Alarm as bird flu now ‘endemic in cows’ while Trump cuts staff and funding Experts say current US outbreak is unlikely to end without intervention with further mutation of virus likely
Melody Schreiber Sat 22 Feb 2025 08.00 EST Share A newer variant of H5N1 bird flu has spilled over into dairy cows separately in Nevada and Arizona, prompting new theories about how the virus is spread and leading to questions about containing the ongoing outbreaks.
The news comes amid a purge of experts at federal agencies, including employees who were responding to the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Department of Agriculture.
The additional spillovers are changing experts’ view of how rare introductions to herds may be – with implications for how to prevent such spread.
“It’s endemic in cows now. There is no way this is going to get contained” on its own, said Seema Lakdawala, an influenza virologist and co-director of the Center for Transmission of Airborne Pathogens at Emory School of Medicine.
chickens on a farm US agriculture department says it accidentally fired bird flu officials Read more The current outbreak is unlikely to end without intervention and needs close attention from the Trump administration to prevent the virus from wreaking more havoc.
Yet “we don’t seem to have a handle on the spread of the virus,” said Boghuma Titanji, an infectious disease physician.
Bird flu’s continued spread is happening against the backdrop of the worst flu season in 15 years, since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009-10.
The spike in seasonal flu cases puts pressure on health systems, makes it harder to detect rare variants like H5N1, and raises the risk of reassortment, where a person or animal infected with seasonal flu and bird flu could create a new, more dangerous variant.
“There’s a lot of flu going around, and so the potential for the virus to reassort right now is high,” Lakdawala said. There’s also the possibility of reassortment within animals like cows, now that there are multiple variants detected in herds, she pointed out.
At the same time, the CDC’s seasonal flu vaccination campaigns were halted on Thursday as the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, reportedly called for “informed consent” advertisements instead. A meeting for the independent vaccine advisers was also postponed on Thursday.
The US has also halted communication with the World Health Organization on influenza data.
The new spillovers into dairy cattle in Nevada and Arizona, detected through the new bulk milk testing strategy recently implemented in the US, are both related to the D1.1 variant of H5N1, which emerged in the fall and has come to dominate among North American birds. A teenaged girl in British Columbia suffered severe illness and a man in Louisiana died after infection with this variant.
In Nevada, a dairy worker was infected after close contact with cows, and genomic sequencing revealed a mutation that has been associated in the past with more effective spread among people.
“These are more opportunities for the virus to continue to adapt, and with adaptation, you worry that we’ll ultimately get to a point where we may have a virus that becomes capable of transmitting efficiently between humans, and that then really would change the dynamic of the outbreak,” Titanji said.
Lakdawala raised three theories for how bird flu keeps spilling over into cows.
The first would be a rare event in which fluids from a sick bird somehow came into contact with a cow’s udders – for instance, if a bird defecated into milking equipment. That was a working theory for the first spillover, detected nearly a year ago in Texas cows. But it’s rare for birds to have close contact with milking equipment, and for that to happen three times was “unlikely”, Lakdawala said.
It’s much more common for birds to perch on feeding troughs, where their feces might mix with feed. Usually, cows infected through oral or nasal contact like this don’t see the virus spread to their udders.
But it could happen in rare events – if a cow is unhealthy, for instance – that bird flu goes systemic and enters mammary tissue, where it replicates in enormous quantities, Lakdawala hypothesized.
The third theory? People could be spreading the virus from birds, or another intermediate species, to cows.
“Bird to human infections, we know happen more often,” Lakdawala said. “It’s more likely that somebody handling dead birds or chickens infected with H5 will become infected, and then it’s human to cow” transmission.
All of these theories need more evidence and research, much of which is now threatened by halts in scientific funding from the Trump administration.
Two studies temporarily halted in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report have now been released.
Blood tests on 150 veterinarians revealed three of the vets showed recent infection with H5N1. One of the infected vets worked in a state with no cases among cows, and the two others did not realize they had had contact with an H5-positive animal, indicating continued gaps in monitoring spread.
A study on two households in Michigan indicated that dairy workers may have spread H5N1 to their indoor cats.
Kevin Hassett, director of the national economic council, unveiled the Trump administration’s new strategy on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday in a shift away from trying to contain the outbreak.
Previously, officials “spent billions of dollars just randomly killing chickens within a perimeter where they found a sick chicken”, Hassett said. Infected poultry are culled in this manner because they are very unlikely to survive infection, and containment like this can help halt the spread to other animals – and to the people who care for them.
Hassett instead broached the idea, without providing more details, of using “biosecurity and medication” to “have a better, smarter perimeter”.
Trump fires the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. For what??? Gotta love it when a decorated general is fired and you’re left with a reservist Major/talk show host/drunk in charge of our military.
