On today’s show: David Weigel of Semafor joins to talk about the various responses to the Trump administration from Democrats and those forming an early opposition to his moves. Plus, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer changes his position and backs the GOP’s funding bill, Trump’s effort to ban birthright citizenship makes it to the Supreme Court, and Donatella Versace steps down. Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Friday, March 14th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, politicians on the left are testing out different resistance messages against Trump. Senator Chuck Schumer gets on board with Republicans' funding bill. And a giant of the fashion industry steps away.
Let's start with a pulse check on Democratic Party leadership and opposition to President Trump seven weeks into the new administration. In the flurry of early actions by Trump, Democratic voices were largely sidelined by a barrage of daily headlines.
But in the past few weeks and days, we've seen a number of Democrats and at least one independent step forward and position themselves as messengers for voters who are feeling disillusioned with Trump. For more on what the opposition looks like and how it's taking shape,
I called up Dave Weigel, national political reporter at Semaphore, and I asked him if it feels like the Democratic response to Trump is only starting to gel in the past few days.
It does. Yes, Democrats came together a bit more over the last week, but their fate was not entirely in their hands. They've had a message really since they lost the election. I'd say right before they were a little more muddled on the role of Elon Musk and the idea that Trump is going to hand the country over to billionaires and cut things you love to give tax cuts to the rich.
They actually have been saying that for months and months and months. But did it click? until recently. I don't really think it did. And we've seen polling this week from CNN that shows while Trump's more popular on immigration policy than ever, this is the lowest approval he's had on the economy. And that's good for Democrats.
So it sounds like you're saying message is consistent. Circumstances have changed, which has made the message more effective.
Yes, but it's by people who sometimes disagree with each other. I don't think, for example, James Carville and Bernie Sanders think they agree with each other that much. But the Carville case, which he made in The New York Times, is that Democrats should play dead, should not try to work with Trump or take credit for anything over the next couple of years.
Right. Kind of let Republicans squabble it out.
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