Trump’s remarks on Ukraine loaded
with false information
Donald Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last night and blamed Ukraine for starting the war that actually was started by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he sent his troops to invade Ukraine. Trump said the war could have been quickly ended if Ukraine had given Russia a small piece of its territory, whereas Putin actually had intended to seize the entire country and expected to have his troops take over the capital city Kyiv within three days of the invasion. Trump said that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has only a 4% approval rating, when recent polling shows him with a 57% approval rating.
Zelenskyy hits back at Trump
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy today spoke out against U.S. President Donald Trump for the remarks Trump made yesterday about Zelenskyy and Ukraine. Zelenskyy said that Trump is living in what Zelenskyy called a Russian disinformation space, which is Zelenskyy’s description of Trump repeating Russia propaganda. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had received far less in U.S. aid than the $350 billion claimed by Trump and denied that some of the aid had been misappropriated as Trump claimed. Zelenskyy said he would not sell out Ukraine in a peace deal that included the U.S. taking over the valuable minerals that are Ukraine’s natural resources.
No evidence of widespread fraud
at Social Security despite claims by Trump and Musk
CNN, the Associated Press, Forbes magazine and others report this morning that Elon Musk’s and Donald Trump’s claims about widespread fraud in Social Security payments are false and that no widespread fraud has been uncovered. They had claimed that tens of millions of people more than 100 years old have been fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits. Former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said in interviews on CNN and MSNBC yesterday that Republicans in Congress have cut the number of employees at the agency to its lowest level in 50 years and if Musk and Trump make more cuts they will jeopardize the Social Security benefits of 70 million people.
Poll shows Trump’s approval rating slips
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released this morning shows that Donald Trump’s job approval rating has slipped from 47% when he began his second term to 44%. His disapproval rating has gone up from 41% after he took office to 51% in the latest poll. The number of people who approve of Trump’s handling of the economy has fallen to 39% with 53% believing that the U.S. economy is on the wrong track. With respect to inflation, only 32% approve of Trump’s handling of the issue.
Trump Administration scrambling
to rehire bird flu experts
Trump Administration scramblingAfter having fired experts at the Department of Agriculture who had been working to combat bird flu, the Trump Administration is now trying to rehire them. The firings took place over the weekend. Bird flu cases have been on the rise in the U.S., affecting chickens, cows, other animals and spreading to humans. The effort to undo firings at the Department of Agriculture repeats what happened at the National Nuclear Security Administration when Musk and Trump fired about 300 employees charged with protecting the security of nuclear weapons and then had to rectify the mistake.
Confidence in air safety slips
A poll by the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that public confidence in the safety of air travel has gone down slightly in the wake of the midair collision over the Potomac in Washington. The poll shows that 64% of Americans believe air travel is very or somewhat safe, down from 71% in a poll taken last year. About 20% believe air travel is somewhat or very unsafe, up from 12% last year. Only about half of the people polled expressed confidence that the federal government can ensure air safety.