Hegseth has also flip flopped so many times on the direction he’s given and accomplishing RIFs.
It’s a nightmare of incompetence.
The reason is a apparent as the color of his skin.
Another man child melt down tantrum for anyone who dares to question his authority...................
Trump spars with Maine’s governor at the White House over transgender athletes
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, told Trump, “We’ll see you in court,” over the president's push to deny federal funding to the state over transgender athletes.
President Donald Trump sparred with Maine’s Democratic governor during a meeting of governors at the White House on Friday, with Gov. Janet Mills telling the Republican president, “We’ll see you in court,” over his push to deny federal funding to the state over transgender athletes.
Trump told the governor he looked forward to it, and predicted the end of her political career for opposing his order.
The confrontation came after Mills and Trump had traded barbs over the last 24 hours regarding his push to bar transgender athletes from playing in girls’ and women’s sports. The confrontation in the State Dining Room was an unusual breach of the typically courteous interactions that lawmakers, even of opposing parties, have historically shared at the White House.
The back-and-forth came in the middle of the president’s remarks welcoming the nation’s governors to the White House. As he was speaking about an executive order he signed earlier this month on transgender athletes, he sought out Mills in the room after singling her out a day earlier in remarks to the Republican Governors Association.“Is Maine here, the governor of Maine?” he asked.
“I’m here,” she replied.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” he asked.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills replied.
Trump responded, “We are the federal law.” He again threatened the state’s federal funding and said Maine may be a Democratic state but its residents largely agree with him on this issue.
“We’re going to follow the law,” she said.
“You’d better comply,” Trump warned. “Otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding.”
“We’ll see you in court,” the governor replied.
“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one,” Trump said. “And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Trump made a similar threat Thursday night as he spoke to a group of Republican governors. He said that he “heard men are still playing in Maine” and that he would pull funding because of it.
“So we’re not going to give them any federal funding. None whatsoever, until they clean that up,” Trump said.
The Maine Principals’ Association, which governs high school sports in the state, said earlier this month that it would continue to allow transgender female athletes to compete. The association’s executive director, Mike Burnham, said it would follow the Maine Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on gender identity.
Mills and Maine’s Democratic attorney general responded Friday morning to Trump’s comments the night before, issuing statements declaring they’d push back.
Mills said the state “will not be intimidated” by Trump’s threats.
“If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” Mills said in a statement before the confrontation with Trump.
Aaron Frey, Maine’s attorney general, said he would “defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.”
The order Trump signed earlier this month gives federal agencies wide latitude to make sure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.
The federal government could penalize organizations such as schools or athletic associations that do not comply, possibly by pulling funding such as grants to educational programs.
To me the issue here is secondary to the child like way he is acting. Retribution that would impact every citizen of Maine because of some personal beef over policy with a governor. And let's face it, on the list of importance this is pretty low on the list. But we now live in a world where being a dictator and wannabe king is applauded.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
Glad to see you picked up on that. In just the past few days he has claimed he is a king while acting and sounding like one all at the same time. Murica! Freedumb!
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
damn, we aren't capable of genetically modifying chickens to be immune to diseases like the flu?
this reality sucks. send me to another Earth.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
“Elon threw up a Roman salute, and then the other thing at CPAC – Bannon gets up there – this was some sick s***,” Fuentes said on his Thursday night podcast. “Bannon gets up there and says, ‘Trump’s gonna run in ‘28!’ He goes, ‘We want Trump!’ Then he throws up a straight-up Roman salute! It's getting a little uncomfortable even for a guy like me! Even I’m starting to feel like that guy in that picture who wouldn't Heil Hitler!”
That’s a quote from Nick Fuentes.
Nick freaking Fuentes.
I want to say that again. The holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic, democracy-hating Nick Fuentes is uncomfortable with the gestures done by guys like Musk and Bannon.
Podcaster and ex-Secret Service agent Dan Bongino will be FBI deputy director, Trump says
Dan Bongino, a former Secret Service agent turned right-wing podcaster, has been named the next deputy director of the FBI, President Donald Trump announced Sunday, the latest outsider media personality the president has chosen to be in a significant position of power overseeing large branches of complex government organizations.
The FBI deputy director traditionally is a position held by a career FBI agent. The choice of Bongino is a sign of the blowback toward the interim FBI leadership over its weeklong standoff with Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, over his demand for names of FBI agents involved in the January 6, 2021, and Trump-related investigations.
Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel had told allies initially that Robert Kissane, the acting deputy director, was the likely pick to keep the job until Kissane and Brian Driscoll, the then-FBI acting director before Patel was sworn in, resisted Bove’s demands, according to people briefed on the matter.
