Today in Politics, Bulletin 75. 2/20/25. Ron Filipkowski Feb 21 ∙     … Trump’s approval ratings are dropping steadily across multiple polls. A new WaPo poll shows that only 45% of Americans now approve of his job performance while 53% disapprove. 57% believe that Trump has been exceeded his constitutional authority as president. 62% said Trump is not “honest and trustworthy.” … The WaPo poll shows that only 34% approve of what Elon Musk has been doing, 49% disapprove, and 14% say they aren’t sure. A whopping 63% are concerned about DOGE getting access to sensitive personal data of individuals. … A Reuters/Ipsos poll has Trump’s approval at 44%, with 51% disapproving. Trump only had 41% disapproval a few weeks ago in the same poll. … 53% said they think the economy is on the wrong track, which is up from 43% a few weeks ago. Trump now has only a 39% approval from voters on how he has handled the economy so far. … The Quinnipiac Poll has Trump’s approval at 45%, Disapprove 49%. … The CNN poll has Trump’s approval at 47% with 52% disapproving. … The WaPo poll shows the American people against Trump’s pardons for violent J6 defendants 83%-14%. … Rep. Jasmine Crockett predicts Trump's approval ratings will keep going down: "We've gotta do better at education. People don't understand. But you will understand when those hospitals in rural America start closing down even more. You will understand when you don't have your social security. You will understand when your Medicaid, your Medicare goes away. You will understand when planes continue to fall out of the sky. Maybe Sleepy Joe is what we wanted, because we could at least sleep at night." … Trump supporter and 9/11 First Responder John Feal was fuming on CNN after funding for medical care and benefits of survivors was eliminated by DOGE: “If you really want to save money, stop going golfing every day. If you really want to save money, don't go to the Super Bowl. Don't drive your limo around the racetrack. There you go. I just saved the government a couple billion dollars. Come on. If this is Make America Great Again, we’re screwed.” … Feal: “Trump signed our bill in 2019. He turned to me, shook my hand, gave me the sharpie that he signed the bill with, and he said, ‘nobody deserves this more than you. You worked harder than anybody.’ And for him to callously and recklessly allow Elon Musk to do this to us, his words are shallow and meaningless to me now.” … Fresh off attending a car race on Sunday and playing golf Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Florida, Trump help a press conference at Mar-a-Lago and ranted about people who work remotely: "Show up to work in person like the rest of us. They're not working. They're playing tennis, they're playing golf. … Trump then continued to push Musk’s false claim that millions of dead people are receiving Social Security checks: “1.3 million people are on social security from age 150-159. Over 130,000 people are on social security over the age of 160 years old, ok?” … These are simply the social security numbers of people who have died but haven’t been purged from the system, not people getting checks. The lies never end. … Trump also suggested he might be sending big checks out to everyone once Musk discovers the trillions that are being stolen. But Republicans concerned about the national debt don’t want to hear that. Rep. Rich McCormick: “I’m not real big on sending money back to people in checks. I’d much rather see the debt paid down. … Fox host Maria Baritromo: “To send money back to voters - it sounds nice and everything - but if our worry is debt and deficits, send the money to pay down debt.” … Rep. Gerry Connolly said the best way to protect Social Security long term is to raise the ceiling on income that can be taxed: "The fallacy of Musk's argument is they never look at revenue. They only look at expenditures. If you want to save social security, it's a fairly easy fix. Raise the income threshold subject to withholding tax and you can extend social security by 40-50 years, easy. He doesn't want to talk about that." … Sen. Ron Wyden: "Nobody should lose sight of what happened this morning. Trump endorsed the House budget resolution. This resolution mandates that $880 billion in cuts from the House Energy & Commerce committee. There is no plausible way to hit that target without hundreds of billions in cuts to Medicaid." … After the broad outline of the House Republican budget came out, Mike Johnson is discovering that many Republican voters - especially in the south, are on government assistance. Especially Medicaid. 