Americans and the News

Many posts have dealt with the news media 

Kirsten Eddy el al. at Pew:

Americans today describe a complicated relationship with the news. Most say being informed is essential for civic life – especially voting – yet many feel overwhelmed, skeptical and selective about how they engage with information, according to a new Pew Research Center study from the Pew-Knight Initiative.

A central tension shapes today’s news landscape. Most people believe Americans have a civic responsibility to be informed when they vote. But far fewer say regularly following news is extremely or very important in general, and roughly half say they can stay informed even if they don’t actively follow it.

The reality of how people get news nowadays plays into this tension. Americans are evenly split between those who mostly get news because they are seeking it out and those who mostly let news find them. But either way, the high volume of information reaching people from a wide variety of sources brings with it several challenges.

For one, people feel the onus is on news consumers to check whether the news they get is accurate. Americans have far more confidence in their own ability to do this than in other people’s ability.

News fatigue is also widespread – and shaping Americans’ news choices. About half of U.S. adults say they are worn out by the amount of news these days, and people are more likely to say most of the news they come across is not relevant to their lives than to say it is relevant. Following the news often feels like an obligation, and only about one-in-ten Americans say they follow it solely because they enjoy it.

Many have adjusted their news habits: Two-thirds say they have stopped getting news from a specific source, and six-in-ten say they have reduced their overall news intake.

These are some of the key findings of a survey of more than 3,500 U.S. adults that Pew Research Center conducted in December 2025 and nine focus groups held in June 2025. To learn more about this study, read “About this research.”

CMC Connects: Presidential Power in 2026

Hard Power

Executive Orders

Personnel

• Net reduction of 242,260 employees
• Political and ideological considerations
• SCOTUS case on the FTC

Pardons

Use of Force

CRS counts 469 foreign interventions between 1798 and 2022

Since January 20, 2025:

• Venezuela: boat bombings and capture of Maduro):
• Iran: Airstrikes on nuclear facilities 
• Yemen: Air strikes against Houthi militants
• Counterterrorism Strikes in Iraq, Nigeria, and Somalia.

Domestic use of National Guard, CBP, and ICE

Investigation and Prosecution

• James Comey: charges of making false statements to Congress and obstruction related to his 2020 testimony. The indictment was  dismissed.
• John Bolton: indictment for alleged unauthorized retention and transmission of classified information.
• Letitia James New York Attorney General indicted in October 2025 on bank fraud and false statements charges.  Case dismissed. 
•  Jerome H. Powell said DOJ as opened a criminal investigation into Powell; prosecutors are looking at cost overruns.

Threats: Regulatory Action and Funding

• Universities and funding
• Law firms representing Trump adversaries:  contracts
• Media companies and FCC license threats

Soft Power:  "Power to Persuade"

Support from congressional Republicans and One Big Beautiful Bill

Public approval is down

Goodbye, CIA World Factbook

"Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute."   -- George Orwell, 1984

A number of posts have discussed presidential documents, official data, and government websites.  The Trump administration has killed off or limited access to many such resources, including now the CIA World Factbook. 

 David A. Graham at The Atlantic:

Memories are now the only place the World Factbook resides. In a post online yesterday, the agency noted that the site “has sunset,” though it provided no explanation for why. (The agency did not immediately reply to my inquiry about why, nor has it replied to other outlets.) The Associated Press noted that the move “follows a vow from Director John Ratcliffe to end programs that don’t advance the agency’s core missions.”

The demise of the World Factbook is part of a broad war on information being waged by the Trump administration. This is different from the administration’s assault on truth, in which the president and the White House lie prolifically or deny reality. This is something more fundamental: It’s a series of steps that by design or in effect block access to data, and in doing so erode the concept of a shared frame for all Americans. “Though the World Factbook is gone, in the spirit of its global reach and legacy, we hope you will stay curious about the world and find ways to explore it … in person or virtually,” the CIA wrote in the valedictory post. Left unsaid: You’re on your own to figure it out now.

If the World Factbook was indeed shut down because it didn’t meet Ratcliffe’s standard for core CIA functions, that reflects the Trump administration’s impoverished view of the government’s role. The World Factbook was a public service that helped Americans and others around the globe be informed, created a positive association with a shadowy agency, and spread U.S. soft power by providing a useful service free to all. I’ve been unable to determine how much it cost the government to maintain, but there’s no reason to think it would be substantive.

 

Bad Bunny and America

Previous posts have discussed Puerto Rico:

At CNN, Alli Rosenbloom reports on Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show:

Bad Bunny — who introduced himself with his real full name, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — brought the iconography of Puerto Rican culture to his Super Bowl halftime show performance, a joyous and high-energy affair that celebrated the island where he was born and its place in the American story.

The artist did not shy away from overt political symbolism, ending the authentic and confident performance on a note of unity.

After playing some of his biggest hits, Bad Bunny stared down the camera and spoke in English for the only time during the performance to say, “God Bless America.”

He followed with a list of more than 20 nations in North, Central and South America while dancers trailed him displaying the flags of many of those nations, with the US and Puerto Rican flags most visible directly behind him.

While the US often uses the word “America” to identify itself as a single, distinct country, many of its neighbors use it to refer to a greater unified continent, a point that Bad Bunny hammered home when he spiked a football that read “Together we are America,” before launching into his nostalgic anthem “DtMF.”

