Opinion Today
January 28, 2026
Confidence in ICE is falling and half of Americans support cutting its funding Taylor Orth, YouGov A growing share of Americans say they lack confidence in Immigration and Customs Enforcement. More support cuts to spending on ICE than do for any of nine other types of federal government spending asked about.
Donald Trump's support from Independents hits a new low David Montgomery and Taylor Orth, YouGov Donald Trump remains broadly unpopular, with record low job approval among Independents and a record high 49% of Americans who say they strongly disapprove of Trump's job handling.
Opinion of congressional Democrats plunges thanks to flagging support within their own party David Montgomery and Taylor Orth, YouGov Democrats hold an increasingly negative view of Democratic members of Congress. Combined with Republicans' consistently unfavorable views of congressional Democrats, this makes Democrats in Congress less well-liked than congressional Republicans or than Donald Trump.
Americans would like Trump to deprioritize foreign policy — especially Greenland — and focus on the economy Taylor Orth, YouGov Americans would generally prefer for Donald Trump to spend less time on foreign policy and instead focus more on domestic issues and the economy. Trump's bid to acquire Greenland remains unpopular and few members of either party are in favor of using tariffs to incentivize European countries to back the proposed acquisition.
The issues that Democrats and Republicans want their parties to focus on more Jamie Ballard, YouGov A new YouGov survey explores how Democrats and Republicans feel about how much their party focuses on major issues. Large shares of both Democrats and Republicans think their party focuses too little on corruption. And among both Democrats and Republicans, many think their party focuses too much on transgender issues.
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US Consumer Confidence Fell Sharply in January Conference Board “Confidence collapsed in January, as consumer concerns about both the present situation and expectations for the future deepened,” said Dana M Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board. “All five components of the Index deteriorated, driving the overall Index to its lowest level since May 2014 (82.2)—surpassing its COVID-19 pandemic depths.”
Play Hardball: Use Your Leverage to Reform ICE Adam Jentleson, Searchlight Institute Ahead of the Senate’s vote on whether to appropriate funds to the Department of Homeland Security, new polling finds that Americans want to see comprehensive reforms of Donald Trump’s ICE, even as they signal strong support for enforcing our nation’s immigration laws. Democrats should use their leverage to demand commonsense reforms to ICE that have the backing of broad bipartisan majorities of Americans.
ICE’s Aggression is Fracturing Republicans Maryann Cousens & Julie Alderman Boudreau, Navigator Research This Navigator Research report covers shifting public sentiment on immigration, Trump’s handling of immigration and deportations, and the deployment of ICE following the shooting of Renee Good in Minnesota.
Voters Do Not Want the U.S. to Acquire Greenland Data for Progress In a new survey, Data for Progress finds that a strong majority of voters (62%) think the U.S. should not try to acquire Greenland, while 30% think it should. Majorities of Democrats (88%) and Independents (63%), as well as about 1 in 3 Republicans, agree the U.S. should not try to acquire the island.
Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication • Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not by a ratio of more than 5 to 1 (72% versus 13%). • By a 2 to 1 margin, more Americans think global warming is mostly human-caused (58%) than mostly caused by natural changes in the environment (29%). • 64% of Americans say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. • 44% of Americans think people in the United States are being harmed by global warming “right now,” and 47% say they have personally experienced the effects of global warming.
New Hampshire: Granite Staters Support Obamacare Subsidies, Disapprove of Trump & Congress's Handling of Health Care University of New Hampshire Survey Center Just over half of New Hampshire residents support extending the recently expired Obamacare subsidies and nearly half of residents would support instituting a national "single-payer" health care system. Granite Staters are divided along partisan lines on whether to expand or repeal Obamacare. Vermont: Most Support Extending Obamacare Subsidies & Establishing Single Payer System University of New Hampshire Survey Center Majorities of Vermont residents support extending temporary Obamacare subsidies, expanding Obamacare overall, loosening restrictions on Medicaid eligibility, and establishing a national "single-payer" health care system. The ICE shootings are a tipping point G. Elliott Morris, Strength In Numbers In this week’s Deep Dive, I look at how the data on immigration policy is changing rapidly, how that fits in the context of historical tipping points in U.S. policy and polling, the early effects of the killing of Alex Pretti on members of Congress, and the likely path forward.