In a post on Truth Social on Sunday night, Trump touted Bongino as a patriot with “incredible love and passion for our Country” and highlighted his extensive background in law enforcement. He also noted that Bongino “is willing and prepared to give up” his popular daily radio show and podcast, “The Dan Bongino Show,” “in order to serve.”
“Working with our great new United States Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and Director Patel, Fairness, Justice, Law and Order will be brought back to America, and quickly. Congratulations Dan!” Trump added.
On Friday’s episode of his show, titled “The Golden Age Of Republican Politics, Bongino celebrated the confirmation of his new boss, Patel, saying, “We got Kash through, so now you are going to see what real change is like.”
At nearly the same time Trump posted on social media Sunday, the FBI Agents Association — an organization representing thousands of current and former federal agents — sent a mass email to members welcoming Patel as the new director and outlining the planned collaborative path ahead.
In its update to members obtained by CNN, the Agents Association said Patel recently agreed that the next FBI deputy director, who serves as the powerful chief operations officer in charge of the bureau’s approximately 38,000 employees, should be selected from within the ranks of the organization.
FBI officials noted that Patel made no mention of who his deputy would be during his first full day as director.
Following Patel’s Senate confirmation last week, Driscoll returned to his Newark, New Jersey, office and Kissane, the New York FBI counterterrorism chief, was away on a previously planned family vacation.
Dan Bongino got named Deputy Director of the FBI. Only the most qualified…
I thought you were joking.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
Rift between Trump appointees and Musk over federal employee accountability email
A rift appeared to open Sunday between some of President Donald Trump’s agency heads and Elon Musk, the billionaire tasked with reforming the federal government, over Musk’s demand that all federal employees state their weekly accomplishments or risk termination.
By Sunday evening, leaders at the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Energy had all instructed their staff not to reply to an email that federal workers received from the Office of Personnel Management on Saturday afternoon with the subject line: “What did you do last week?”
Some managers, including at the Department of Health and Human Services, instructed workers to comply with the request to send a list of five accomplishments from the past week to a generic government email address, only to later reverse course. And others simply told their staff to wait until Monday — and not to reply to the note before then.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the apparent discrepancy between Musk’s directive and the guidance provided by agency heads.
The scramble to discern Trump and Musk’s exact intentions with the email added another layer of uncertainty to an already-rattled federal workforce. It seemed to set up a showdown between some agency heads — who were appointed by Trump himself, and who are all considered loyalists to his cause — and Musk, who has paid little mind to the strict chains of command that dictate life within the federal bureaucracy.
Amid the confusion, Musk showed no sign of easing up.
“EXTREMELY troubling that some parts of government think this is TOO MUCH!!” he wrote Sunday on X, the platform he owns. “What is wrong with them??”
Musk’s efforts faced criticism from Republicans over the weekend, including from Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who highlighted what she called the “absurd weekend email.”
“If Elon Musk truly wants to understand what federal workers accomplished over the past week, he should get to know each department and agency, and learn about the jobs he’s trying to cut,” Murkowski wrote on X.
Overnight and into Sunday, senior officials at every agency worked to provide their employees guidance on how to proceed. Among the first to advise against responding was Kash Patel, who was just sworn in as FBI director at the end of last week.
“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”
By Sunday, a flurry of other agencies — many tasked with protecting the nation’s safety and national security — followed suit, even as Trump suggested online that he was still behind the plan.
“The Department of Defense is responsible for reviewing the performance of its personnel and will conduct any review in accordance with its own procedures,” acting Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Darin Selnick wrote Sunday. “When and if required, the department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week.’”
Multiple senior Defense Department officials told CNN the email thrust their weekend into chaos as they tried to determine what to tell employees about how to respond.
“It is the silliest thing I’ve seen in 40 years and completely usurps the chain of command,” one official said. “That might be done elsewhere, but in the DoD it’s not done.”
Homeland Security personnel received a message from the department’s deputy under secretary for management, R.D. Alles, telling them not to respond for now, according to an email obtained by CNN.
“DHS management will respond on behalf of the department and all of its component offices,” the email, dated Sunday, reads. “No reporting action from you is needed at this time. For now, please pause any responses outside of your DHS chain of command.”
And the State Department informed its far-flung workforce that they, too, were not obligated to respond.
“The State Department will respond on behalf of the Department. No employee is obligated to report their activities outside their Department chain of command,” an email sent late Saturday from the acting Undersecretary of Management said.
The Department of Health and Human Services told employees Sunday morning that the email was legitimate and that staffers should read and respond to it by the 11:59 p.m. ET Monday deadline. But the agency reversed its guidance on Sunday afternoon, telling employees to “pause” activities in answering the email.
Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, which are part of HHS, had already been told by individual agencies to wait until Monday for more guidance on how to respond. On Sunday afternoon, staffers at these divisions received the email from HHS telling them to pause responding.
Not all of Trump’s appointees overseeing federal workers handling sensitive information were as straightforward or reticent.
Ed Martin, the interim D.C. U.S. attorney who has publicly tried to curry favor with Musk, told his prosecutors’ office they could choose to comply, in general fashion.
“We are happy to be participate,” Martin wrote on Saturday. “Please respond to the HR email carefully with regard to confidentiality and our duties. Be general if you need to. If anyone gives you problems, I’ve got your back. You’re good.”
The prosecutors in the office would regularly handle work on matters that may not be classified, but could be protected under grand jury secrecy, under seal by the court or are protected from disclosure for other reasons.
Across the sprawling federal workforce — from Secret Service agents to federal judges to air traffic controllers to diplomats — employees spent Sunday reckoning with yet another upheaval at the hands of Musk and his team.
This time, the impetus appears to have been Trump’s request, made on social media, for Musk to get more “aggressive” in his attempts to overhaul the federal government.
It didn’t take long for Musk to reply with his plan to demand workers provide an accounting of their last week’s work. In a post on X, he said anyone who didn’t respond would be fired. Hours later, when the emails began hitting federal inboxes, there was no mention of the ultimatum.
Even as the confusion across the workforce became clear, Trump showed little sign he was backing off the plan. He posted a “SpongeBob SquarePants” meme that ridiculed the situation. “Got done last week,” the image read, followed by a list of five bullet points: “cried about Trump, cried about Elon, made it into the office for once, read some emails, cried about Trump and Elon some more.”
For many senior officials, the episode underscored what has so far been relatively unchecked power by Musk to dramatically reshape the federal government.
With Trump’s blessing and encouragement, Musk’s team of young engineers has embedded itself at a host of agencies, gaining access to sensitive databases and demanding career workers justify their continued employment.
For the most part, the secretaries and department heads named by Trump have offered little objection to Musk’s efforts, and instead offered encouragement to see their buildings investigated and reformed.
But privately, questions have lingered over just how expansive Musk’s power has become, and whether he should have ultimate say in how federal agencies — many with their own intricate systems — should be run.
By Sunday, even some Republicans had voiced opposition to Trump’s plan.
“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s, ‘Please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people. These are real lives,’” Sen. John Curtis of Utah said in a Sunday interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut, and you have to be cruel to do it, as well. We can do both.”
U.S. FDA asks fired scientists to return, including some reviewing Musk’s Neuralink
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking some of its recently fired scientists if they will come back to their jobs, including some employees reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company, Neuralink, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The FDA plans to rehire around 300 people in total, according to four sources with secondhand knowledge of the situation, following President Donald Trump’s rush last week to fire employees at the agency responsible for reviewing drugs, food safety, medical devices and tobacco. Reuters could not verify the figure.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who oversees Neuralink and spent more than $250 million to help elect Trump, has been leading an effort to cut government workers with his Department of Government Efficiency. Thousands have been cut.
At least 11 employees working at the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health - which oversees medical device reviews - have received calls since Friday saying they could return to work on Monday, according to eight FDA sources who spoke under condition of anonymity. Some of the sources were told the FDA would continue making requests to return throughout the weekend.
If the scientists agree to return, they would represent less than one-third of the staffers dismissed about a week ago. The White House told Reuters the administration had fired over 1,000 FDA staffers.
The FDA firings last week included about 20 people in its office of neurological and physical medicine devices, several of whom worked on Neuralink, Reuters exclusively reported. It is not known if all of the fired workers reviewing Neuralink have received the return offer.
The FDA had initially rejected Neuralink’s request to start clinical trials, citing safety risks, Reuters reported in 2023. The agency has since given the startup approval to do clinical trials, which are ongoing.
The FDA did not immediately respond to a comment request. The White House declined to comment and referred questions to the federal health department, which did not respond.
Rehiring spree
The attempt to rehire FDA scientists follows a Trump administration rehiring spree, including some employees responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons as well as scientists working on the worsening outbreak of bird flu.
Several scientists who received the FDA’s calls said they were not sure if they wanted to return, although three said they would.
They had chosen to work at the FDA, they told Reuters, because they believed in the mission of public health and safety, often forgoing much higher pay in the private sector.
“I get that (Trump administration officials) are trying to do the Silicon Valley ‘move fast, break things’” motto, said one scientist who received a call back. “But how are you going to be able to hire good people when you’re not offering Silicon Valley stock or pay, and you’ve taken away their stability?”
Americans need “an efficient, effective FDA review process that helps advance the medical technologies American patients depend on. Bringing these specific experts back would help fulfill that mission,” said Scott Whitaker, CEO of the medical device industry group AdvaMed, which had criticized the firings.
