Nine months into the second Donald Trump presidency, a majority of Americans strongly oppose his hard-line crime-crackdown policies, including sending military forces into U.S. cities. Americans also, for the second year in a row, see crime as less serious.

“Americans as a whole lean toward moderation in the use of law enforcement to combat crime,” and “now view national crime conditions more favorably than at any point in recent years,” according to two Gallup studies published Thursday.

President Trump ran on reducing crime during the 2024 campaign, and, despite tremendous opposition from the left, and rather than funding initiatives to address the causes of crime, he has deployed the National Guard to several Democratic-led cities, while battling in court for the right to do so. The President repeatedly, and increasingly, cites the Insurrection Act, claiming he has the right to invoke it and saying that the courts would do nothing to stop him.

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“The clearest indication of Americans’ approach to crime fighting comes from a question asking whether more government money and effort should go toward addressing some of the societal problems that may lead to crime or toward strengthening law enforcement,” Gallup reported. “Currently, 67% favor focusing on ‘addressing social and economic problems such as drug addiction, homelessness and mental health,’ while 29% believe more resources should be devoted to ‘strengthening law enforcement.'”

Gallup also reported that “Americans’ resistance to vigorous law enforcement is also evident in their opposition to deploying troops from either the National Guard or the U.S. military to control crime in U.S. cities.”

President Trump in recent days has threatened to send into U.S. cities not only the National Guard, but other branches of the Armed Forces.

“I could send the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, I could, say, send anybody I wanted,” Trump said on Wednesday.

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On Tuesday, Trump told reporters: “You know, people don’t care if we send in our military, if we send in our National Guard, if we send in Space Command, they don’t care who the hell it is.”

“Really, we could do as we want to do,” he insisted.

But according to Gallup, most Americans say the issue does matter to them.

Reporting that “most U.S. adults oppose militarized responses to urban crime,” Gallup found that 60% of Americans “are against sending military troops to cities to control crime,” and “56% oppose sending National Guard troops to U.S. cities.”

Gallup found a “broader public inclination toward moderate, preventive approaches to crime reduction over stringent sentencing and enforcement at a time when Americans are less concerned about the U.S. crime problem than they’ve been in recent years.”

And Gallup is not alone in its reporting.

Earlier this month, CNN reported that a CBS News-YouGov poll showed Americans “opposed Trump’s decision to deploy the Guard to US cities, 58%-42%. A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed they disapproved of Trump’s use of the Guard and federal law enforcement to reduce crime, 55%-42%. And NPR-Ipsos polling in recent weeks showed fewer than 4 in 10 Americans supported Trump’s decisions to deploy the Guard to Washington, DC, and Memphis, Tennessee.”

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Image via Reuters 

A wide array of national security and intelligence community experts is strongly criticizing President Donald Trump’s new nuclear policy, announced on his social media website, which effectively orders the U.S. Department of Defense to halt a 33-year-old ban on nuclear weapons testing and begin the process again.

“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” Trump declared — wrongly, according to experts. “This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office. Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice!”

“Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years,” he continued, in the moments before meeting with China’s President Xi for the first time in six years. “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”

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The Steady State, an organization of over 300 former U.S. national security professionals across the intelligence, defense, diplomacy, and homeland security fields, slammed President Trump’s remarks.

“Nuclear testing isn’t something you greenlight in a post,” they wrote, “but turning national security into a fear show is how authoritarians rule.”

Other experts also slammed the president.

Tom Nichols, professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College, where he taught for 25 years, is an expert on international security, nuclear weapons, and Russia.

At The Atlantic, Nichols wrote that Trump’s “reasoning is a bit confused: In the space of one short announcement, he managed to get a lot wrong, which is worrisome, because he’s the only person in America who has the authority to order the use of nuclear arms.”

Pointing to Trump’s post, Nichols explained, “Almost none of this is right.”

