3 takeaways from our new poll: From the Politics Desk

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In today’s edition, Scott Bland breaks down the key trends to know from our new poll. Plus, Sahil Kapur examines how President Donald Trump keeps introducing new hurdles for his party’s agenda on Capitol Hill.

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America at 250: 3 takeaways from our latest poll

Analysis by Scott Bland

The new NBC News poll released over the weekend was a little different than our usual editions: Instead of digging deep into the latest news and events in politics, we zoomed out in this survey — which was sponsored by More Perfect, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to advancing democracy — and asked people how they feel about core questions around national identity and national institutions ahead of America’s 250th birthday.

Deep pessimism about the direction and institutions of the U.S. Belief in the American Dream, key institutions and national pride were all on the decline in this survey, as Jonathan Allen writes . The share of people calling themselves “extremely” proud to be American dropped from the high 60s and low 70s in the post-9/11 era to 33% in this poll, with negative and ambivalent feelings growing. And institutions of all stripes are suffering: Even the military, which still earns greater confidence than others, has seen its numbers drop, as has Congress and the federal government, the high-tech industry and more.

There’s an age gap on key questions. Not only were the topline findings mentioned above striking, some of the underlying splits caught the eye, too. In particular, there was a telling age gap on some of those questions about national pride and key institutions, with young people much more pessimistic and wary — though not on every question. NBC News subscribers can read more here . As for why it matters, pollster Bill McInturff noted that the values of the youngest generation tend to “become the dominant values in 10 or 15 years.”

Despite that pessimism, Americans feel like they are starting from a place of shared values. It’s not all doom and gloom. One finding of note: A majority (54%) of respondents said they believe most Americans share the same core values, even if they disagree on certain policies or issues, while 44% disagreed. And digging deeper, majorities also agreed that there’s more that unites than divides women and men, people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and immigrants and U.S.-born citizens.

But a few other groups were judged to have more that divides them. Predictably, Democrats and Republicans are seen as hopelessly divided. And most of all, Americans see there being more that divides (81%) than unites (17%) wealthy people and people who are not wealthy, illustrating the populist strain running through national politics right now.

📊 Read more from the poll: Democrats maintain an edge in the fight for Congress as Trump gets poor marks , by Ben Kamisar and Bridget Bowman

For subscribers: Georgia Republicans’ choice for governor: A Trump-backed or a Trump-styled candidate

By Adam Edelman

WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Rick Jackson lacks Donald Trump ’s endorsement. But as a wealthy businessman who’s never previously held elected office, he has leaned heavily into a message comparing himself to the president in his campaign for Georgia governor ahead of tomorrow’s primary runoff.

🗳️Related: Trump issued a last-minute endorsement to Rep. Mike Collins in Georgia’s Senate primary over former football coach Derek Dooley , who is backed by Gov. Brian Kemp .

Trump’s ill-timed moves bedevil his own agenda

Analysis by Sahil Kapur

For a businessman who styles himself as a dealmaker, President Donald Trump ’s instincts on timing in recent weeks have led to one self-inflicted wound after another for his and the GOP’s agenda.

First, Trump asked Congress for $1 billion for ballroom security in his funding bill for ICE and Border Patrol. The controversy over the proposed taxpayer funds delayed the legislation, which was crafted to be a clean and painless bill, as numerous Republicans rebelled. Ultimately, party leaders did not include the ballroom money in the legislation.

Second, just as the bill was set to advance, Trump threw another wrench into it as his Justice Department announced a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund to compensate allies, such as Jan. 6 rioters, who the president said were unjustly targeted by the Biden administration.

Many Republicans were aghast, telling leadership they would vote for Democratic amendments to prohibit the fund. The bill stalled for almost two weeks, until the administration backed down and said it wouldn’t set up the fund.

The legislation ended up passing, but it would have sailed through two weeks earlier if Trump waited a few days to announce the fund.

Third, Trump jeopardized another one of his priorities — extending FISA Section 702, the warrantless surveillance program backed by the intelligence community, which was set to expire — with a personnel decision.

In the midst of sensitive negotiations between security and privacy hawks, Trump announced that the acting director of national intelligence would be Bill Pulte , a housing official who lacks an intelligence background and is best known for investigating the president’s critics for alleged mortgage fraud.

Democrats ground the FISA talks to a halt over Pulte, while even some Republicans called him unqualified. On Thursday, Trump emphasized that Pulte was just there temporarily and nominated U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton to be the permanent new DNI.

But it was too late. FISA Section 702 expired on Friday — the first time since the program was created in 2008.

This week, the Senate hopes to fast-track the Clayton confirmation to try and unlock the votes to reinstate the program. Early this morning, Trump upped his demand again on Truth Social by saying, “I’m against FISA if it doesn’t come with The Save America Act (Full version!) firmly attached to it.”

That bill, which would impose stricter election rules across the country, requires 60 votes and stands no chance of passing the Senate, as Majority Leader John Thune , R-S.D., has said repeatedly.

Thune gave a diplomatic answer when asked recently about the impact Trump is having on his agenda in Congress.

“The president has overwhelming support among Republicans across the country, as have been evident in a lot of the elections that have been held so far, and I think that’s reflected in the work that we do up here. Obviously we’ve got some tough issues in front of us,” Thune said. “And trying to find that sweet spot that enables us to get 50 votes — or in some cases we need to, with Democrats, [get] 60 votes to get legislation across the finish line — is never an easy process.”

🗞️ Today's other top stories

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Annelise Hanson.

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