Hundreds of jobs were cut that were funded by fees from medical device companies, banks, and others, not by taxpayers, raising questions about the Trump administration’s stated goal of saving taxpayer money.
At least three of the employees asked to rejoin the FDA received termination letters telling them their performance had “not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency.” Reuters earlier reported that many of the fired employees had received exemplary rankings just weeks ago and had no performance issues.
Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary, previously told Reuters that Trump had moved swiftly to cut wasteful spending and non-critical government jobs.
It sounds like they are just reaffirming an already announced April 2021 commitment to invest more in the US. Probably just updating future plans. Below is from Apples press release from '21.
PRESS RELEASE April 26, 2021 Apple commits $430 billion in US investments over five years The accelerated commitment will fund a new North Carolina campus and job-creating investments in innovative fields like silicon engineering and 5G technology
Workers at an Apple supplier site. Apple plans to make new contributions of more than $430 billion in the US and add 20,000 jobs across the country over the next five years. Cupertino, California Apple today announced an acceleration of its US investments, with plans to make new contributions of more than $430 billion and add 20,000 new jobs across the country over the next five years. Over the past three years, Apple’s contributions in the US have significantly outpaced the company’s original five-year goal of $350 billion set in 2018. Apple is now raising its level of commitment by 20 percent over the next five years, supporting American innovation and driving economic benefits in every state. This includes tens of billions of dollars for next-generation silicon development and 5G innovation across nine US states. “At this moment of recovery and rebuilding, Apple is doubling down on our commitment to US innovation and manufacturing with a generational investment reaching communities across all 50 states,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re creating jobs in cutting-edge fields — from 5G to silicon engineering to artificial intelligence — investing in the next generation of innovative new businesses, and in all our work, building toward a greener and more equitable future.” Today, Apple supports more than 2.7 million jobs across the country through direct employment, spending with US suppliers and manufacturers, and developer jobs in the thriving iOS app economy. Apple is the largest taxpayer in the US and has paid almost $45 billion in domestic corporate income taxes over the past five years alone. Apple’s $430 billion in contributions to the US economy include direct spend with American suppliers, data center investments, capital expenditures in the US, and other domestic spend — including dozens of Apple TV+ productions across 20 states, creating thousands of jobs and supporting the creative industry. Establishing a New North Carolina Campus As part of its investments and expansion, Apple plans to invest over $1 billion in North Carolina and will begin construction on a new campus and engineering hub in the Research Triangle area. The investment will create at least 3,000 new jobs in machine learning, artificial intelligence, software engineering, and other cutting-edge fields. Apple will also establish a $100 million fund to support schools and community initiatives in the greater Raleigh-Durham area and across the state, and will be contributing over $110 million in infrastructure spending to the 80 North Carolina counties with the greatest need — funds that will go toward broadband, roads and bridges, and public schools. When up and running, Apple’s investments are expected to generate over $1.5 billion in economic benefits annually for North Carolina. Expanding Apple’s US Operations Apple is on track to meet its 2018 goal of creating 20,000 new jobs in the US by 2023. With today’s new commitment, Apple is setting a target of creating 20,000 additional jobs in states across the country over the next five years. Austin, Texas San Diego, California Seattle, Washington
For those who are not fully informed on what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau actually did and what their job was, don't be fooled. It's simply another one of the checks and balances Musk and the Trump administration no longer wants you to have. And for their own personal reasons.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
It sounds like they are just reaffirming an already announced April 2021 commitment to invest more in the US. Probably just updating future plans. Below is from Apples press release from '21.
Sounds like trump is taking credit for something he had nothing to do with
DEMOCRATIC PARTY APPROVAL HITS A RECORD LOW AT 36%, NOW 15 POINTS LOWER THAN THE GOP
72% OF VOTERS SUPPORT THE EXISTENCE OF A U.S. GOVERNMENT AGENCY FOCUSED ON EFFICIENCY INITIATIVES
VOTERS WANT UKRAINE TO NEGOTIATE A SETTLEMENT WITH RUSSIA, BUT MOST ARE OPPOSED TO TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS AND WANT THE U.S. TO GIVE SECURITY GUARANTEES
NEW YORK and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) today released the results of the February Harvard CAPS / Harris poll, a monthly collaboration between the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard (CAPS) and the Harris Poll and HarrisX.
In his first month in office, President Donald Trump's approval rating is at 52%, with voters most satisfied with his job on immigration, reducing the cost of the government, and returning America to its values. The majority of voters support Trump's policies on the border, focus on government expenditures, gender, DEI, and offshore drilling but have concerns on his foreign policies involving tariffs, the Israel-Hamas war, and the war in Ukraine. Download key results here.
