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Year: 2026

Democrats cool to Trump pushing SAVE Act election bill in voter dial

Democrats cool to Trump pushing SAVE Act election bill in voter dial

Democrats were not happy with President Donald Trump‘s State of the Union remarks implementing voter ID requirements and the SAVE America Act. A dial test administered by Lee Carter, the president of maslansky+partners, showed Democrats taking a serious dive when the president spoke about the issue. During his speech, Trump asked lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act in order “to stop illegal aliens and others who are unpermitted persons from voting in our sacred American elections.” He decried allegedly “rampant” cheating in American elections. “It’s very simple. All voters must show voter ID. All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote. And no more crooked mail in ballots except for illness, disability, military or travel. None,” Trump said. “Why would anybody not want voter ID? One reason, because they want to cheat,” Trump added, referring to Democrats. “They make up all excuses. They say it’s racist. They come up with things. You almost say what imagination they have! They want to cheat, they have cheated, and their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat.” GOP WARNS DEMOCRATS USING DHS SHUTDOWN TO STALL SENATE VOTER ID PUSH While Democrats reacted negatively, Republicans had a positive response to Trump’s call for the passage of the SAVE America Act. While Independents did not react as positively as Republicans, their line in the dial test remained above the Democrats. The group monitored by Carter, which included 29 Democrats, 41 Republicans and 30 Independents, had mixed reactions to a number of moments in Trump’s speech. Carter found that the most polarizing issue of the night was gender policy. One of the president’s special guests was Sage Blair, a young woman whose family filed a 2023 lawsuit alleging that Appomattox County High School staff socially transitioned her and treated her as a boy without her parents’ knowledge. “But surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” Trump said. “We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.” INDEPENDENTS LOVED MOMENT TRUMP INTRODUCED TEAM USA MEN’S HOCKEY TEAM, VOTER DIAL SHOWS When the president saw that Democratic lawmakers in the chamber did not stand at that remark, he ripped them as “crazy.” Supporters in the focus group reacted mostly positively to the gender policy remarks, saying things like “Protect children. Crazy people there” and “If someone wants to change gender, they should do it as an adult. Period.” Meanwhile, critics in the group slammed the president, with one saying that it was “a bold-faced lie” and that Trump was taking “every opportunity to divide the country.” Despite the disparate reactions on the issues of voting and gender, there were some moments in which people of opposing views overlapped, both in favor and against the president.  Many supporters and opponents expressed concerns about Trump’s tone during the speech, the dial test showed. Carter noted that some supporters were unhappy with the president’s jokes, remarks about the Supreme Court and mentions of former President Joe Biden. Meanwhile, the president’s critics said the tone was “embarrassing,” “divisive” and “selfish.” While there were many moments that caused disagreement among American across the political spectrum, there were points of unity in the speech. Republicans and Democrats had positive responses when Trump awarded the Purple Heart to Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe and deceased Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom. Wolfe and Beckstrom were shot by a gunman who ambushed them last year in Washington, D.C. Wolfe was critically injured in the attack, while Beckstrom was fatally shot. Beckstrom’s parents accepted the award in their daughter’s honor. Another unifying moment came when Trump brought out the U.S. men’s hockey team, which just scored a historic overtime victory against Canada in the Olympics. Carter noted that the president’s critics were pleased with the recognition of the Olympians, with one calling it a “nice moment.”

