Trumpites Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

Polls

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YouGov: Trump Approval (ages 18-29 only) Feb 2025: 52–43% (+9) Apr 2025: 32-53% (-21) Dec 2025: 29–66% (-37) Feb 2026: 25–67% (-42) ← new low

InteractivePolls

YouGov/Economist: Trump Approval U.S. Adults Approve: 37% (-3) Disapprove: 56% (+2) Registered voters Approve: 40% (-2) Disapprove: 57% (+2) —— Generic Ballot Democrats: 44% (=) Republicans: 38% (-2)

NPR - An NPR poll showed 36% of respondents approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, but a majority said tariffs hurt it. Americans name the economy as their top concern.

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Via Thursday 

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Money

FactPost - 

Trump's trade war is hitting Americans maybe even harder than previously thought. Tariffs raised taxes for the average American household by $1,000 last year, and that is expected to rise to $1,300 this year. This is the largest US tax increase as a percent of GDP since 1993.

Wallet Hub - 44% of Americans think their household debt is affecting their health.

• 47% of Americans say their household can’t handle more debt.
• Total household debt increased by $257 billion during 2025. That is 810% more than the increase in 2024.

Heather Cox Richardson's history of Puerto Rico

How Companies Profit by Annoying the Hell Out of You

Monica Potts, New Republic  - Several months ago, I looked at my bank account and saw that it was awash in charges from newspapers and websites charging $5.99, $13.99, $7.99 at regular intervals for subscriptions I barely remembered signing up for. They added up to a lot of money wasted each month. When I tried to cancel them, each service had a different process, some of which involved navigating through several screens or calling customer service or chatting with automated systems—rather than just clicking a button, as I had done so easily in subscribing. I quickly became overwhelmed and annoyed, and instead chose the nuclear option: I canceled my debit card. That created its own set of tedious internet tasks, of course, but at the time it felt like the best option.

These kinds of experiences are so common and universal that Groundwork Collaborative, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., decided to weigh their true impact. They call it the “annoyance economy.” In a report released Monday, they show how junk fees, customer service calls, excessive insurance paperwork, spam calls and texts, and more cost Americans at least $165 billion in lost time and money every year. The same practices boost corporate revenue by 200 percent, the report found. 

A new arms race?

Sam Sifton, NY Times -  Last fall, Russia unveiled the Poseidon, an underwater drone that can cross an ocean to detonate a thermonuclear warhead. That could set off a radioactive tsunami and eliminate a coastal city. “There is nothing like this in the world in terms of the speed and the depth of the movement of this unmanned vehicle — and it is unlikely there ever will be,” Vladimir Putin said at the time. (He added that there were “no ways to intercept” it.)

Russia is also trying to place a nuclear weapon in space, American officials said during the Biden administration, where it could vaporize fleets of American satellites.

China, for its part, has tested a hypersonic missile that could follow a zigzag path and release a warhead that would be almost impossible to intercept. And it appears to have little interest in arms control until the size of its nuclear arsenal matches the ones controlled by Washington and Moscow

Congress

The Hill - Congressional retirements are on track to hit their highest level in a decade this election cycle, fueled in part by Republicans increasingly looking to exit the halls of Congress with the midterms fast approaching.

Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) late last week became the latest lawmaker and 30th House Republican to announce he doesn't intend to run for reelection. Along with nearly two dozen House Democrats who have also said they don’t plan to seek another term this November, the number of retirements in the chamber stands at 51.

That’s a higher number in the House than in any election cycle of the past decade except for 2018, which saw 52 retirements, according to data kept by Ballotpedia and The Associated Press.

Meanwhile in the Senate, nine incumbents are retiring either to end their political careers or seek another office outside Congress — already the highest number of any cycle in the past decade.

Roll Call - With days left to pass a Homeland Security spending bill, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate dismissed a White House counteroffer to their own, calling it “insufficient.”

Hours after the White House shared a counterproposal to one offered this weekend by Senate Democrats, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer released a terse statement dismissing the proposal.

“Republicans shared an outline of a counterproposal, which included neither details nor legislative text,” the two New York Democrats said. “The initial GOP response is both incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct. Democrats await additional detail and text.”

The dismissal comes as lawmakers face a four-day deadline to reach an agreement on funding for the Department of Homeland Security amid harsh Democratic criticism of the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement and less than a month after federal immigration officials shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis within a span of weeks. 

NPR -  If a deal is not reached, Congress will need to pass another stopgap bill to fund DHS, NPR’s Barbara Sprunt tells Up First. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he will start prepping a short-term funding bill as a backup option. Democrats face an uphill battle with their demands for officers to display identifying information like their last name and a ban on face masks. Many Republicans view these requests as nonstarters. Sprunt says she is watching how GOP lawmakers question top immigration officials today. While they largely back President Trump’s enforcement actions, Republicans have to navigate new polling that shows a majority of Americans believe those same tactics have gone too far.

Health

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that the New York State Department of Health has officially joined the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), strengthening the state’s role in global public health preparedness and response.

“New York has always led in public health and safety and now we’re doing our part to protect lives while the federal government puts Americans’ health at risk,” Governor Hochul said. “By joining GOARN, we’re sharing our expertise, laboratories and highly skilled workforce to detect and respond to outbreaks worldwide while helping prevent global health threats from reaching New York State and the United States. Protecting New Yorkers means protecting communities everywhere — I’ll always stand up for the health and safety of our state and country.”

In January, the Trump Administration withdrew the United States from WHO, compromising the country’s global health safety and preparedness to respond to future pandemics.

Bloomberg - Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vaccine skepticism is entering a new phase, Bloomberg’s Editors write. He now appears intent on dismantling the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, an obscure $4 billion fund.