Letters from an American - February 21, 2025

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

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February 21st, 2025. In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, yesterday, billionaire Elon Musk seemed to be having difficulty speaking. Musk brandished a chainsaw like that Argentina's president Javier Malay used to symbolize the drastic cuts he intended to make to his country's government, then posted that image to X, labeling it the Doge Father, although the administration has recently told a court that Musk is neither an employee nor the leader of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Politico called Musk's behavior eccentric. While attendees cheered Musk on,

outside CPAC there appears to be a storm brewing. While Trump and his team have claimed they have a mandate. In fact, more people voted for someone other than Trump in 2024, and his early approval ratings were only 47%, the lowest of any president going back to 1953 when Gallup began checking them. His approval has not grown as he has called himself a king

and openly mused about running for a third term. A Washington Post Ipsos poll released yesterday shows that even that honeymoon is over. Only 45% approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 53% disapprove. 43% of Americans say they support what Trump has done since he took office, 48% oppose his actions.

The number of people who strongly support his actions sits at 27%, the number who strongly oppose them is 12 points higher, at 39 percent. Fifty-seven percent of Americans think Trump has gone beyond his authority as president. Americans especially dislike his attempts to end U.S. aid, his tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, and his firing of large numbers of government workers. Even Trump's signature issue of deporting undocumented immigrants receives 51% approval only if respondents think those deported are criminals. 57% opposed deporting those who are not accused of crimes, 70% opposed deporting those brought to the U.S. as children,

and 66% oppose deporting those who have children who are U.S. citizens. 83% of Americans oppose Trump's pardon of the violent offenders convicted for their behavior during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Even those who identify as Republican-leaning oppose those pardons, 70 to 27 percent. As Aaron Blake points out in the Washington Post, a new CNN poll, also released yesterday, shows that Musk is a major factor in Trump's declining ratings. By nearly two to one, Americans see Musk having a prominent role in the administration as a bad thing. The ratio was 54 to 28. The Washington Post Ipsos poll showed that Americans disapprove of Musk shutting down federal government programs that he decides are unnecessary by the wide margin of 52 to 26. 63% of Americans are worried about Musk's team

getting access to their data. Meanwhile, Jessica Piper of Politico noted that 62% of Americans in the CNN poll said that Trump has not done enough to try to reduce prices. And today's economic news bears out that concern. Not only are egg prices at an all-time high, but also consumer sentiment dropped to a 15-month low as people worry that Trump's tariffs will raise prices.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields said in a statement, "'The American people actually feel great about the direction of the country. What's to hate? We are undoing the widely unpopular agenda of the previous office holder, uprooting waste, fraud, and abuse, and chugging along on the Great American comeback. Phone calls swamping the congressional switchboards and constituents turning out for

town halls with House members disprove Fields' statement. In packed rooms with overflow spaces, constituents have shown up this week both to demand that their representatives take a stand against Musk's slashing of the federal government and access to personal data, and to protest Trump's claim to be a king. In an eastern Oregon district that Trump won by 68%, Constituents shouted at Representative Cliff Bents, tax Elon, tax the wealthy, tax the rich, and tax the billionaires.

In a solid Red Atlanta suburb, the crowd was so angry at Representative Richard McCormick that he has apparently gone to ground, bailing on a CNN interview about the disastrous town hall at the last minute. That Trump is feeling the pressure from voters showed this week when he appeared to offer two major distractions. A pledge to consider using money from savings found by the Department of Government Efficiency to provide rebates to

taxpayers, although so far it hasn't shown any savings and economists say the promise of checks is unrealistic. And a claim that he would release a list of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Trump is also under pressure from the law. The Associated Press sued three officials in the Trump administration today for blocking AP journalists from presidential events because the AP continues to use the traditional name Gulf of Mexico for the Gulf that Trump is trying to rename. The AP is suing over the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Today a federal court granted a preliminary injunction to stop Musk and

the Department of Government Efficiency team from accessing Americans private information in the Treasury Department's central payment system. Eighteen states and the Department of Government Efficiency team from accessing Americans' private information in the Treasury Department's central payment system. 18 states had filed the lawsuit. Tonight, a federal court granted a nationwide injunction against Trump's executive orders attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion, finding that they violate the First and Fifth Amend amendments to the Constitution.

