Latest news with #HarryTruman
The Hill
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
After the Epstein fallout, Republicans are finally finding their spines
As President Trump hits the six-month mark in his second term, only a minority of Americans approve of his dismal job performance. His approval ratings will fall even lower as his incompetence, dishonesty, cruelty, destructive policies and efforts to rule like a dictator become ever more apparent. The most recent RealClearPolitics average of 12 polls published between July 6 and July 20 finds that 45.5 percent of Americans approve of Trump's overall job performance, while 52.1 percent disapprove. Going back to 1945, Gallup polls found only three presidents with worse average approval ratings during their terms of office: Harry Truman (45.4 percent), Trump during his first term (41.1 percent) and Joe Biden (42.2 percent). Jimmy Carter's approval rating was tied with Trump's, while the remaining post-World War II presidents had higher average approval ratings, led by John F. Kennedy (70.1 percent). If Trump's approval ratings keep sinking, as I believe they will, we can look for growing numbers of congressional Republicans to jump ship, fearing they will sink with him when they are next up for reelection. That means more Republican lawmakers will stop acting like Trump's little lapdogs, kept on a tight leash, following his every command and supporting virtually every action he takes, no matter how absurd and harmful. Republican senators and House members need to remember that they were elected to work for the best interests of our country and their constituents — not the best interests of Trump. If they start doing this, America and the American people will be much better off. Democratic lawmakers will have the same responsibility when a Democrat is next in the White House. Unfortunately, Republican majorities that control the House and Senate have abdicated their responsibility under the Constitution to act as a check and balance on Trump's desire for unbridled power. Trump has arguably caused more damage to our country than any president in American history. In fact, short of launching a nuclear attack on America, Russian President Vladimir Putin likely couldn't do more damage to the U.S. than Trump has already done in the first six months of his second term. Republican lawmakers have let Trump and former first buddy Elon Musk reduce the size of the federal workforce by more than 100,000 dedicated civil servants through firings, layoffs and incentives to get employees to resign, with many more thousands of jobs expected to be eliminated soon. These reckless staffing cuts, along with big spending cuts, have made it impossible for agencies — including the Education Department, the Agency for International Development, the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Voice of America and many others — to do all the things they did before Trump began his second term in January. To cite just a tiny fraction of examples: Billions of dollars in vital medical research on cancer and other deadly diseases that kill Americans every day has been halted, the ability to forecast and respond to natural disasters like the recent deadly floods in Texas has been weakened and people are dying in some of the poorest countries on Earth for lack of U.S. food and medical foreign aid. Colleges are being denied vital research funds and they and K-12 schools are losing aid to educate students; federal funding for public broadcasters PBS and NPR has been eliminated. Immigrants who committed no crime other than entering the U.S. without authorization are being seized without any due process and imprisoned, leaving no one to fill critical jobs they hold like harvesting crops and building housing. And we will all be hurt by Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs on most nations around the world, which we will pay like a sales tax whenever we buy something made or grown outside the U.S. and when we buy U.S. products containing foreign materials like steel or aluminum. These taxes will raise prices, increase inflation and take thousands of dollars a year from most families. On top of all this, Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts in Trump's so-called 'big beautiful bill' (which should more accurately be called the 'big horrible bill') could deprive an estimated 17 million of the poorest Americans of health insurance. The cuts could also force many rural hospitals to close. We can expect some people to get sicker and some to die as a result. Fortunately, we're beginning to see more Republicans grow spines to stand up to Trump. Not primarily because of all the problems caused by his policies and actions described above, but because of his conduct regarding his friend Jeffrey Epstein. Growing numbers of congressional Republicans are demanding that the Trump administration release investigative files dealing with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on new federal charges of sex trafficking underage girls. Even extreme Trump sycophants like House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have called for the Epstein files to be made public, as are many prominent MAGA influencers, rejecting Trump's demands that they cease doing so and rejecting his tirade of insults directed against them for believing what he calls a 'hoax' concocted by Democrats. Trump spent years as one of the most prominent figures spreading conspiracy theories about a 'deep state' cover-up of an Epstein 'client list' of rich and powerful men benefitting from Epstein's sex trafficking. Trump also questioned whether Epstein might have been murdered in jail. Most damning of all, Trump said when out of office that he might release the Epstein files if he became president again. But he recently said he backed Attorney General Pam Bondi's decision not to release any Epstein files. Under pressure from his base, he said in a social media post Thursday night that he had ordered Bondi to seek court approval to release grand jury transcripts in the case against Epstein. Bondi and she said she would do so. This would still keep much Justice Department material on Epstein under wraps. We'll know soon if Trump's low approval ratings and the MAGA revolt against his efforts to sweep the Epstein story under the rug is a turning point in the second Trump presidency. I hope it is and leads congressional Republicans to conclude that they should stop cowering in fear of Trump and start doing their jobs as public servants and defenders of our Constitution and rule of law. Donna Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of '.'
