Monday, April 28, 2025

Trump First 100 Days Approval Rating Double-Digits Below Biden, Obama—Poll

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-first-100-days-approval-rating-double-digits-below-biden-obama-poll-2064801

New polling released by CNN on Sunday shows that Trump's approval rating stands at 41 percent. That is 18 points under his disapproval rating, which stands at 59 percent—including 45 percent who disapprove strongly.

Comparatively, former Democratic President Joe Biden's approval hovered at 53 percent at the same point in 2021, according to CNN. That puts Biden's approval at the 100-day mark 12 points ahead of Trump's.

Former Presidents Barack Obama, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a Republican, had even higher marks at the same point. Obama enjoyed a 63 percent approval rating and Bush was nearly the same, at 62 percent. That's 22 points and 21 points ahead of Trump respectively.

Notably, Trump's current approval rating is even lower than it was at the same point during his first term in office. At the end of April 2017, Trump's approval rating stood at 44 percent—3 points higher than it is now.

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Rav Moshe Feinstein: Prohibition of social dating


Igros Moshe(E.H. 4:60): Concerning the issue of a young man who is not ready to get married and has no interest in getting married and he is interested in having social dates with young women who also are not ready to get married and have no interest in getting married. They say that since they are careful to avoid the prohibition of yichud (seclusion) there is no prohibition in dating. Even though they know that this is not nice but they say they are not interested in issues of piety and extra measures of modesty and they don’t want to listen to lectures of mussar and rebuke. However they say that they will stop if they hear from me that this is prohibited according to the halacha. Therefore I am forced to respond immediately because this applies to a current activity… There is also a severe prohibition from the Torah in close friendships between a young man and woman. That is even if they avoid hugging and kissing as well as touching and yichud. The problem is that he talks with her for extended times in expressing love and he gets pleasure from this and stares at her. Even according to the Ramban who disagrees with the Rambam and holds this is only a rabbinic prohibition nevertheless agrees that this is a severe prohibition since it has an asmachta from a verse and that it is punished with rabbinic flogging. It is clear that dating is done because of love of women and not because of ordinary friendship since he clearly prefers being with a woman then with male friends. Why is he interested in this woman when it doesn’t give him greater respect or a good name? It is obviously because of love of a woman because she is a woman. In addition even though she is unmarried, she is a nidah which is prohibited with the punishment of kares…

Trump approval rating underwater in Fox News survey

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5265210-trump-approval-rating-fox-news-poll/

The poll showed Trump with an approval rating of 44 percent, down 5 points from the 49 percent he had in March. Fox noted the latest number is lower than where all of his most recent predecessors were at this point in their presidencies.

Former President George W. Bush had the highest rating among 21st-century presidents with 63 percent approval, followed by former President Obama with 62 percent and former President Biden with 54 percent. Trump also had a rating 1 point higher at this point in his first term than his current one.

CNN Data Guru Touts Historic Poll Showing Trump Most Unpopular Prez Since 1953

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-data-guru-harry-enten-flumps-donald-trump-as-worst-new-president-since-us-records-began/

An overwhelming majority of Americans say the president is botching the job just months into his second term.

“These numbers are just horrible—there’s no way to sugarcoat it,” CNN data guru Harry Enten said while diving into the results of a new survey the network released on Saturday

Musk demoted again! Elon retreats as he loses $1 billion PER DAY under Trump

Trump Tore Up Obama’s Iran Deal. Is He Now Negotiating Something Worse?

 https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-obama-iran-deal

“The Iran Deal was one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into,” President Donald Trump declared in 2018 as he withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. He has always claimed that President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement was terrible. And he has always been right.

But if Trump lets Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, continue to negotiate with Iran along the current lines, he will end up with an agreement even weaker than the JCPOA. Witkoff is driving Trump on the road to Obamaland.

A stunning reversal of fortunes in Canada's historic election- Trump saves the Liberals

 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78jv246n91o

Last year, the Conservatives held a 20-point lead in national polls over the governing Liberals for months. Poilievre's future as the country's next prime minister seemed baked in.

Then a series of shockwaves came in quick succession at the start of 2025, upending the political landscape: Justin Trudeau's resignation, Carney's subsequent rise to Liberal leader and prime minister; and the return of Trump to the White House with the threats and tariffs that followed.

By the time the election was called in mid-March, Carney's Liberals were polling neck-and-neck with the Conservatives, and by early April they had pulled slightly ahead, national surveys suggest.