8 Republicans signed a letter to Johnson imploring him not to slash Medicaid, SNAP, and Pell Grants as planned. This are Reps Gonzales, Malliotakis, De La Cruz, Valadao, Ciscomani, Bresnahan, Moylan and King-Hinds. … Rep. David Valadao (R-CA): “I don’t know where they’re going to get the cuts.” … Sen. Tammy Baldwin: "Last night, the president said, 'I'm not touching Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, VA, I'm not touching them.' But this morning, he endorsed the House budget resolution which paves the way for massive cuts to Medicaid." … Jasmine Crockett to CNN: "Alabama, who's broke. Louisiana, who's broke. I can go through pretty much the entire south and tell you that they're broke and rely on a lot of welfare from the government. To be perfectly honest, they are supported by dollars from these big blue states. We're in the find out phase." … Rep. Jake Auchincloss: “Medicaid cuts are in the budget resolution. They are coming this month, $888 billion of Medicaid cuts. I know why Trump wants to do it. He's got to pay for the tax cuts for the billionaires, but I don't know why someone like Rep. Sessions would vote for it. TX-17 has 100,000 people on Medicaid. The majority of them are children. And for every dollar that gets spent on their primary care visits, on their vaccinations, on their at home care for the elderly, the fed govt picks up $0.66. So who's going to pay for that? When you take out $888 billion out of Medicaid, what are you going to say to your constituents back home?” … Trump posted on Truth Social that there was no reason to worry about his massive tax cuts for the rich blowing a hole in the deficit, because his tariffs will take care of everything: “BALANCE BUDGET NOW??? LETS GIVE IT A SHOT. LOTS OF MONEY COMING IN FROM TARIFFS. DO IT!” … Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told Fox that Musk is going to find at least $1 trillion in waste, fraud and abuse in entitlements, so balancing the budget won’t be a problem: “Think about it, we have almost $4 trillion of entitlements and no one has looked at it before. You know social security is wrong, you know medicaid and medicare are wrong. So he's going to cut a trillion.” … Perhaps unaware that his lawyers just filed a sworn affidavit with Judge Chutkan that Musk is not in charge of DOGE and isn’t even a member of it, the bumbling fool then said this: “I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge.” … WaPo reports that Trump’s deranged DC US Attorney Ed Martin sent all-staff email announcing “Operation Whirlwind” to prosecute threats against govt officials. This was in response to Musk’s claim that his DOGE team was “doxxed” by the media. … Martin has launched the first inquiry of Operation Whirlwind by sending letters to Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Robert Garcia asking them to “clarify” statements they made in the past: “Free speech has limits and threatening govt workers crosses the line. We will stop the storm of threats.” … Martin is investigating Schumer’s speech in 2020 at an abortion rights rally where he railed against Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh: "You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price." Martin: "I reached out to Sen. Schumer to investigate his threats. He has not yet responded to me." … Martin is investigating Garcia after he called Musk a dick and said this on CNN: “What I think is really important and what the American public want is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy, for the future of this country. And it’s important to push back on the chairperson of this committee.” … AOC was the headliner at a huge federal workers protest in front of the SpaceX building in DC. There was over 1,000 people at the rally: "Musk is trying to gut everything good in America for his own private profit. This is the culmination of what oligarchy is all about - the fusion and the capture of the billionaire class of our democracy." … Trump had champaign corks popping in Moscow while setting off a firestorm in Congress and Europe with a deranged post about Zelensky: “He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. Zelenskyy has done a terrible job.” … Trump also claimed that the reason why Zelensky won’t hold elections is because he only has a 4% approval rating. Where did Trump get the 4% number from? That’s what Putin told him in their recent phone call. The American president takes lies about our allies directly from Putin and asserts they are true to the American people without telling them he got those lies from Putin. … Former UK PM and Trump ally Boris Johnson: “Of course Ukraine didn’t start the war. You might as well say that America attacked Japan at Pearl Harbor. Of course a country undergoing a violent invasion should not be staging elections. There was no general election in the UK from 1935-1945. Of course Zelensky’s ratings are not 4%. They are actually about the same as Trump’s.” … Gen. Jack Keane, who was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump: “Zelensky’s approval rating is 57%. The constitution that Ukraine has prohibits elections when you declare martial law because of the war. The fact is that their constitution is driving this - the parliament had bipartisan