Chicago Tribune
5 days ago
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Piping plovers Monty and Rose force cancellation of Montrose Beach music festival
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on July 19, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) 1949: President Harry Truman spoke at the Shriners convention, of which he was a member. It was one of the first televised events at the stadium. 'The formation of foreign policy on the part of the democratic nations may be a slow and painful process, but the results endure,' Truman told the crowd. 'It is only in the totalitarian states, where all decisions are made by a few men at the top, that foreign policies can be reversed or radically altered in secrecy, or changed abruptly without warning.' 'The huge bowl of Soldiers' field looked like a flower garden yesterday — blazing with the blue, red, gold, green, and white uniforms of the members of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, in Chicago to celebrate the diamond jubilee of their fraternity,' the Tribune reported. 2019: Music festival Mamby on the Beach was canceled due to the arrival of a pair of federally endangered piping plover shorebirds on Montrose Beach. Nicknamed Monty and Rose, the pair continued to migrate to the area and hatch chicks for three consecutive summers. Their descendants carry on the tradition. Vintage Chicago Tribune: How piping plovers have captured our hearts through the yearsSubscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
08-07-2025
- Politics
White House Displays Portrait of Truman, Who Ordered A-Bombing
News from Japan World Jul 8, 2025 18:01 (JST) Washington, July 7 (Jiji Press)--U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that a portrait of former President Harry Truman, who ordered the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has been newly put up in the lobby of the White House. "Harry Truman's picture is now in the lobby, in a nice location of the lobby where it should have been," Trump told reporters at the White House. He avoided explicitly mentioning the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan in the closing days of World War II, but referred to them as "a certain other event" that "stopped a lot of fighting." Last month, Trump compared the recent U.S. airstrikes in Iran to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, claiming that they ended the Iran-Israel war. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
The Independent
08-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump compares himself to Truman after Iran attack
Donald Trump has compared himself to Harry Truman following the United States ' bombing of three of Iran 's nuclear sites last month (21 June). Speaking to reporters during a meeting with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday (7 July), the Republican drew a comparison between himself and the 33rd president of the United States, who is known for playing a key role in ending the Second World War by authorising the use of atomic bombs on Japan. 'Harry Truman's picture is now in the lobby in a nice location in the lobby where it should have been, but that stopped a lot of fighting, and this stopped a lot of fighting,' he said. Mr Trump also told reporters that his administration has agreed to diplomatic talks with Iran.
The Hill
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Members of Congress visiting ICE facilities are showing up for democracy
In 1940, Harry Truman, then a little-known U.S. senator from Missouri, drove 10,000 miles across the United States visiting military bases and contractors to find out, in-person, how billions of recently appropriated tax dollars were being spent to equip America to enter history's biggest war. Truman went on to chair a special bipartisan committee charged with examining the war effort which uncovered billions in waste and fraud, saved countless lives, and helped make possible the Arsenal of Democracy that still serves to protect our country. Members of Congress who have been trying to inspect Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities are carrying on this vital tradition of 'oversight by showing up,' where members make site visits — sometimes unannounced — to gather facts directly from the people and places where the work of government is being performed. The Trump administration is trying to block these efforts by harassing and prosecuting members of Congress who come to Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, denying access, or imposing protocols that do not appear to serve any purpose other than impeding efforts to oversee Immigration and Customs Enforcement's use of authority and funding it receives from Congress. The White House and Immigration and Customs Enforcement should abandon this stonewalling which runs afoul of the U.S. Constitution and federal law. As the Supreme Court has repeatedly held, Congress has a wide-ranging power and responsibility to conduct oversight that goes beyond accepting information offered up by the executive branch. In spelling out why it is so important for Congress to be able compel information via subpoena, the court wrote, 'information which is volunteered is not always accurate or complete.' Similarly, when members of Congress show up with little or no notice to inspect a government agency or contractor's facility, they are attempting to get information without the filters that federal agencies often apply to the facts. Members of Congress and their staffs have also repeatedly gone to war zones to hear directly from the troops. In 2004, for example, soldiers told Reps. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), Frank Wolf (R-Va.), and Jim Marshall (D-Ga.) about the threat posed by road mines in Iraq which accelerated the armoring of military vehicles serving in the region. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) famously drove his car to the Pentagon when officials refused to let him speak with an employee who had written a report critical of wasteful Department of Defense spending. Grassley's efforts eventually helped uncover out-of-control spending on spare parts such as $750 toilet seats and $695 ashtrays for military airplanes, led to a freeze of the Pentagon budget for a year, and triggered a wave of reforms to prevent such abuses. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's recent refusal to allow members of Congress to visit its facilities conflicts with federal law. Section 527 of Public Law 118-47 bars Immigration and Customs Enforcement from preventing members of Congress from entering an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for the purpose of conducting oversight. The law also states that 'nothing in this section may be construed to require a member of Congress to provide prior notice of the intent to enter a facility.' The administration argues that Section 527 does not apply because the facilities in question are not detention facilities, a position at odds with the law and the facts. Section 527 applies to 'any facility operated by or for [the Department of Homeland Security] used to detain or otherwise house aliens….' These are facilities where migrants are being detained and where members of Congress have been illegally prevented from visiting. Unaccountable power is inconsistent with democratic self-government and the individual rights and liberties for which our nation's Founders and many other Americans risked their lives. It is also bad for military preparedness that helps to keep us a free country. Instead of employing unconstitutional and illegal tactics to resist congressional oversight of its immigration policy and execution, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress should embrace the bipartisan tradition of congressional site visits that helped to win World War II and build a society and military that remain the envy of the world. Jim Townsend is director of the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University Law School.