Trump's late-March announcement of global levies on foreign automobile imports allowed Carney to step away from the trail and take on the prime minister's mantle, setting up a call with the president and meeting US Cabinet ministers.

Poilievre, in contrast, is a veteran politician and polished performer. But on the shifting political ground, Conservatives appeared to struggle to find their footing, pivoting their message from Canada being broken to "Canada First".

Poilievre had to fend off criticism from political rivals that he is "Trump lite", with his combative style, his vows to end "woke ideology", and willingness to take on the "global elite".

American Battleground: Trump dreams of empire while struggling to keep some promises

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/26/politics/donald-trump-immigration-foreign-policy/index.html

For months, the Danes have effectively said the only threat is from the United States. They’ve pointed out that Greenland, an autonomous land under the Danish umbrella, has happily hosted American military forces for decades. They note that Vance’s stop is at a US base established in 1943 and still operating. They argue the White House can easily keep an eye on Chinese and Russian movements in northern waters from the island and can even expand America’s military footprint there without owning the earth beneath it. Anyway, Denmark says, Greenland is not for sale. Locals give an icier answer to Trump, Vance and their representatives: “We don’t want you here.”

Judge says 2-year-old US citizen appears to have been deported with ‘no meaningful process’

 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/25/us-citizen-deportation-donald-trump-00311631

A federal judge is raising alarms that the Trump administration deported a two-year-old U.S. citizen to Honduras with “no meaningful process,” even as the child’s father was frantically petitioning the courts to keep her in the country.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, said the child — identified in court papers by the initials “V.M.L.” — appeared to have been released in Honduras earlier Friday, along with her Honduran-born mother and sister, who had been detained by immigration officials earlier in the week.

George Santos, who conned his way to Congress before getting booted, sentenced to more than 7 years in prison

 https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/25/george-santos-prison-sentence-00309522

The disgraced former New York lawmaker pleaded guilty to felony charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

A federal judge on Friday sentenced disgraced former Rep. George Santos to more than seven years in prison for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in a case that resulted in his expulsion from Congress and capped a colorful flameout for the first-term Republican.

Three U.S. citizens, ages 2, 4 and 7, swiftly deported from Louisiana

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/04/26/us-citizen-children-deported-ice/

The cases have renewed concerns that the Trump administration’s expedited deportations are violating the rights of both citizens and noncitizens.

 Three U.S. citizen children from two different families were deported with their mothers by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the early hours of Friday morning. One of them is a 4-year-old with Stage 4 cancer who was deported without medication or the ability to contact their doctors, the family’s lawyer said.

Constantly in Motion, Trump’s Cabinet Portrays a White House That’s Always Winning

 https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-cabinet-social-media-6f58091f?mod=lead_feature_below_a_pos2

On social media, top officials stream an intimate window into their work that runs counter to the obstacles facing the White House agenda

On any given day, Americans on social media can hope to glimpse Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pounding push-ups with the troops. They might catch FBI Director Kash Patel alongside agents as they cinematically rappel from helicopters and blast their way into a building. Or they’ll find Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, dairy cows pacing behind her, pledging to rescind a government ban on whole milk in schools.

President Trump faces growing obstacles to his agenda from the courts, investors and world leaders. But on social media, his top officials are using their influence to tell Americans a different story, one in which Trump is securing victory after victory on his main goals. The strategy gives his cabinet the most robust public presence of any in recent memory.

Saturday, April 26, 2025

Majority of Voters Find Trump’s Second Term ‘Chaotic’ and ‘Scary’

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/majority-of-voters-find-trumps-second-term-chaotic-and-scary/

According to a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Friday, 66 percent described Trump’s second term as “chaotic,” while 59 percent opted for “scary.” Many of those same voters, the Times notes, nevertheless approved of Trump’s job performance.

On that point, the president’s approval rating sits at 42 percent, and he’s also underwater on a host of issues: immigration, managing the federal government, the economy, international trade, foreign conflicts, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Friday’s poll—conducted of 913 voters nationally from April 21 to 24—echoes a Fox News poll from earlier this week. It, too, showed Trump underperforming in many areas. Only 33 percent supported the president’s tariffs, for instance, while 51 percent predicted his policies will hurt the country in the long run.

Trump responded by lashing out at owner Rupert Murdoch and the network’s “Trump Hating, Fake Pollster.”

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-admits-putin-may-have-been-playing-him-this-whole-time-tapping-me-along/

President Donald Trump admitted Saturday that he may have been wrong to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants peace in the war against Ukraine and threatened further sanctions.

“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!” the president wrote.