"People are taking a generally positive wait-and-see attitude for Trump but have really reassessed their attitudes toward Biden, Harris, and the Democrats, taking a much harsher, more negative attitude," said Mark Penn, Co-Director of the Harvard CAPS / Harris poll and Stagwell Chairman and CEO. "Trump has a real opportunity here – we're seeing a healthy, trudging approval edging toward real approval based on how the next couple of months turn out."
VOTERS FEELING MORE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT DIRECTION OF COUNTRY AND ECONOMY
42% of voters say the country is on the right track, up 14 points from January 2025 (Democrats: 21% (-9); Republicans: 71% (+37); Independents: 31% (+12)). 31% of voters say their personal financial situation is improving (+5), particularly among Republican, male, Black, and urban voters. Inflation and immigration remain the top two issues for voters, with a 6-point increase in concern over corruption. TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICANS START SECOND TERM WITH NET FAVORABLE RATINGS
Donald Trump's favorability stands at 50%, with a net favorable of +7 points. More voters have a favorable rather than unfavorable view of key cabinet members such Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (+9), J.D. Vance (+4), and Tulsi Gabbard (+3). Voters are split on Elon Musk and Mike Johnson. The Democratic Party received its lowest approval rating since at least March 2018, with 33% of Democrats, 86% Republicans, and 70% Independents disapproving. 49% of voters approve of the Republican Party (+1). 36% of voters approve of Congress (+5). TRUMP POLICIES RECEIVE MAJORITY SUPPORT BUT FACE CONCERN OVER INFLATION AND DIVISIVENESS
All of Trump's key policies received majority support except for renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, with deportation of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes (81%), eliminating fraud and waste in government expenditures (76%), and closing the border (76%) as the top three most supported policies. 55% of voters support birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, with 63% believing it is a requirement in the U.S. constitution, breaking with Trump on the issue. 70% of voters believe the government should make hiring decisions based on merit and objective evaluation rather than to achieve diversity. 51% of voters say Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion departments are needed in government. 40% of voters say Trump's policies will make them financially better off, while 36% believe Trump's policies will make them worse off. 46% of voters say Trump's policies will increase inflation. 54% of voters are worried that Trump's actions will divide the country (Democrats: 82%; Republicans: 20%; Independents: 61%). VOTERS OVERWHELMINGLY SUPPORT CUTTING DOWN GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES BUT ARE SENSITIVE AROUND DATA PRIVACY
67% of voters say the current level of U.S. federal government debt is unsustainable. 83% of voters favor reducing government expenditures over increasing taxes, and 77% say a full examination of all government expenditures is necessary. 70% of voters say government expenditures are filled with waste, fraud, and inefficiency (Democrats: 58%; Republicans: 78%; Independents: 75%), and 69% support the goal of cutting $1 trillion of government expenditures. 60% of voters think DOGE is helping make major cuts in government expenditures. 58% of voters say DOGE employees should not have access to sensitive information on Americans who benefit from government expenditure programs; including names, social security numbers, addresses, and incomes (Democrats: 75%; Republicans: 39%; Independents: 63%). TARIFFS SEE MAJORITY SUPPORT BUT VOTERS SPLIT OVER CONCERN ON WHETHER THEY WILL HARM OR HELP
57% of voters say tariffs are an effective foreign and economic policy tool. The plurality of voters (44%) believe tariffs on imported goods will increase U.S. government revenue. 62% of voters believe tariffs will raise prices of everyday goods (Democrats: 75%; Republicans: 50%; Independents: 62%). 54% of voters say tariffs will help the Trump administration get concessions from other countries, but 49% of voters say the recent tariffs on Mexican, Canadian, and Chinese imports will harm rather than help, and 46% of voters say his tariffs on steel and aluminum imports will do harm. 61% of voters support reciprocal tariffs, with voters split on whether they will harm or help. 53% of voters believe reciprocal tariffs will cause other countries to lower their tariffs on U.S. goods. THE MAJORITY OF VOTERS SUPPORT ENDING THE WAR IN UKRAINE, BUT OPPOSE LEAVING OUT UKRAINE AND EUROPEAN LEADERS FROM NEGOTIATIONS
72% of voters say they want Ukraine to negotiate a settlement with Russia instead of winning the war. 60% of voters favor Trump announcing direct U.S.-Russia negotiations (Democrats: 40%; Republicans: 85%; Independents: 53%). 59% of voters oppose the Trump administration leaving Ukraine's leaders out of negotiations with Russia. 55% of voters oppose the exclusion of European leaders. 57% of voters oppose the Trump administration forcing Ukraine to make territorial concessions to end the war, and 66% of voters say Ukraine should receive security guarantees from the U.S. if it were to make concessions. 61% of voters say security guarantees should be contingent on Ukraine sharing revenue from rare earth elements to pay back U.S. military support. 63% of voters believe Russia will continue to advance onto other countries if it successfully claims Ukrainian territory. VOTERS SPLIT ON WHETHER TRUMP WAS SERIOUS ABOUT THE U.S. TAKING OVER GAZA, BELIEVE IT IS A BAD IDEA
54% of voters support Trump's handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict thus far. 67% of voters have heard of Trump's proposal that the U.S. should take over Gaza to redevelop it. 47% of voters believe Trump was being serious, and 53% believe he was posturing to start negotiations. 70% of voters believe the U.S. taking over Gaza is a bad idea. 56% of voters oppose removing Palestinians from Gaza to rebuild the territory. Support for Israel over Hamas in the conflict remains high, with 77% of voters supporting Israel. 76% of voters say Iran's nuclear weapons facilities should be destroyed. 57% of voters say the U.S. should support Israel in airstrikes on such facilities (Democrats: 45%; Republicans: 74%; Independents: 51%). The February Harvard CAPS / Harris poll survey was conducted online within the United States on February 19-20, 2025, among 2,443 registered voters by The Harris Poll and HarrisX. Follow the Harvard CAPS / Harris poll podcast at https://www.markpennpolls.com/ or on iHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms.
