Trump’s WashingtonHow President Trump is changing government, the country and its politics.Good evening from West Pittston, Pa., where I covered Vice President JD Vance’s latest project: getting more voters to like President Trump’s new domestic policy law. We’re also covering Trump’s blowup at his supporters over the Epstein files, and a bump in support for immigration. We’ll start with the news.
The veep’s big, beautiful job
Vice presidents always have hard jobs. They have little practical authority. They are the face of decisions they are not empowered to make. They get assignments that are hard to ace (like Vice President Kamala Harris’s deployment to address the “root causes” of migration). This morning, I headed to a machine shop in West Pittston, Pa., where Vice President JD Vance was stepping up to shoulder what is becoming a delicate task: selling President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Stumping for your boss’s signature legislation might not ordinarily be an arduous assignment. But at least at this early point, the law, for which Vance cast a tiebreaking vote, is simply not very popular. Some Republicans have warned that it will cost their party seats; one is already trying to roll back the bill’s cuts to Medicaid. Making matters worse for Vance, hints of distrust were in the air, given the furor over the administration’s decision not to release more information about the investigation into the convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The machine shop began filling up with devoted Trump and Vance fans, who arrived in Trump 2028 hats or T-shirts showing the moment the president survived an assassination attempt last summer. But even here, there were questions about the new law, and signs that Democrats’ efforts to highlight it as regressive and call it a giveaway for the wealthy were breaking through. “The Democrats are saying that, I forget the number, but, like, millions of people are going to lose their health care and that kind of thing. And I just want to know if that’s true,” said Jane Mizerak, 68, a Republican from the nearby town of West Wyoming, who said she had voted for Trump each time he had run for president. “Are there cuts?” Mizerak wondered. “How deep are they? What’s going to happen to folks it does affect?” Kelly Crawford, a 52-year-old nurse from West Pittston, told me she wasn’t worried about the Medicaid cuts, which she believes will target waste and fraud in the system. She likes the law overall, and she loves Trump and Vance. But she did have one concern about the legislation: how it will change federal student loans. “I have two college kids,” Crawford explained, adding that she hoped Vance would be able to help people understand the bill. “There’s a lot of false rumors, so I’d rather listen right from him, and get the truth on it.” Vance did not address either of these questions during his 20 minutes onstage. Instead, he opened his remarks by talking about immigration and the border, and complaining about an opinion essay on the subject by a former Biden administration official in The New York Times. When he got around to the new law, he sought to frame it as a bonanza for the working class, talking up the temporary tax deductions for overtime work and the $1,000 it provides for every newborn, regardless of a family’s income. (He did not address the Congressional Budget Office’s finding that the law would raise incomes for the richest Americans while lowering them for the poorest.) Vance seemed well aware that there was more work to do to shift the narrative around the bill, and he asked the crowd to help him. “Go and talk to your neighbors, go and talk to your friends about what this bill does for American citizens,” he said. Not everyone seemed so ready to sell it. And some of those who did, like Jamie Walsh, a Republican state representative, said they had questions for Vance about Epstein, too — if only they could ask them. “Myself, my constituents, we want to see that list. We want to see who was committing crimes against children, and we need to hold them to the highest level that we can,” Walsh said as he waited to enter the event. Many people have called for the release of a “client list” they believe Epstein kept; a Justice Department memo says there was no such list. “People deserve to know that. Trump did say he would release it. Bondi made a big deal about it. I think it should be exposed,” said Christine Matticks, 46, a Republican who wore a MAGA hat and a shawl decorated with blue and white stars, while referring to Pam Bondi, the attorney general. But she called the matter a distraction, not a deal breaker. “I’m really interested in our economy, and I think Trump’s the man.” Vance worked mightily to keep the attention on the law in front of him. For him, the stakes are high. He is, for the moment, the heir apparent to Trump’s political movement, and his political fortunes — more so than his boss’s — could turn on how the public feels about the law as it begins to reshape American finances. Crawford, the nurse, told me she didn’t think Vance would have supported a bill that would hurt the working class. The applause he earned was enthusiastic but not overwhelming. “This is a fun job, my friends,” he said as he wrapped up his remarks.
IN HIS WORDS An Epstein eruptionMy colleague Minho Kim, a reporter in the Washington bureau, looks at a somewhat unexpected verbal barrage from President Trump. “Weaklings.” “Stupid.” President Trump did not mince words in expressing his frustration. What was surprising was he was denigrating his supporters. For days, his most vocal partisans have been at odds with him over the potential release of files related to the investigations of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose connection to wealthy figures and death by suicide in prison fueled conspiracy theories — theories that Trump and his appointees helped spread. Last week, the Justice Department declared that there was nothing more to see, and the president told everyone to move on. But his supporters have not complied. On Wednesday, he sounded as if he was ready to disown them. “My PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” he wrote on his social media site, adding, “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work.” “I don’t want their support anymore!” he wrote. A few hours later, Trump again slammed his supporters for putting stock in a baseless theory that Epstein was killed by people who feared the release of his client list. “They’re stupid people,” Trump said from the Oval Office, seated next to the crown prince of Bahrain. “Certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats.” Got a tip? ONE NUMBER
New polling suggests that Americans, and particularly Republicans, are warming to immigration. My colleague Ruth Igielnik explains. Concern about the migrant crisis surged in 2021 alongside an increase in immigration across the southern border, resulting in a drop in public support for immigration. But six months into the Trump administration’s efforts to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history, Americans have grown less negative about the issue. A record number of adults in the United States — 79 percent — now believe immigration is a “good thing” for the country, according to a new survey by Gallup. The change has been particularly stark among Republicans: 64 percent now say immigration is a good thing, up from 39 percent last year. That’s a return to 2020 levels of support. Republican support for lowering immigration rates plummeted to 48 percent, from 88 percent just a year ago. A plurality still want immigration to decrease, but an increasing share express a desire to keep immigration at current levels. The results are in line with other recent surveys that suggest attitudes on immigration may be returning to pre-2021 levels, as President Trump has intensified efforts to detain and deport people. Overall, 42 percent of Americans approve of how Trump has been handling immigration, down from 51 percent in March, according to polling from CNN and SSRS. The share of Republicans who disapprove of the way Trump is handling immigration rose to 15 percent, from 5 percent, in the same time period. Still, immigration remains an area where Mr. Trump receives some of his strongest approval ratings. And four in 10 voters — and 84 percent of Republicans — approve of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University.
ASK THE TIMES Trump vs. MamdaniA few weeks ago, we asked for your questions about the New York City mayor’s race — and, boy, did you have some. We took them to reporters and editors across the newsroom, and we published a selection of them. Today, I want to highlight one about Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, that was answered by my colleague Hamed Aleaziz, who covers immigration. Q: Do you believe that Trump’s threats about “arresting” Mamdani, or otherwise interfering with his campaign, are a concern for his candidacy? Is a threat to “revoking” Mamdani’s citizenship just Trump bluster, or a ploy to gain leverage over him? — John Bergot, Bellingham, Wash. A: The Trump administration would have to go through a process known as denaturalization to strip Mr. Mamdani of his U.S. citizenship. Such a process is lengthy and difficult: “The government holds a high burden of proof when attempting to revoke a person’s naturalization,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The government would have to show that he got his citizenship after hiding a “material fact.” Read more questions and answers. |
