Trump administration, are you asking people to do anything in particular to support you? You know, one of the interesting things about ActBlue is a large part of what makes ActBlue move and operate as an organization is actually not payment processing or the transactional processing that's happening. That's actually a small percent of what makes us move or a smaller percent of what makes us move.
The way that we survive is by the tips that donors offer to ActBlue upon giving to the candidates and the cause that they

are making donations to. And so this is something that has been true for ActBlue from its very beginning.
This is something that we continue to double down on. And this is something that the faithful donors inside of the ActBlue ecosystem have consistently done.
So we are asking at this time that donors do two things. One is not forget about the campaigns and causes that we are collectively fighting for.
It is 2025, we've got elections that are happening this year. We have bigger elections that are happening next year.
And we have causes that we can continue to support no matter what, that we not forget to do that. And as our donors are doing that, as donors are doing that, that they not forget that the way that we survive is by the kind and generous tips that they offer to the organization.
So that's how we survive. And that is something that we continue to ask for.
The larger and most important thing, however, is that we want all of us to acknowledge that this is not about acting at all. It is about shutting out opposition and closing down the democratic process to words and voices and contributors and candidates that would otherwise be in opposition to President Trump.
And we recognize that for what it is. And we want to continue to make sure that we enable the voices of democracy to act with urgency, to act with care, to act with tremendous support, as they always have, and to continue to make the candidates and the causes that we're fighting for valiant and victorious in their work through the donations that are coming through the ActBlue platform.

Yeah, if there is one sort of silver lining here, it's the president has made it very, very, very clear

that the reason he is targeting ActBlue is because ActBlue is the fundraising infrastructure of what he sees as his political opposition.

There's the transparency there is at least a blessing.

Regina Wallace-Jones, CEO and president of ActBlue, thank you so much for your time. Stay in touch with us.
We'd love to stay apprised. Will do.
Thank you. All right.
More news ahead. Stay with us.
People are out there today in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Hands off Social Security.
Compassion matters.. Hands-off Social Security.
Senior citizens in their 80s and 90s gathering today in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, outside their local Social Security office in Western Mass. Lakewood, Colorado today, outside Denver.
Same message. Hands-off Social Security.
People all around the country today came out specifically to their local Social Security offices to try to defend them from Donald Trump. And also to say thank you, Social Security Administration staff from St.
Petersburg, Florida. Hands off.
In the back there, that person reaching all the way up. Social Security is a lifeline for millions.
There are protests like this standing up for Social Security at 58 different Social Security field offices today in 23 different states. At those field offices, people also hand-delivered this letter addressed to the head of the Social Security Administration.
It's signed by 40 Democratic senators, more than 60 Democratic members of the House. It asks for a commitment from the Trump administration that they're not going to close any field offices.
And if they are planning to close them, they need to be clear in advance about which ones and why. This is actually something that came up on our show last night.
Last month, you may remember, the White House posted online a list of more than 400 federal buildings they said they were going to sell off. And some of them were very high-profile places, like, you know, the headquarters of the Justice Department.
But the list also included Social Security field offices. But then they deleted that list from the internet just 24 hours after they posted it.
Oops. So are you guys planning to sell off the Social Security field offices or not? It has been a horrifying open question for over a month now, especially for people around the country who rely on those offices.
They have been fairly and reasonably panicked about what might happen if the White House shuts those offices down. Take Saginaw, Michigan, which has one of those Social Security field offices the Trump administration was apparently going to close down and sell off for parts, or maybe they're not.

Just days after the Trump administration made the announcement that that was one of the field offices

they were going to shut down, people in Saginaw showed up in person to try to do something about it.

They marched through town. They marched to the Social Security field office in Saginaw

to tell the Trump administration to keep their hands off.

They were back at it this week.

