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Trump Approval At 47 Percent, Higher Than Any Point In First Term; Americans Weigh In On Trump's First Month In Office; 62 Percent Say Trump Not Doing Enough To Bring Down Prices; Source: DOGE Firings Amount To "Indiscriminate Madness"; McConnell Announces He Won't Run For Reelection; Senate On Track To Confirm Patel As FBI Director This Afternoon; One Month In: Much Of Project 2025 Agenda May Be Still To Come. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 20, 2025 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on Inside Politics, America turned upside down. It's been one month since Donald Trump's inauguration, and since then, we've seen a fire hose of executive orders, mass firings, not to mention what could be the start of reordering of global alliances. We have a brand-new CNN poll of what voters think so far.

Plus, breaking news from Capitol Hill. Mitch McConnell, one of the Senate's most historic figures says, he will not run for reelection. And a day of mourning in Israel. Four bodies, including children murdered by Hamas are handed over as negotiations for a long-term cease fire continue. Israeli President Isaac Herzog will be my guest.

I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines at Inside Politics.

We start today with that CNN poll. It's hard to believe it's been just 30 days since Donald Trump became the 47th president of the United States. For better or worse, few, if any, presidents have transformed so much so fast.

I want to now bring in David Chalian to look at what voters are saying. And what do voters think? Do they think that this is the change that they asked for?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF & POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, I think they're telling us that the honeymoon, as much as it may have existed, is over for Donald Trump at the moment. You see that he's upside down here in terms of more people, a majority, slim majority, 52 percent disapprove of how he's doing in our brand-new poll, than the 47 percent who say that they approve of his job performance.

How does that stack up to other presidents beginning a term of their presidency here. You see, this is where Donald Trump is now, 47 percent approval. So, it's actually a higher number, Dana, for approval for Trump than we ever had for him numerically in the entire first term of Trump, 1.0.

So, but the only one that he sort of stacks up better against is himself. Eight years ago, he still at an approval rating that is below where all these modern-day predecessors had started their terms. And the other, you know, trouble sign for the administration is that 55 percent of Americans in this poll tell us that Donald Trump does not have the right priorities. Only 45 percent say that he does.

BASH: Right So, these are Americans in general. Let's look at the key constituencies for the president.

CHALIAN: Well, if you look at the Trump base, if you will, obviously you would not be surprised. 88 percent of Republicans tell us they approve of the job he's doing. White Americans with no college degree. 63 percent approval for Donald Trump with that group, whites overall 55 percent approval. And men, he's at majority approval, 52 percent. This is sort of the Trump base here, if you will.

Take a look though, at where he's slipping a little bit with some groups that he actually improved his performance within the last election. Younger voters, this is comparing to January, which again, different question. Do you approve the way he's handling the transition? But when the reality comes that he's in the job, you see a real slide among young voters here.

This, I think, is the most significant one that the White House will watch. You see a slide here of nine percentage points among Hispanic voters, and you see a slide among black voters, again, just from where they were in January.

BASH: And what about these specific actions that he's taking so many, so a lot to focus on, but?

CHALIAN: Yeah. So, I'll get to those actions. But here, the pessimism is on the rise. And I just want to show this. We asked, what are your feelings about Trump's second term? Take a look here. You can see here that for -- this is up six points. Just from December, 29 percent to 35 percent, those that say they're afraid.

And in terms of optimism, this is down six points, OK, from 32 percent to 26 percent from where we were, not much change on pessimistic or enthusiastic. But you see here more Americans now are saying they're afraid of what comes --

BASH: And less optimistic.

CHALIAN: Yeah, in Donald Trump second term. To your point about some of the specific actions, has he gone too far? Well, a slim majority says, yeah. 52 percent said using presidential power gone too far, cutting federal programs gone too far. I think this number in our poll, 62 percent is the biggest number that is going to give heart burn to the White House.

BASH: Prices.

CHALIAN: 62 percent say he has not done enough, not gone far enough to reduce prices. Only 11 percent say he has. I think that's a big warning sign. And then we tested a whole bunch of things. Do you think they're a good thing or a bad thing? Trump's actions? Look at this, nothing gets higher than 37 percent as a good thing and that's ending government DEI efforts.