Jenn Hatfield and Jeffrey S. Passel at Pew:

Puerto Rico – officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico – is one of five U.S. territories with a permanent population, along with American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It’s located about 1,000 miles southeast of the Florida coast.

Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony for centuries before it was ceded to the U.S. in 1898 following the Spanish-American War. A 1917 act of Congress established that people born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens.

The island has had its own constitution since 1952 but is also subject to federal law, like U.S. states. Unlike people living in the states, Puerto Ricans living on the island can’t vote in federal elections and don’t pay federal taxes on income earned there.

Puerto Rico has some representation in Congress, but not as much as the states do. Its sole delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrat Pablo José Hernández Rivera, has limited voting privileges. The territory does not have any senators.

Since 1967, there have been seven votes on the island over whether Puerto Rico should change its political status, most recently in 2024. However, the results of these votes were nonbinding, and efforts to give Puerto Ricans a binding vote on statehood have stalled in recent Congresses.

Social Security Trust Fund Runs Empty IN JUST SIX YEARS

Many posts have discussed Social Security and Medicare.

Mark J. Warshawsky at AEI:

Despite repeated warnings over the last three decades from the Trustees, the Congressional Budget Office, and others of the projected exhaustion of the Social Security Retirement Trust Fund in the mid-2030s, and the need to change the retirement program to make it sustainable, Congress and most Presidential administrations of both political parties have ignored the problem. Similarly, attempts to simplify and modernize the vocational standards for disability benefits have gone nowhere for two decades owing to opposition. Worse still, advocates, analysts and politicians have demagogued these issues, preventing reasonable discussions and compromise. This is despite the fast approach of the exhaustion date of the retirement fund and the context of increasing budget deficits, growing debt, and long-term interest rates higher than economic growth rates. It is becoming clear that this deep-seated reluctance to deal with difficult issues will postpone any action until right up to and perhaps even after the time of fund exhaustion, like recently experienced federal government shutdowns.

   Warshawsky notes some analysts have proposed fixes but adds:

Other analysts, perhaps more jaded, have claimed that even these second-best and third best actions will not be needed, because Congress will simply decide to maintain current benefit levels and continue to increase federal borrowing and fill in the growing Social Security funding gap with general revenues when exhaustion occurs.  Indeed, it has been implicitly doing this since the cash flow to the Trust Fund turned negative in 2010.  The counterargument to this view is that the resource needs for full Social Security benefits will continue to grow, and at the same time the Social Security fund is exhausted, so too will be the Medicare fund, and the costs for Medicaid, veterans, insurance exchange subsidies, and other health programs from rising health care costs and the demographic pressures of an aging population will explode the budget.  Other budget pressures come from national security needs in a competitive, even hostile, global scene, along with rising interest rates and inflation.  Moreover, there may be political resistance in some quarters of both parties to explicitly turn Social Security into a welfare program, dependent on general revenues and the annual budget process, away from its self-contained and stable revenue sources and long-term promised benefits.  These pressures and considerations can be expected to f inally warrant some policy seriousness, albeit with much angst. 

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The World Boos the US Government

Many.posts have dealt with international views of the United States.  They have taken a negative turn.

Jon Henley at The Guardian:

Western Europeans prize Europe’s autonomy and values over transatlantic ties and will not give them up to placate Donald Trump, according to a poll suggesting opinions of the US have plunged to their lowest since YouGov began tracking them a decade ago.

The US president’s attempted Greenland grab has succeeded in turning Europeans solidly against his country, the pollster’s latest survey found. Large majorities in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Great Britain all declared an unfavourable opinion.

The figures, ranging from 62% in France to 84% in Denmark – of which Greenland is a self-governing territory – mark a further steep rise in negative perceptions of the US even since November, when the range was between 49% and 70%.

 

DANIELLA MATAR and COLLEEN BARRY AT AP

American athletes received an enthusiastic welcome at the opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, but the mood shifted when cameras briefly turned to Vice President JD Vance.

Led by speedskater and flag bearer Erin Jackson, Team USA was among the last delegations to enter Milan’s San Siro stadium in the parade of nations on Friday.

The crowd cheered for the Americans but jeers and whistles could be heard as Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, were shown on the stadium screens, waving American flags from the tribune.

Support for the U.S. among its allies has been eroding as the Trump administration has taken an aggressive posture on foreign policy, including punishing tariffs, military action in Venezuela and threats to invade Greenland.

Giving and Volunteering

Many posts have discussed volunteering and civic virtue.

 Megan Brenan at Gallup:

Majorities of Americans continue to support charitable causes, with 76% reporting that they gave money to a religious or other nonprofit organization in the past year and 63% saying they volunteered their time to such an organization.

Americans’ current levels of charitable activities are somewhat different from what they were in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial contributions have eased slightly, registering five percentage points lower than in 2021, but volunteering is seven points higher now.

Meanwhile, a steady 17% of U.S. adults say they gave blood in the past 12 months.

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In recent years, as U.S. adults have become less likely to identify with a religion, they have also become less likely to report that they donate money to a religious group. The 41% of Americans saying in 2025 that they donated to a religious organization is the lowest to date, down 21 points from the initial measurement in 2001, including three points since 2021. At the same time, volunteering for a religious organization has been less variable, and it has ticked up four points to 39% in the latest poll, approaching its pre-pandemic level.