This was Tuesday, again, outside the

Social Security office in Saginaw. 18 months ago, on November 4th, 2023, I suffered a stroke, which resulted in me being blind.
it's been a very difficult 18 months and when you're suddenly faced with blindness at the age of 60, everything's turned upside down. But there was one thing that I knew I had and that was Social Security.
While I appreciate all the technologies, I didn't prepare to become blind. And so there is so much technology.
And what they want to do to close this office? Are you kidding me? This is going to devastate our community. And it's going to hurt people like me.
Because if I run into a problem, I know there's people right here at Social Security who will meet with me. It's so easy to get in and out of that building.
And so I say to Trump, Musk, keep your chainsaw away from Social Security and quit hurting the people most in need in our community. Keep your chainsaw away from Social Security.
That press conference was called by Congresswoman Kristen McDonnell-Rivett. She represents Saginaw, Michigan.
She says more than 200,000 of her constituents rely on Social Security benefits. She has been trying to get a straight answer from the White House about the plan for this field office in her district.
She wrote to the Trump administration in March after the news first broke that this was one of the places they were going to sell off. She asked what the White House had planned for this field office.
She never heard back. She wrote to them again this week.
She also organized that press conference. After that pressure from her and from her constituents on the ground in Saginaw, we now have a response from the White House about that Social Security field office in Saginaw.
According to a spokesperson for the Trump administration, quote, there are no plans to permanently close the Saginaw, Michigan field office. Oh, joining us now is Congresswoman Kristen McDonald-Rivett, the Michigan Democrat who represents Saginaw.
Congresswoman McDonald-Rivett, I really appreciate you making time to be here tonight. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Why do you think it took so long to get a clear answer from the White House about this field office in your district? You know, we see a lot of things that are coming and going continuously, so much chaos with this administration.
But before I get into that, I really want to level set about what's happening in mid-Michigan. So if we start, 80% of our jobs in Saginaw, Flint, Bay City, pay less than $50,000 a year.
So think about what that means, take-home pay on $50,000 and your ability to save for retirement. And then understanding that 60% of the district is over the age of 50.
So when we suddenly saw the cuts to Social Security, elimination of the staff, talk of eliminating the phone services, all of the pieces that we have hearing after being told over and over again that Social Security was off the table, my office was bombarded with phone calls of very frightened people.

You know, Rachel, if you came to my district and went through a McDonald's drive-thru, chances are a 70-year-old is going to hand you your Big Mac because people here are really financially struggling. And what they need is reliability of the services that they planned, of the benefits like Social Security that they paid into and expected to be there for them as they went into retirement.
So didn't get a great response from the letter, sent another letter. We called, we marched, and finally on Tuesday held a press conference and just said, enough is enough.
And I am thrilled that, you know, we have that victory. The White House came out and said they are not going to close this incredibly important office in my district.
One of the things we've been following around the country is people's difficulties with the Social Security Administration because of all of the cuts that have been made by Trump to the agency, both in terms of staffing and in terms of services and things like their technical systems, their website, their phone lines. Have people in your district also been having those kinds of troubles, even though apparently the field office is now saved? The field office is safe.
We need to protect the people inside the field office. We have to have people that can answer the phones and take the visits.
I, you know, I did a I did a town hall a couple of weeks back and was just so struck by a senior who called in and said, look, Social Security is my only source of income. I'm disabled.
I don't really use the Internet. and I just don't, I have issues and I can't get through.
And we have seen wait times double and triple as a result of the cuts that have been made to social security. It's a promise that we have made.
And when you put that on top of the threats to Medicaid and other benefits that are going and federal departments that no longer have people that are there and responsive and can answer the phone. It's a really scary time for the people in mid-Michigan.
Congresswoman Kristen McDonald-Rivett of Michigan, thank you for helping us understand and thanks to your constituents for everything they did with you here on this fight.

It's good to have you here.

Yeah.

Thank you so much.

It just really proves that when we push back, we can win.

That's right.

That's right.

Boy, is that right.

We'll be right back.

That does it for me for now.

I'll see you again tomorrow.