[12:05:00]

Actually, majorities say, attempting to shut down agencies, giving Elon Musk a prominent role. 54 percent say that's a bad thing. And one of the worst things he's done in terms of this poll saying the U.S. should take over Gaza. 58 percent of Americans say that is a bad thing.

BASH: Yeah. That landed with a thud. All right, we're going to keep talking about this, but we want to go down to the vice president. He marked the administration's first month in office this morning, speaking to a very favorable crowd at CPAC. That conference is happening here in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: It's hard to believe we've only been in office for a month, because I think we've done more in a month and Biden did in about four years. And thank God for that. But, you know, the president keeps us on a pretty breakneck pace. He always asks, what have we done today? What are we going to do tomorrow? What are we going to do next week? Because I think he realizes this is a special moment in time.

And by the way, thank you. Thanks to all of you for making it possible for us to do all the great work we've been doing in the administration. I know we wouldn't have been here without you. But I think the president is acutely aware that the American people gave us a window to save the country, and that's exactly what we're going to do. And thank God for that because it's been a hell of a lot of fun the past month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: David Chalian is now here with me at the table, as our CNN's Jeff Zeleny and Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report. OK. I'm definitely in my work happy place right now with all of you here. Welcome. Nice to see you.

David, you just laid out a lot of figures and sort of an explanation of this snapshot in time of what people think about Donald Trump and how he's doing. I just -- I want to ask both of you, Jeff, what's your takeaway from the poll?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, I think the 62 percent that David was talking about there, that is the underlying question that will help define the success or lack thereof of the Trump presidency. There's no doubt about it. He can sign as many executive orders as we will watch him sign.

He can talk about a variety of things, but that is what brought him to office and is what is a challenge for him. And the vice president, just carrying on his word for one second. He also said during the speech, it's going to take some time to fix what Joe Biden has broken over the last four years. I've noticed how obsessed Donald Trump remains about Joe Biden. He talks about him at every turn, sometimes 12 times in the Oval Office during a 30-minute session, sometimes 18 times, sometimes just a few times at every turn. Last night at a speech in Miami, the president talking about Joe Biden, always talking about inflation.

At some point, the buck will have to stop, but Donald Trump, at least in the eyes of voters, I guess, or maybe it won't. But, I mean, that is one of the worries of the White House inflation, the price of eggs, and it, you know, the president is not in charge of gas prices, not in charge of egg prices, but they get the blame for it.

So, we will see if this president is Teflon proof-on on that subject but that is the worrisome point for them. 62 percent a lot of people --

AMY WALTER, PUBLISHER & EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE COOK POLITICAL REPORT: Yeah. No, I think that is exactly right. And the fact is, he's been spending the first month talking to his base, which he loves doing. He is not interested in reaching out beyond that. So, I think what the numbers are reflecting is, that is his core support right there. He's not going to lose many -- many more voters on that. He's not going to gain many more.

But when it comes to both his legacy but also the upcoming midterm election, I think it's also a reminder to Democrats that for as much frustration as they have watched the feeling right now, watching the DOGE's cuts, watching Trump's actions and his executive orders and in many cases, his overreach. That this election is going to be driven more by what the cost of eggs are than by what Elon Musk --

BASH: The midterm election.

WALTER: --the midterm election.

BASH: Right. Because it's, you know, we are in this unique position in that that's the only election that matters potentially to Donald Trump anymore.

CHALIAN: Well, right. He can't run again. That he may not buy that yet --

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: But I don't -- I have not found a constitutional expert yet that thinks he can run again. So yeah, and it has real impact, right? I mean, look, they are trying to get through the administration, and the Republicans in Congress a massive legislative package that is going to be very difficult with these narrow majorities that they have, but they've got one shot here because they're a year and a half away.

Should mid-term -- should the environment remain? Should what Amy is saying is true that the economy is dominant, and people don't yet necessarily feel a change in prices. The history of our country would suggest, Dana, they may be -- the Republicans may be in danger of losing the House, and that will change the entire calculus of the second half of this Trump administration.