About The Harris Poll & HarrisX
The Harris Poll is a global consulting and market research firm that strives to reveal the authentic values of modern society to inspire leaders to create a better tomorrow. It works with clients in three primary areas: building twenty-first-century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research. One of the longest-running surveys in the U.S., The Harris Poll has tracked public opinion, motivations, and social sentiment since 1963, and is now part of Stagwell, the challenger holding company built to transform marketing.
HarrisX is a technology-driven market research and data analytics company that conducts multi-method research in the U.S. and over 40 countries around the world on behalf of Fortune 100 companies, public policy institutions, global leaders, NGOs and philanthropic organizations. HarrisX was the most accurate pollster of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
About the Harvard Center for American Political Studies The Center for American Political Studies (CAPS) is committed to and fosters the interdisciplinary study of U.S. politics. Governed by a group of political scientists, sociologists, historians, and economists within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, CAPS drives discussion, research, public outreach, and pedagogy about all aspects of U.S. politics. CAPS encourages cutting-edge research using a variety of methodologies, including historical analysis, social surveys, and formal mathematical modeling, and it often cooperates with other Harvard centers to support research training and encourage cross-national research about the United States in comparative and global contexts. More information at https://caps.gov.harvard.edu/.
But they keep trying to create a new reality. Bless their hearts.
Still believe the Communist News Network Huh!!!
Romans 10:9 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
I'm not the one who believes the trump company line of BS. And it wasn't what you call "Communist News Network" that had to pay a 787 million dollar lawsuit for defamation. That was FOX News, one of your top news sources. Try to pay attention next time.
They actually gave you information about polls that have been taken over time. The same polls taken by the same sources showing the change in those same polls over time.
I notice you have nothing to say about trump calling Zelenskyy a dictator while refusing to call Putin one. I see you have nothing to say about Trump having people at the U.N. siding and voting alongside Russia and North Korea while voting against our allies.
Well done Comrade.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
This is what some of you voted for. A wanna be king who is doing his best to be one. Here's the level his ego actually goes to. He posted this on Truth Social......
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
She hoped Trump’s victory would change her life, but not like this
BALDWIN, Mich. — Ryleigh Cooper exhaled as she slid onto the couch after nine hours of work for the U.S. Forest Service, still covered in the blue paint she used to mark trees for local loggers. Then she got the text.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” her union leader wrote.
It was the second Thursday in February, and a historic White House purge aimed at federal workers like Cooper was sweeping the country. But the headlines felt far away from her life in rural Michigan. She figured her job, with paychecks totaling about $40,000 a year, would be safe from the cost-cutting campaign led by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.
Besides, motherhood was her most pressing concern. Cooper, 24, and her husband were trying to get pregnant, but the doctor said that IVF might be their best chance. Trump had promised to make it free. That is what she thought about in the voting booth.
Now she was staring at her phone, learning that probationary workers in the Forest Service were the next to be fired by his administration. Cooper would likely be one of them, her union head told her.
Her eyes watered. She knew it wasn’t personal. Every day brought new rumors of cuts, and her performance evaluation from last fall found her “fully successful” — the highest possible score. She reminded herself that she had done everything right: graduated college with a 3.5 GPA, finished her first semester of work toward a master’s degree in forestry with a 4.0, rescued two dogs and two cats from the local shelter, chosen a man who held her on the shower floor when she found out she had endometriosis, a condition that can lead to infertility, and told her, “It’s okay, there is more than one way to be a parent.”
