Following six months of war, Americans remain largely skeptical of President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict, even as Republicans continue to push for military action and the president himself remains a central focus of the political landscape. This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your day. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
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At the six-month mark of the Iran war, Americans remain profoundly sour on President Donald Trump’s handling of the conflict, a sentiment intensified by the recent deaths of several people in Nepal-Tibet floodwaters. A coroner has questioned whether measles played a role in an infant’s demise.
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Reputable, nonpartisan polls conducted over the last few weeks have found Trump’s approval rating on his handling of Iran to range from 25% to 35%. A July Fox News poll showed that 34% of registered voters approved of Trump’s handling of Iran, roughly in line with CNBC’s July poll, which found 35% approval. A Reuters poll conducted a few days ago put Trump’s approval rating on Iran at 29%.
While Americans have broadly disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict from the start, the recent lows represent a decline from his earlier polling on the issue. Just as the war began, a NBC News poll of registered voters found that 41% approved of Trump’s handling of the conflict, while 54% disapproved. In the same survey, 52% of registered voters said the U.S. should not have taken military action against Iran. That opposition has persisted. In the most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, just 35% approved of the military action, while 62% disapproved.
A closer look at what Americans think of the war reveals more than 500 people have been killed and more than 1,000 people are missing. The disaster has marked the latest in a series of catastrophic events in the Himalayas, linked to rising temperatures and shifting ice and rock at high elevations. Experts said the precise sequence of events may not become clear for days or even weeks, but a prevailing theory has emerged.
‘The probability is almost 100% that this is permafrost,’ said Wilfried Haeberli, a professor emeritus at the University of Zurich, adding that as climate change continues, ‘this will be even more serious.’ Alton Byers, a faculty research scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder, explained that permafrost acts as the adhesive that keeps frozen slopes intact. When it thaws, gravity takes over.
A closer look at the dangers the Himalayas face.
Follow our live blog for the latest updates.
A federal judge said he is considering temporarily blocking the Kennedy Center board’s plans to add Donald Trump’s name to the performance venue, during a hearing in which he peppered a DOJ attorney with questions about the effort. The hearing came after a Justice Department lawyer suggested in a court filing this week that the center could be demolished if Trump’s name is not allowed to be added to the site.
The Trump-appointed Kennedy Center board voted this month to add the words ‘renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump’ to the building and rename the property ‘President Donald J. Trump Plaza’ by Sept. 8. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper asked a DOJ attorney, “What’s magic about that date?” He also questioned why adding the president’s name to the building would not violate federal law.
How the Trump administration responded.
This week, the Pennsylvania Health Department announced two deaths associated with measles, including an infant. That same day, Lancaster County Coroner Dr. Stephen Diamantoni said that the infant died shortly after birth from an internal hemorrhage and a ‘traumatic rupture’ of the spleen. While Diamantoni said he found evidence of the measles virus in the infant’s lung tissue, it remained unclear whether measles played a role in the child’s death. The state’s health secretary, however, expressed confidence in her department’s conclusion that the death was ‘measles-associated,’ a term that means there was epidemiologic evidence of a measles infection. Here’s what else we know so far.
The announcement of the two measles-associated deaths in Pennsylvania has triggered a flurry of political sparring, misinformation, and confusion. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Gov. Josh Shapiro have traded jabs, with Kennedy suggesting the deaths may have been ‘fabricated,’ and Shapiro criticizing vaccine misinformation from the federal government. As the debate continues and cases rise, local officials worry the competing claims could sow confusion among parents deciding whether to vaccinate their children.
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Source: NBC News
