SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
We just heard, of course, from our colleague Jane Arraf on talks with Iran. The Trump administration's also involved in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Hamas. Is this level of involvement in foreign conflicts what President Trump campaigned on?
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: You know, a lot of people who voted for him thought that they were getting somebody who is less hawkish, who is not going to involve the United States overseas as much as he has, and his foreign policy actions have been unpopular of late. You know, he has just a 36% approval rating on foreign policy in our latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll that was out this week. A majority said that they think that a president should go through Congress before taking military action like he did in Venezuela, and almost 7 in 10 said that this idea of taking over Greenland is a bad one.
SIMON: I have to ask. Thursday night, President Trump posted a racist meme of former President Obama and Michelle Obama. Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, who is Black and chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee, said on X, it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House. The president should remove it. Post was ultimately taken down, but it was up for 12 hours. And first, the White House press secretary called the criticism fake outrage. What does this say not just about American politics but America right now?
MONTANARO: Well, you know, this was taken down after significant blowback, and Trump himself yesterday was asked about it and said he would not apologize. He said he, quote, "didn't make a mistake" because he only saw the beginning of the video. He was asked specifically about the depiction of the Obamas and whether he condemns it. He said, quote, "of course, I do."
You know, but most presidents would be mortified by something like this, profusely apologize if it would happen and, you know, hope it doesn't end their political careers if, in fact, it went the way that Trump is saying. But not Trump. You know, he shrugs these things off. His base points at those who are offended by this and dismisses them as too sensitive. You know, and this was what Trump's whole campaign was about a decade ago, essentially campaigning against the, quote, political correctness of polite society. And the fuel to Trump's politics has always been based on white grievance, so this is obviously not the first time that something like this has happened. Probably won't be the last, Scott.
SIMON: Can we tell how potential voters feel?
MONTANARO: Well, Republicans have shown that they're willing to stand by Trump no matter what, but his voting coalition has frayed significantly. You know, independents, Latinos and younger voters helped put Trump over the finish line in 2024. And our latest poll shows them moving heavily away from him on every issue, from foreign policy and the economy to immigration enforcement. You know, it's really just been a really bad month politically for Trump.
SIMON: We heard a lot about the ballots being taken in Georgia a couple of weeks ago. What's the latest?
MONTANARO: You know, it's remarkable to me that six years later, after all the lies that Trump has told about the 2020 election, that he's still obsessed with it, and I think we know why. Listen to what he had to say this week at, of all things, the National Prayer Breakfast.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They rigged the second election. I had to win it. Had to win it. I needed it for my own ego. I would've had a bad ego for the rest of my...
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Now I really have a big ego, though.
MONTANARO: Yeah - ego. He said it. You know, it's kind of what we've really known all along. He's needed an off-ramp from that loss, and he did lose. You know, audits, more than 60 court cases certainly prove that. So he's had to resort to chaos and confusion because he's still not over it, despite actually winning again in 2024. And we don't know what he's going to try to do with the Department of Justice in this 2026 midterm election. You know, we've heard him say that Republicans should take it over, that maybe it should be nationalized.
SIMON: Yeah.
MONTANARO: Of course, that's a really, really difficult thing to do because it's in the Constitution that the states run these elections, so that's not likely to happen. But what does he do with the Department of Justice, with immigration enforcement, potentially, in sending people to polling places, you know, potentially disenfranchising people? I think there's a lot of people really nervous about how this is all going to go down.
SIMON: NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thanks so much for being with us today.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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