She thought about the Facebook posts she had seen a few days earlier.
“It’s February 3,” her grandmother posted, “and we’re going in the right direction.”
“Any government employee who is afraid of transparency,” wrote the man who taught her AP government class in high school, “is a criminal!”
Cooper knew the people in her life meant well, but she wanted her future to be different from theirs. She had grown up watching her family struggle as her mother lost one job, then another, then another. She was just a few months shy of her graduate degree and close to a promotion that could nearly double her salary. Even $50,000 or $60,000 a year, she thought, could help get her a house a few counties over, with better schools.
For now, she and her husband lived in Baldwin, a village of about 1,000 people where the high school track is made of cracked cement and weeds. They had purchased their home because it was cheap, less than $150,000, and close to their families, who could help with child care.
It takes three minutes to drive past Baldwin’s one post office, one bar, and one bowling alley, which also serves pancakes and omelets for breakfast. The median household income is about $23,000, according to the most recent American Community Survey, making it among the poorest towns in Michigan. In the winter, locals ice fish from shanties warmed by propane heaters and drive snowmobiles to bars. In the summer, they drive lawn mowers to gas stations, though Cooper said she would never do that.
Most people in Baldwin like President Donald Trump; more than 62 percent in Lake County, which includes the town, voted for him in November and in 2020. But people don’t talk about it. Politics here, at least until recently, felt removed from everyday worries.
Now it was in her living room, as she turned to her husband and burst into tears. “I think I’m getting fired,” she said.
Getting fired meant she would no longer have health insurance, including the 12 weeks of paid maternity leave that was a guaranteed benefit of her federal service. Also gone would be the promotion that would allow her to plan for the kids she so badly wanted to have.
She wondered if Trump was going to break his promise to make IVF free, and if it would even matter if he did.
Her husband sat beside her and squeezed her hand, still processing. Together they had been counting. Sixteen days until they could try again. Twenty eight until she could take her next test.
After she was sexually assaulted at 16, Cooper had sworn she would never be caught unprepared. But here she was. Betrayed by her body, which would not cooperate. Betrayed by her family, who supported firing federal workers like her. And, perhaps most painfully, betrayed by herself.
Cooper did not want to think about what happened three months prior but her mind went there anyway. To the voting booth in Baldwin’s town hall, where she filled out every part of the ballot before turning to the box that said “Presidential.” She recalled staring at it for 15 minutes.
She did not want to vote for Trump. Cooper hated what he said about women and hated how he treated them. Her family always said the women who accused the president of sexual assault had either made it up or deserved it. Cooper heard them and kept her own experience a secret, thinking that they might feel the same way about her.
She voted for Joe Biden in 2020, her first time casting a ballot in a presidential election. But life felt more complicated these days. Her mortgage was too expensive, groceries were nearly $400 a month, and one single cycle of IVF could cost more than 10 percent of her annual household income.
Trump, at a campaign stop an hour and a half south of her, had promised to make IVF free. She knew that from a video clip she saw on TikTok. And she had believed him.
She also believed him when he said that Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican administration that suggested mass cuts to the federal workforce, was not his plan.
So Cooper filled in the bubble next to his name, thinking of the daughter she wanted. She planned to name her Charlotte.
The days after she got the text passed quickly. A call from the district ranger, who is in charge of the Forest Service in Baldwin, telling her to pack up her things. A box of printed performance reviews and tree identification books and a framed picture from her wedding last fall under a willow tree. A text from her co-worker who brought candy to refill the jar at her desk but arrived to find it, and her, gone.
Four days after Trump fired her, Cooper was in bed with her husband. She picked up her phone and saw the news.
There was a new executive order to expand access to IVF. She read the White House fact sheet, which talked about Trump’s request for policy recommendations to reduce costs of the service.
But it still wasn’t free, and she was out of a job and out of a plan.
“Delivering on promises for American families,” read the White House’s announcement.
“That’s bulls---”, she recalled thinking, and put down her phone.
just watch the fox news clips at least, and see for yourselves that yea: Elon is running the show. imagine being a cabinet chair, officially appointed and vetted by congress, having to listen to an unelected and unvetted head of an nonofficial, unvetted agency. This dude gets asked more questions than the president, and Trump sits there with the weakest of postures. Everyone is wearing suits as the head of agencies...well, except Elon. He's special.
All of this is strange and weak. I'm getting tired of the subservient attitude conservatives are displaying toward oligarchs.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
So a woman who wanted better reproductive healthcare, member of a union, an SA survivor, who didn't like what she read about Project 2025... went and voted for Trump.
Last edited by oobernoober; 02/27/2503:34 PM.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