Trump is also under pressure from principled state governors. In his State of the State address on Wednesday, February 19th, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker noted that, It's in fashion at the federal level right now to just indiscriminately slash school funding, health care coverage, support for farmers, and veteran services. They say they're doing it to eliminate inefficiencies, but only an idiot would think we should eliminate

emergency response in a natural disaster, education and healthcare for disabled children, gang crime investigations, clean air and water programs, monitoring of nursing home abuse, nuclear reactor regulation, and cancer research. He recalled, here in Illinois 10 years ago, we saw the consequences of a rampant ideological gutting of government. It genuinely harmed people. Our citizens hated it. Trust me, I won an entire election based in part on just how much they hated it." Pritzker went on to address the dangers

of the Trump administration directly. We don't have kings in America, he said, and I don't intend to bend the knee to one. If you think I'm overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this. It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours, and forty minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All I'm saying is when the five alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control." He recalled how ordinary Illinoians outnumbered Nazis who marched in Chicago in 1978 by about 2000 to 20 and noted,

Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the tragic spirit of despair overcome us when our country needs us the most. Today, Maine Governor Janet Mills took the fight against Trump's overreach directly to him at a meeting of the nation's governors, in a rambling speech in which he was wandering through his false campaign stories about transgender athletes, Trump turned to his notes and suddenly appeared to remember

his executive order banning transgender student athletes from playing on girls sports teams. The body that governs sports in Maine, the Maine Principles Association, ruled that it would continue to allow transgender students to compete, despite Trump's executive order, because the Maine state human rights law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender identity. Trump asked if the governor of Maine was in the room. Yeah, I'm here, replied Governor Mills.

Are you not going to comply with it? Trump asked. I'm complying with state and federal laws, she said. We are the federal law, Trump said. You better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't. We're going to follow the law, she said. You better comply because otherwise you're not going to follow the law," she said. You better comply because

otherwise you're not going to get any federal funding," he said. Mills answered, see you in court. As Sean McCreech of the New York Times put it, something happened at the White House Friday afternoon that almost never happens these days. Somebody defied President Trump right to his face. Hours later the Trump administration launched an investigation into Maine's Department of Education, specifically its policy on transgender athletes. Maine Attorney General Aaron Fry said that any attempt to cut federal funding for the state over the issue would be illegal and in direct violation of federal court orders.

Fortunately, he said in a statement, the rule of law still applies in this country, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine's laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us. What is at stake here is the rule of law in our country, Mills said in a statement. No president can withhold federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers

in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It's a violation of our constitution and of our laws. Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his administration, but we won't be the last. Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself, who and what will he target next? And what will you do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your religion? Will it be because you look different or think differently?

Where does it end? In America, the president is neither a king nor a dictator, as much as this one tries to act like it. And it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so. Do not be misled. This is not just about who can compete on the athletic field. This is about whether a president can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot."

American sense that Musk has too much power is likely to be heightened by tonight's report from Andrea Shalall and Joey Roulette of Reuters that the United States is trying to force Ukraine to sell away rights to its critical minerals by threatening to cut off access to Musk's Starlink satellite system. Ukraine turned to that system after the Russians destroyed its communication services. And Americans' concerns about Trump acting like a dictator are unlikely to be calmed by tonight's news that Trump has abruptly purged the leadership

of the military in apparent unconcern over the message that such a sweeping purge sends to adversaries. He has fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown, who Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested got the job only because he is Black, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations, who was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and whom Hegseth called a DEI hire. The Vice Chief of the Air Force, General James Slife, has also been fired, and Hegseth indicated he intends to fire the Judge Advocates General, or JAGS,

the military lawyers who administer the Military Code of Justice for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Trump has indicated he intends to nominate Air Force Lieutenant General John Dan Raisen Kaine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Orrin Lieberman and Haley Britsky of CNN call this an extraordinary move since Kaine is retired and is not a four-star general, a legal requirement, and will need a presidential waiver to take the job. Trump has referred to Cain as right out of central casting. Defense One, which covers U.S. defense and international security, called the firings

a bloodbath. Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, Dead in Massachusetts, recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.