support for all of the extensions they have had to the martial law. They are acting democratically and abiding by their constitution. These are democratic actions taking place in a democratic country.” … Sen. Lisa Murkowski was asked about Trump’s comment that Zelensky was a dictator: “I would like to see that in context, because I would certainly never refer to President Zelensky as a dictator.” … Mike Pence: “Mr. President, Ukraine did not ‘start’ this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.” … Sen. Thom Tillis to NBC: "That invasion was the responsibility of one human being on the face of this planet: Vladimir Putin." On Trump calling Zelensky a dictator: “It’s not a word I would use." … Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY): “Vladimir Putin is a vile dictator and thug, who has worked in a concerted effort with China and Iran to undermine and destabilize the US, Europe, Israel, and the free world. He is not our friend, nor our ally. While I support the effort to end the war in Ukraine, any deal towards peace must include Ukraine at the negotiating table, must protect its structural sovereignty and that of its neighbors.” … “With respect to elections, of course Ukraine should have free and fair elections— but that demand coming from Putin and Russia is both comical and self-serving. Russia has continued to influence and interfere with elections throughout Eastern Europe and must not be allowed to install a Putin puppet and apologist simply to seize control from within.” … That demand, which originally came from Putin, is also now coming from Trump and JD Vance, but Lawler won’t say their names despite criticizing their lies. … Trump even lost one of his biggest supporters on this one, Fox host Mark Levin: “Zelensky ordered martial law — that’s what the constitution there compelled. Zelensky hasn’t called for an election — that’s what the constitution there compels. Now, I’m waiting for the first free election for Putin. I mean, this is almost comical in a sick way that Putin is demanding an election. Why is he demanding an election in Ukraine when he doesn’t have free and real elections in his own country? And why does he get to call the shots when in fact, he murders people who dare to challenge him?” (He never mentioned Trump’s name) … Sen. Eric Schmitt was asked by CNN if “dictator” more accurately describes Putin or Zelensky: “I think he was stating the obvious, which is Zelenskyy ought to have elections.” Kaitlyn Collins: How do you hold an election in Ukraine right now? Schmitt: “We do it.” Collins: But we don’t have missiles falling on American cities right now and half of our young men aren’t on the front line. … JD Vance told Daily Mail that Zelensky just needs to kiss Trump’s ass more - like he does: “Badmouthing Trump in public is an atrocious way to handle this. I think Zelensky is getting very bad advice about how to deal with the new administration. And I think that if I'm trying to think about this from Zelensky's perspective, he has for the last 3 years been treated as as if nothing he can say or do is wrong.” … Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was ecstatic with Trump’s comments: “If you’d told me just 3 months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud. He is the first, and so far, the only Western leader who has publicly and loudly said that one of the root causes of the Ukrainian situation was the impudent line of the previous admin to draw Ukraine into NATO. No Western leaders had ever said that, but he had said it several times. This is already a signal that he understands our position.” … Putin was pleased with Trump’s comments, making another one of his absurd false statements: “All European leaders, without exception, directly interfered in the election process in the US. I am surprised by the restraint of President Trump towards his allies, who behaved, frankly speaking, in a boorish manner. He still behaves quite courteously toward them.” … French President Macron called an emergency meeting of EU leaders after Trump’s recent statements. WaPo reports that after the meeting, Macron said EU leaders have “a clear and united position.” He said their bottom line is: 1. Ukraine must be included in all talks; 2. Any agreement must have robust and credible security guarantees; 3. Europe’s security concerns as a whole must be included in the equation. … Macron said Europe is prepared to step up and take a greater leadership role since it appears the US will no longer do so: “We stand with Ukraine and will take full responsibility to ensure peace and security in Europe. We are convinced of the need to increase our defense and security spending and capabilities for Europe and each of our countries.” … Lauren Boebert then asked Trump to sign an executive order to officially change the name of french fries to freedom fries: “We rightfully have the Gulf of America. I’m also for changing French fries to Freedom fries! Eh ahem… President Trump?” … UK PM Keir Starmer said it was “perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime as the UK did during World War II.” Elections were supposed to be held in 2024, but Ukrainian law says voting cannot happen when martial law is in effect. … Norway’s PM Jonas Gahr Store said Trump’s claims “deeply unfounded.” … German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Trump’s comments were “wrong and dangerous.” Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Trump should “look at the real world instead of just tweeting.” … Musk: “The President’s instincts on Ukraine are absolutely right.” … Steve Bannon continues to warn Trump not to trust Musk. To CNN: “You can tell Trump doesn’t totally trust the oligarchs because we’re putting in very tough antitrust people into DOJ. Look, I’m not a conservative - I’m only a Republican because I’m a registered Republican. But I’m really a populist nationalist. Those oligarchs - they’ve turned on and abandoned the progressive left. They will abandon us and do the same thing because they seek power. Right now, they see the math and they see that we have a built-in coalition. So they’re with us – but only temporarily.” … Musk called for the International Space Station to be defunded after Commander Andreas Mogensen said he lied in his Fox interview with Trump that Biden left astronauts stranded in space. Mogensen: “What a lie. And from someone who complains about lack of honesty from the mainstream media. Elon, you know as well as I do, that Butch and Suni are returning with Crew-9, as has been the plan since last Sept. Even now, you are not sending up a rescue ship to bring them home. They are returning on the Dragon capsule that has been on ISS since last Sept. … Musk raged after getting called out for lying: “You are fully retarded. SpaceX could have brought them back several months ago. I OFFERED THIS DIRECTLY to the Biden administration and they refused. Return WAS pushed back for political reasons. Idiot. It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the ISS. It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars.” … Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC last night: “The left-leaning podcast MeidasTouch has just done the unthinkable - dethroned Joe Rogan to become the country’s most popular podcast. People often say the Democrats don’t know how to hit - these guys are hitters.” Meidas+ is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. … CPAC is happening this week, where the MAGA all-stars including Trump make their appearances in front of the longest running conservative conference in the US, although it has been waning in popularity in recently years after multiple allegations that Chair Matt Schlapp molests young men. … MAGA indy journalist Breanna Morello reported that Oathkeepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio both showed up at CPAC with press credentials that had been granted, but were promptly kicked out. They were recently released from long prison sentences after Trump’s pardons. … Rhodes said he was told by CPAC officials that his press credentials were revoked and he was told to leave. When he asked why, Rhodes claims staff told him “legal.” … But the Trumpettes were there at Mike Lindell’s booth. … DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says she is determined to hunt down federal employees who are leaking to the press and nonprofits, and she is going to make them take lie detector tests: “Leaks of ICE operations are not only illegal, they’re putting the lives of ICE agents at risk. DHS is a national security and law enforcement agency. We will use law enforcement methods, including polygraphs, to stop the leaks and ensure the law is followed.” … Noem and Border Czar Tom Homan have blamed leaks from inside the federal government on the failure of some of their bigger raids to result in large numbers of migrant arrests. … The New Republic reports that 10% of the employees at the NIH’s Center for Alzheimer’s and Related Dementias (CARD) have been fired, including its incoming director, a highly regarded scientist credited with important innovations in the field. Andrew Singleton send an email to fellow employees: “This loss will have a profound impact on the work we do to understand and treat disease. The next period will be difficult.” … Stanford neurologist Michael Greicius: “CARD has developed infrastructure and a braintrust that’s really unmatched in the world, in terms of its advances in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Weakening CARD will set Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s research back substantially. It’s going to be really hard to recover. As we’re learning across institutes and agencies, it’s much easier to destroy something than to gradually build it back up.” … Trump broke his campaign promise on IVF, while