[12:10:00]

BASH: And let's sort of widen the aperture a little bit to go back to where we started, which is a month, and it has only been a month, which again, is just mind boggling. Axio said the following this morning. President Trump's first month of his second term has exceeded the wildest dreams of his most loyal supporters, and the darkest nightmares of his fiercest detractors.

ZELENY: I think that's right. Just at the speed in which things have been coming, although there are few surprises in the sense that they're largely following the playbook of project 2025. And other things that at the end of the first Trump administration, they were talking about doing -- wanting to reshape the size of government and then still a loyalist.

But I still think the biggest question to David's point about the legislative agenda. That is something that it's not all that sexy outside of Washington or the House and Senate agreeing on this. But what has been going on here and the president yesterday weighing in on the House side of this argument, it is extraordinary, and that will also define the Trump presidency.

He's not really engaged in the fine print of visa bills and things, which is a blessing in most people's eyes, but perhaps we'll see how that goes. But the legislative agenda is something that he's never really gotten his hands muddied with, but that will determine his fate.

BASH: Well, yes. And that acts the more traditional legacy marker for a president. But I think -- I agree with you that there aren't a lot of surprises, and that he's doing what he promised, except the Elon Musk factor and the speed with which and the free rein that he has been given.

And our colleagues have done an extraordinary report that you can see on cnn.com about the indiscriminate madness that these people -- many people who are on the chopping block or around the chopping block are talking about that DOGE claims the firings target low performers and new employees. But the reality is far from it.

And on that note, this is something that our producer, Bella Rivera found, and I think it's just so telling, potentially, as a canary in the coal mine here. Jesse Watters, on another network that very much likes Donald Trump. He is a very, very big supporter of Donald Trump, and yet, on this he had a bit of a warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE WATTERS, CO-HOST, "THE FIVE": He just found out he's probably going to get laid off. He's going to get dosed. And he texted me and he said, Jesse, you know, this isn't good. I'm upset. This is really sad. And this guy is not a DEI consultant. This guy is not a climate consultant. You know, this guy is a veteran. We just need to be a little bit less callous with the way Herald, we talk about dodging people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: He's talking about his friend Chris, who is a 20-year veteran of the U.S. military.

WALTER: We're hearing more and more of these stories. The other issue, when you talk to Democrats on the Hill, they will tell you, they are getting calls, significant number of calls from constituents, not necessarily worried about their job in the federal government, but cuts to the programs that they're counting on.

And I think that's going to be actually the bigger challenge going forward for Republicans is, yes, there will be people whose lives are truly upended by the DOGE's cuts. But whether they're farmers who now have all this grain that that's nowhere to go, whether it is programs or health administrative issues in their districts that aren't getting taken care of because of cuts to these programs because there are people to monitor them, that's going to have an impact much more brought -- that's much more broad than one individual.

CHALIAN: And I don't think it's just democratic constituency.

WALTER: Yeah, right.

CHALIAN: Yeah, yeah. I think Republicans are getting those --

(CROSSTALK)

ZELENY: And on summer vacations, when people go to a national park, and when they start seeing these cuts, they sound great in the big picture on the small -- once it affects someone, I think it looks different.

BASH: Yeah, absolutely. Don't go anywhere, because coming up, we had some breaking news. In the last hour on Capitol Hill, Senator Mitch McConnell announced, he will not be running for reelection. Our Manu Raju will be here with the details.

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[12:15:00]

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BASH: Breaking news, on Capitol Hill, the end of an era. Senator Mitch McConnell decided not to seek reelection in 2026, announcing that on the Senate floor this morning. Now he had already stepped down as Republican leader earlier this year.

I want to go right to Manu Raju, who has been covering Mitch McConnell for two decades. Is that right? Manu, this obviously is -- we saw the writing on the wall. We could see him, kind of heading down the exit ramp, but it is a moment worth marking.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No question about, a momentous occasion. In fact, given how influential he has been in Republican politics since his time in office. But notably, of course, being the longest serving party leader in the history of the United States Senate, someone who helped usher through a very conservative Supreme Court was instrumental in pushing forward on GOP policies, battling democratic policies for so many years.