Trump says Iran pursues ‘sinister ambitions,’ hasn’t told US that Tehran ‘will never have a nuclear program’

Trump says Iran pursues ‘sinister ambitions,’ hasn’t told US that Tehran ‘will never have a nuclear program’

President Donald Trump warned in his State of the Union address that Iran has “sinister ambitions” with its nuclear program and that the U.S. has not yet heard from Tehran that it will “never have a nuclear weapon.”  The remarks come as the U.S. and Iran are gearing up for another round of negotiations on Thursday.   “After Midnight Hammer, they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program and, in particular, nuclear weapons. Yet they continue starting it all over. We wiped it out, and they want to start all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions,” Trump said Tuesday, referencing the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last summer.  “We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘We will never have a nuclear weapon,’” Trump added. “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon. Can’t let that happen.”  IRAN’S SHADOWY CHEMICAL WEAPONS PROGRAM DRAWS SCRUTINY AS REPORTS ALLEGE USE AGAINST PROTESTERS “For decades it had been the policy of the United States never to allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Many decades. Since they seized control of that proud nation 47 years ago, the regime and its murderous proxies have spread nothing but terrorism and death and hate,” Trump also said during his speech. “They’ve killed and maimed thousands of American service members and hundreds of thousands and even millions of people with what’s called roadside bombs. They were the kings of the roadside bomb. And we took out [Iranian Gen. Qassim] Soleimani. I did that during my first term. Had a huge impact. He was the father of the roadside bomb.”  LEAVITT SAYS TRUMP CHOOSES DIPLOMACY FIRST FOR IRAN, BUT REMAINS ‘WILLING TO USE’ LETHAL FORCE IF NECESSARY “And just over the last couple of months with the protests, they’ve killed, at least, it looks like 32,000 protesters in their own country. They shot them and hung them. We stopped them from hanging a lot of them, with the threat of serious violence. But this is some terrible people. They’ve already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America,” Trump said. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said following Trump’s address that, “No one should be fooled by these prominent untruths.”  “Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies,’” Baghaei claimed on X. 

Thomas criticizes Supreme Court majority for ‘needlessly’ expanding precedent in unanimous decision

Thomas criticizes Supreme Court majority for ‘needlessly’ expanding precedent in unanimous decision

Justice Clarence Thomas criticized the majority opinion in a Tuesday Supreme Court ruling that he says “needlessly” expanded court precedent on trial issues. Thomas made the argument in a concurring opinion to a unanimous decision the court released regarding the extent to which a trial judge can restrict interaction between a defendant and his attorneys during a trial recess. The facts of the case, Villareal v. Texas, relate to the trial testimony for David Villarreal, who was defending himself against murder charges in Texas. During the trial, Villareal’s testimony was interrupted by a 24-hour overnight recess, and the judge in the case instructed Villareal’s attorneys not to “manage his testimony” during the recess. TRUMP’S TARIFF REVENUES HIT RECORD HIGHS AS SUPREME COURT DEALS MAJOR BLOW The judge clarified, however, that the order was not a blanket restriction on Villareal’s communication with his attorneys. He said they could discuss topics other than the defendant’s testimony, such as possible sentencing issues. SUPREME COURT RULES ON TRUMP TARIFFS IN MAJOR TEST OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH POWERS Villareal was ultimately convicted in the case, and his attorney’s appealed the decision by arguing the judge’s restrictions infringed on the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The case was ultimately appealed up to the Supreme Court, which ruled against the defendant’s argument. The court’s majority opinion, penned by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, stated that court precedent allowed judges to restrict attorneys and their clients from discussing testimony in the middle of a trial. What Thomas objected to, however, was that the majority opinion went on to clarify that defendants and attorneys can discuss testimony if it is “incidental to other topics,” such as plea advice or strategy. Thomas argued that clarification “needlessly expands our precedents” when existing law was more than adequate for guiding a ruling in the case. “The trial judge’s order here complied with our precedents,” Thomas wrote. “The trial judge instructed defense counsel not to ‘discuss what you couldn’t discuss with [Villarreal] if he was on the stand in front of the jury,’ and explained that ‘you couldn’t confer with him while he was on the stand about his testimony.’” “I am unable to join the majority opinion because it unnecessarily expands these precedents. It purports to ‘announce’ a ‘rule’ under which a defendant has a constitutional right to ‘discussion of testimony’ so long as that discussion is ‘incidental to other topics,’” Thomas concluded.