BETHLEHEM, Pa. — What's in store for President Donald Trump's second term?
This week on Political Pulse, host Tom Shortell and Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, talk about campaign promises, their state and local impacts and approval ratings from his first month in office.
Borick said Trump's approval ratings have "modestly come down over the last month," from 51-52% around the start of his term to 46-47% now. Some approval comes from supporters who see Trump holding his campaign promise of "shaking up" federal funding, Borick said, but Elon Musk's role tends to be "pretty negatively received by the public."
Then, the two address the elephant in the room: Medicaid. Will it go or will it stay?
"One of the biggest reactions that we've been seeing locally, at least, has been to talk about cutting Medicaid," Shortell said.
Mid-February, protestors stood outsideU.S. Rep. Ryan Mackenzie's office waving signs that read "Hands off our health care" and "Mackenzie: Protect Medicaid," protesting Medicaid cuts and urging the representative to stand against them.
"Trump has made conflicting statements on this — Medicaid provides health care to 72 million people — and he said that he doesn't want to touch it, but he's also endorsed Republican plans to cut or restrict Medicaid. What gives can he have this both ways?" Shortell asked.
Borick says no, and that we might see the situation pan out similarly to what happened when Trump wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017.
"Moving and changing healthcare in the United States is a difficult task," Borick said. "It takes enormous political capital to adjust those programs..."
To learn more, watch this week's episode above or click the audio player below to listen.