Donald Trump Can Be Stopped Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic [unlocked] The president’s retreat in Minneapolis is a stinging defeat for the national conservatives. Republicans Shift Tone After Killings, Criticizing Trump’s Immigration Push Carl Hulse, New York Times [unlocked] With the president signaling a pivot in his crackdown, G.O.P. lawmakers have felt freer to express concern. But it’s not clear what they are willing to do about it. It Wasn’t Democrats Who Persuaded Trump to Change Course Jonathan Lemire and Russell Berman, The Atlantic [unlocked] A flood of GOP statements sent an unmistakable message to Trump: Enough. RNC pushed Bovino’s false claims as talking points hours before his removal Alec Hernandez, Politico A new memo from the RNC reveals how the party wanted to frame the fallout over a second fatal shooting in Minnesota — but shows how quickly the messaging is changing in real time Blame game erupts over Trump team's false claim Alex Pretti sought "massacre" Marc Caputo, Axios Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is under fire for issuing misleading and incendiary information that claimed immigration agents killed an armed Minnesota protestor Saturday because he wanted to "massacre" them. ‘Latinas for Trump’ Co-Founder Warns Immigration Will Cost G.O.P. the Midterms Patricia Mazzei, New York Times [unlocked] State Senator Ileana Garcia, who is Cuban American, said the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis was “abhorrent.” What Trump and Republicans Never Understood About Immigration Paul Waldman, The Cross Section They thought all Americans shared their hatred and bloodlust. Assume this loutocracy is lying about ICE until proven otherwise George F. Will, Washington Post [unlocked] Kristi Noem isn’t the only reason millions of Americans increasingly distrust the deportation mania. Another Democratic shutdown: Is it Groundhog Day again? David Winston (Winston Group), Roll Call And would that be a bet worth making given their last foray into shutdown politics? Minneapolis shooting scrambles Second Amendment politics for Trump Bill Barrow and Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press Prominent Republicans and gun rights advocates helped elicit a White House turnabout this week after bristling over the administration’s characterization of Alex Pretti, the second person killed this month by a federal officer in Minneapolis, as responsible for his own death because he lawfully possessed a weapon. Administration Social Media Posts Echo White Supremacist Messaging Evan Gorelick, New York Times [unlocked] A flurry of posts from the White House, Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security have included images, slogans and even a song used by the white nationalist right. Trump’s use of AI images pushes new boundaries, further eroding public trust, experts say Kaitlyn Huamani, Associated Press The White House’s use of artificial intelligence has troubled misinformation experts who fear the spreading of AI-generated or edited images erodes public perception of the truth and sows distrust. ‘I Wouldn’t Say the Democrats Are in Good Shape’ Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times [unlocked] If Democrats are to succeed in excising the Trump malignancy from the body politic, their party faces a major hurdle: public distrust, if not downright animosity. Working-Class Voters Shifted Slightly Toward Democrats in the 2025 Gubernatorial Elections Jazmine Amoako, Center for American Progress Working-class shifts in the 2025 gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey were led by nonwhite voters and suggest that economic issues can move some voters. 5 concerning things Trump has said about the 2026 elections Nathan L. Gonzales, Roll Call President Trump has established a pattern of using declarations of war, emergency and terrorism to justify executive action. And remember, it’s not a question of whether he’s legally allowed to do something, it’s whether he’ll attempt to do it anyway and dare someone or something to stop him. The War of Southern Aggression Michael Podhorzer, Weekend Reading The MAGA reconstruction of the North is well underway The sad and self-inflicted decline of the Washington Post, in one chart Nate Silver, Silver Bulletin Under Jeff Bezos, the paper retreated from the adversarial, anti-Trump posture that helped fuel its growth. And now its influence has fallen sharply. After Donations, Trump Administration Revoked Rule Requiring More Nursing Home Staff Kenneth P. Vogel and Christina Jewett, New York Times [unlocked] Executives who donated to the president’s super PAC met privately with him and urged a repeal of the rule, which was intended to prevent neglect of patients.
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How did Tucker Carlson become one of the far right's most influential voices? Fresh Air ‘New Yorker’ staff writer Jason Zengerle says after Tucker Carlson was let go from CNN and MSNBC, and joined Fox News, Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy revived his career. “Those more prestigious Fox shows… they could not find camera-ready, intelligent human beings to go on their programs and make a sensible case for Donald Trump -- and Tucker was someone who could,” he tells Terry Gross. After Fox fired Carlson in 2023, he started his own streaming show and moved further to the right. Zengerle writes that Carlson’s story shows how conservative media has changed. His book is ‘Hated By All The Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind.’
‘Political disaster’: Enten breaks down ICE, DHS unpopularity CNN CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten breaks down declining public support for the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem.
Minnesota confrontations mirror simulation of how civil war begins, law professor says PBS News Hour Minnesota is the latest flashpoint in a federal crackdown involving ICE, Border Patrol and other agencies. But it's far from the only place targeted. The protests, the clashes and the violence have raised urgent questions about where this all leads. Amna Nawaz spoke with Claire Finkelstein about how it mirrors a U.S. civil war simulation she oversaw in 2024.