He wrote that Russia, not the U.S., has the world’s largest stockpile of nuclear weapons. And while China is third, Nichols appeared skeptical that they could reach parity with the U.S. in five years. Doing so would require 1,000 new nuclear warheads a year, when they have only constructed 100 in the past two years, he wrote.

“Also, the United States did not create some shiny new arsenal during Trump’s first term. It is true that America is about to spend a gigantic amount of money—roughly $1 trillion—to modernize its strategic nuclear arsenal, but that plan has been in the works since the Obama administration.”

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Professor of Political Science Michael McFaul, the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, also condemned Trump’s order to restart testing of nuclear weapons.

“This makes absolutely no sense,” he wrote. “The only winner of renewed testing of nuclear weapons: China.”

The Washington Post’s lead global security analyst Josh Rogin, speaking on CNN overnight, said: “Trump’s brain probably thinks he’s acting tough, and then, by testing nuclear weapons, he’s showing American strength.”

He also noted that “the U.S. did sign a treaty to promise not to test nuclear weapons, and this would violate that, or at least abrogate that.”

Rogin added that “testing nuclear weapons has its own risks. Once we start testing, a lot of other people are gonna start testing.”

“But, you know, from Trump’s perspective, I’m sure, it means he thinks that, this is a real tough thing to do to really show the world that we’re not afraid to test our weapons, maybe we’re not afraid to use them.”

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Image via Reuters 

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune launched into a diatribe attacking Democrats when one — Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico — asked unanimous consent to pass legislation to pay the 42 million Americans who use SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Later, Thune apologized — to reporters, not Senator Luján, for his remarks.

Despite having about $5 to $6 billion in emergency funds for SNAP, the Trump administration decided to reverse its previous policy to pay recipients during a shutdown. That policy, which was removed from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website, had stated the “Congressional intent” was to make the funds available.

Experts have said there is a legal requirement to fund SNAP via its contingency reserves during the shutdown.

“Senate Republicans blocked legislation on Wednesday that would help low-income households afford groceries during the government shutdown, despite bipartisan support for providing nutrition aid to tens of millions of Americans,” Bloomberg News reported.

Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio described Thune’s remarks as a “blowup,” and said he went “nuclear.”

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“The senator from New Mexico was absolutely right,” Leader Thune said on the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon. “SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food.”

Republicans’ position is that Democrats are to blame for the shutdown, now in its 29th day. But polling shows that more Americans blame Republicans and President Trump for the shutdown than Democrats, whom they believe are trying to reopen the government more than Republicans.

“People should be getting paid in this country. And we’ve tried to do that 13 times. And you voted no, 13 times,” he said, pointing to Democrats who have refused to vote to reopen the federal government until Republicans agree to reinstate the Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year. Obamacare premiums are expected to skyrocket without the subsidies.

“This isn’t a political game,” Thune said, angrily. “These are real people’s lives that we’re talking about. And you all just figured that out?”

“29 days and, ‘Oh, there might be some consequences.’ There are people who are running out of money. Yeah, we’re 29 days in.”

“13 times, people over here voted to fund SNAP. 13 times, they voted to fund WIC,” he said of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

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“My aching back,” Thune said, expressing frustration.

The Majority Leader then went on to charge that Democrats want the shutdown to continue, long term.

“So are they making plans to end the shutdown and reopen the government?” he asked. “Nope. They’re gonna propose a bill to fund food stamps during their shutdown.”

“This bill is a cynical attempt to provide political cover for Democrats to allow them to carry on their government shutdown for the long term.”

After his remarks, and after leaving the floor, Politico reported that Thune told reporters, “Sorry I channeled a little bit of anger there.”

THUNE: “SNAP recipients shouldn’t go without food, people should be getting paid in this country, and we’ve tried to do that 13 times — and you voted no 13 times. This isn’t a political game, these are real people’s lives that we’re talking about.” pic.twitter.com/8fBO1M7kuG

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) October 29, 2025

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