It's not sufficiently appreciated that *both* sides of Trump's economic agenda -- the nationalist trade policies *and* the plutocratic tax cut -- are failing and unpopular.
What's crucial here is that Trump is bleeding independents on immigration *both* in terms of generalized disapproval *and* on the lawless specifics. Look at these numbers:
Note that all these issues turning independents against Trump involve questions of fundamental fairness, due process, and the rule of law. The imagery of rampant lawlessness tends to be the sort of thing that alienates those voters.
JD Vance's arguments on Abrego Garcia are imploding. His latest absurdity reveals that he knows the admin has the option of returning him and retrying him for removal in a lawful way. So why not do that? He won't say.
It's just so galling. The admin always has the option of bringing Abrego Garcia back and challenging his "witholding of removal" order. In his latest tweet, Vance unwittingly shows that *he knows* they have this option. Yet they simply refuse to take it.
Crucial line from conservative judge's ruling on Abrego Garcia:
"If the govt is confident of its position, it should be assured that position will prevail in proceedings to terminate the withholding of removal order."
.@jdvance’s call for a functional end to due process for migrants is riddled with deceptions, bad faith, and embarrassingly awful logic. Here’s a response, including answering his “question.” First, his 20 million: I challenge you to substantiate this, JD. 1/
Vance again claims as fact that Kilmar Abrego Garcia (KAG) is a member of MS-13. This is based on the Gang Field Interview Sheet (GFIS) filed by a Maryland cop, which ICE used in the 2019 effort to deport him. It's an extremely weak case. Here's why. 2/
The GFIS claims KAG wore clothing identifying him as a MS-13 member (very weak evidence) and that a “confidential source” identified him as part of the Westerns clique, which operates in NY, where he never lived (even weaker evidence). 3/
Absurd: Trump's aides are telling him working class voters love his tariffs. But recent polls actually show majorities of non-college voters say tariffs raise prices, and disapprove of his handling of them. I looked at the data. It's striking.
Notable: There's a clear racial divide among working class voters on tariffs in latest Marquette poll. Noncollege white men like tariffs (yet it's only 44-40!) but *huge* majorities of noncollege *nonwhites* are skeptical of them.
More evidence of this racial divide among working class voters: Marquette finds majorities of nonwhite noncollege voters say Trump's policies will boost inflation. And CNN finds 71% of them disapprove of Trump's handling of tariffs:
A note on JD Vance's repulsive response to the deportation of a Salvadoran in "error": The whole point of his stunt is to show that Trump feels free to remove people even when the law *doesn't* justify it.
“If nobody can do anything to bring him back once he’s been deported, then the order preventing his deportation in the first place is meaningless,” the lawyer for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported in "error," tells me.
The Trump administration's position is effectively a declaration that it has the power to remove people, outside the law, in "error," without having any subsequent responsibility to rectify that “error.”
Time to focus on Marco Rubio's role as a chief Trump enabler. Rubio is helping execute some of Trump's worst designs: Terminating program for Ukrainian kids, deporting people to foreign gulags, wrecking USAID, arrests with zero due process.
Next up: Rubio is key to the deportations of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador, many without any evidence. Rubio negotiated the deal making this possible. He says this is a good deal for taxpayers and that these are "good jails."