naturally lying about it. On the campaign trail last August, Trump said: "For people that are using IVF, the government is going to pay for it or we're going to mandate your insurance company to pay for it." … But that’s not what happened. Trump just rolled out his much-hyped executive order, which merely calls for “policy recommendations” to “aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs.” In other words, it does absolutely nothing. … Trump also unveiled his plan to solve drug abuse and addiction in America: "We're going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars advertising how bad drugs are, so that kids don't use them - that they chew up your brain, they destroy your teeth." … The WSJ reports that lawyers at the huge advertising firm Interpublic Group were warned in December that if they didn’t encourage their clients to increase advertising on Elon Musk’s X, that he would use his influence and power in the new Trump Admin to block their huge $13 billion merger with Omnicon Group. … The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Trump admin's emergency request to overturn a lower court order that blocked his order denying birthright citizenship for children of migrants and temporary visitors born on US soil. This is likely heading to the Supreme Court. … Trump attempted to crush any Desantis-backed candidate for FL governor (which could be Casey Desantis) in 2026 by making a very early endorsement of Rep. Byron Donalds for the spot. This move is not going to make Desantis happy - Donalds is definitely not on Team Desantis. … Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) - "What it looks like is they are trying to further rig the system. What does the SEC do? It regulates the stock market. Why are billionaires trying to take over control of the stock market? It is the place where money is made. It’s very clear that the takeover of these independent agencies is really about a power grab and rigging the system.” … Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI Director by a vote of 51-49, with Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voting against will every Democrat. … Susan Collins: “Patel’s recent political profile undermines his ability to serve in the apolitical role of Director of the FBI.” … Murkowski: “My reservations with Mr. Patel stem from his own prior political activities and how they may influence his leadership. The FBI must be trusted as the federal agency that roots out crime and corruption, not focused on settling political scores. I have been disappointed that when he had the opportunity to push back on the administration’s decision to force the FBI to provide a list of agents involved in the January 6 investigations and prosecutions, he failed to do so.” … Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse: “Kash Patel, mark my words, will cause evil in this building behind us. And Republicans who vote for him will rue that day.” … Sen. Chris Coons: “When Kash Patel in the future breaks the law, violates norms, erodes trust and harms our public safety, every Republican who votes for him today needs to know that they will own those facts.” … Sen. Dick Blumenthal says he now regrets voting for VA Sec Doug Collins: “I regret it. Voting for Secretary Collins was a mistake, and I apologize to the veterans of the country. He has betrayed the promises that he made to me during his confirmation hearing. I took him at his word, but I regret it now because he has not only broken those promises - he's failed to respond to my 20 plus inquiries, completely failed to respond to my and my colleagues inquiries the relief that he is going to afford veterans.” … Going to be hearing a lot of that in the future. … NBC reports that two of Sen. John Fetterman’s longest-serving staff members are resigning. Comms Director Charlie Hills and Legis Director Tre Easton are stepping down. Staffer Carrie Adams left his office last month, three staffers resigned last March, and his former Chief of Staff Adam Jentleson also left previously. … The German election is this Sunday, and AFP reports that Friedrich Merz is the strong favorite to become the next Chancellor. Far-right and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has been backed by JD Vance and Elon Musk, has gained increased support in recent years with an anti-immigrant message that mirrored Trump’s campaign. … Although AfD is not expected to win, Merz warns that if the mainstream parties don’t want to see the AfD win outright with a far-right chancellor in the near future, they all must address the issue of liberal immigration head-on. … Journalist Mikko Marttinen in an OpEd for a Finnish newspaper: “Trump, 78, is the most dim-witted president of modern US history, and old age has made him even dumber. When you combine this with pathological narcissism and the selection of all advisors based on their loyalty, the result is this kind of chaos.”