And also, someone who has gone out of step with the man going of his party, who has battled with Donald Trump over the past several years, notably in the aftermath of January 6. But this was not unexpected him. 83 years old, at the end of his term here in office, having been first elected in 1984. And when he took to the floor of the United States Senate, he did grow emotional at times.

[12:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Strategize fight and win. It trusted me to coordinate campaigns, to count votes, to steer committees, to take the majority, and on nine occasions, to lead our conference. The only appropriate thing to take away today, apart from a healthy dose of pride, is my immense gratitude for the opportunity to take part in the consequential business of the Senate and the nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Manu, I cannot think of a more stark illustration of the Republican Party moving than Mitch McConnell. He hasn't moved. He's exactly the way he always was, and the party is just really completely different under Donald Trump. On that note, we did see the Senate broke a filibuster for Kash Patel's nomination to lead the FBI. What's the latest?

RAJU: Yeah. And we're not clear how Mitch McConnell may ultimately vote on the final confirmation. Remember, he voted against three other Trump nominees. He did vote today to advance nomination to a final vote. He did that with those other Trump nominees too. How will he vote on the final confirmation? That's going to be something to watch.

But we did see one Republican senator break ranks on Kash Patel. That is Senator Susan Collins of Maine. She did say that she could not support him because of her concerns of his some of his political activities over the last several years and said that he should not be confirmed the post as the FBI director. That is echoing the concerns that Democrats have raised for weeks, doing everything they could to try to delay and derail his nominations, but ultimately, they are falling short.

We do expect that him to get the Kash Patel will get the votes this afternoon to be confirmed the next FBI director. But this is all, of course, very unusual, Dana, typically FBI directors. As you know, serve 10-year terms.

Typically, a president does not come and install his own FBI director, and that's precisely what is happening here with Kash Patel, which is why a lot of Democrats are concerned that he would fill out the Trump's retribution agenda. That's something Republicans deny, but we'll see what ultimately happens when Patel is expected to get the job?

BASH: Yeah. Although, the last FBI director was his FBI director, and turned out not to be exactly what Donald Trump had hoped for. Obviously, he thinks Kash Patel is quite different. Thank you so much, Manu. Appreciate it.

So, we are 30 days in, and we have many, many more to go. What comes next. Many of the early actions were mapped out pretty closely in Project 2025, despite the president's efforts to distance himself during the campaign. We're going to dig into that. And what the recommendations are that are left.

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BASH: We were talking before the break about Kash Patel being on track for confirmation as FBI director, probably this afternoon. The fact that, Kash Patel, one of Donald Trump's most important and most controversial nominees, hasn't even taken office yet, really highlights the Trump era has just only begun.

And my smart reporters and colleagues and friends are here again. I want to read something that Paul Dans. You probably don't know his name, but I'll tell you, he's important. He's a co-editor of the Project 2025, mandate for leadership. Here's what he said just a couple of weeks ago.

This is exactly the work we set out to do. It's still in the early first stages of bearing fruit, but we wanted to make sure the president was ready to hit the ground running on day one. The rapidity and the depth of what they rolled out this quickly is a testament to the work done in Project 2025 and other presidential transition projects.

So, we talked a lot about what they have done inside the Trump administration. Let's look at some of the many, many things that are still left in this blueprint that was written outside of the Trump orbit.

Revoke approval of abortion medication, slash federal funding of natural disasters, stop the FBI from combating misinformation and disinformation, privatize the Transportation Security Agency, the TSA, break up Department of Homeland Security to create cabinet level, border and immigration agency.

And here's a big one, abolish the Federal Reserve and replace with free banking, which would mean neither interest rates nor the supply of money would be controlled by the federal government.

WALTER: Yeah. The stock market is not going to like that very much, right? I mean, I assume anything that is going to have an impact on the issue of the economy and people's security, feeling secure about the state of the economy is going to be, I think, one of the hardest things to accomplish.

But a lot of those things that you went down the list. No, they haven't necessarily put them into place yet, but you can already see some of the pieces there on in terms of breaking up agencies or at least directing agencies to act in a certain -- in a certain manner.

Again, I don't think this is the stuff that voters are paying a tremendous amount of attention to where it becomes problematic, potentially down the road for Republicans.