Eat & Drink

The public is rejecting President Donald Trump's "make-believe" approach to the current economy — and he's "going to be disappointed," according to a new report.

Americans are not convinced by the president's claims of an "economic renaissance," Steve Benen, producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show" writes on the MaddowBlog Friday.

In his post, Benen points to the results from the CBS News/YouGov poll released this week that reports 60% of Americans disapprove of Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, as 51% say the president's economic agenda has left them worse off. Other polls and surveys indicate a similar tone, he adds.

"And yet, he acts as if he can bully Americans’ economic attitudes into submission through constant, reality-defying repetition," Benen writes.

During his White House cabinet meeting this week, Trump said "we have the best economy we've ever had."

Benen argues that things are not good — and 22 states could be heading to recession and economic downturn following the Trump tariff policies and aggressive immigration tactics, according to a new report this week from Axios.

"The idea that Trump, during his first term, delivered the greatest economy ever seen by human eyes is demonstrably absurd," Benen writes. "But the idea that our current economy has reached heights without precedent in the history of the United States is every bit as ridiculous."

The White House might not want to hear it, he adds, but Americans aren't happy.

"I don’t know whether Trump has genuinely convinced himself that Americans now have 'the best economy we’ve ever had,' or whether he was just peddling the latest in a series of lies. Either way, if he thinks such nonsense is persuading a frustrated public, he’s going to be disappointed," he writes.

A number of Federal Emergency Management Agency staff that openly criticized President Donald Trump are under intense investigation from FEMA leadership, and under threats of termination should they refuse to reveal the names of their colleagues who criticized Trump anonymously, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

Nearly 200 FEMA employees signed onto a letter in August pushing back against the Trump administration’s cuts to FEMA, warning that the cuts could jeopardize the agency’s ability to adequately respond to disasters.

More than a dozen FEMA employees – all of whom signed onto the letter – were soon placed on leave. Now, remaining staff that had signed onto the letter using their name are being investigated by agency leadership, being threatened to reveal the names of their colleagues who signed the letter anonymously, according to insiders who spoke with Bloomberg and documents reviewed by the outlet.

“The interviews with FEMA workers have been carried out by the agency's division that investigates employee misconduct, and those interviewed have been told they risk being fired for failure to cooperate,” Bloomberg writes in its report. “The employees have been instructed not to bring counsel, according to people familiar with the process.”

The revelation that FEMA staff under investigation were being instructed not to bring legal counsel was revealed, in part, by Colette Delawalla, the founder of the nonprofit organization Stand Up for Science, the same organization that helped FEMA staff publish its letter of dissent.

“They are not really given an option not to comply,” Delawalla told Bloomberg. “They don’t have guidance while they’re in there.”

Trump has previously said he wanted to phase out FEMA and “bring it down to the state level,” with the agency struggling to respond to emergencies such as the deadly Texas flood in July following new Trump administration policies that led to funding lapses for the agency.

A previous batch of FEMA employees – 140 of them – were placed on leave back in July for signing onto a different letter of dissent, which itself followed a number of FEMA employees being forcibly reassigned to work for Immigrations Customs and Enforcement amid Trump’s mass deportation push.