Tamara Keith and Jasmine Wright on Trump losing support from independents
PBS News Hour - Segments
PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 February 2026
⏱️ 9 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | For more on the latest PBS news poll and what to watch for during President Trump's State of the Union tomorrow night, |
| 0:06.2 | we turn now to our politics Monday duo. That's Tamara Keith of NPR and Jasmine Wright, White House correspondent for notice. |
| 0:13.2 | Amy Walter is away this evening. Great to see you both. So let's start with this poll, as we just reported, |
| 0:18.1 | 55% of Americans say President Trump is changing the country for the worst. |
| 0:21.9 | That includes 64% of independence. |
| 0:25.0 | Tam, what stands out to you in these numbers? |
| 0:27.0 | President Trump has really, he relied on independence to win and he is losing them, which is going to be a problem in the midterms. |
| 0:36.0 | And I think the other thing that broadly stands out from the poll is just people are upset. |
| 0:41.9 | There's a lot of discontent about the state of the country, the direction of the country, |
| 0:46.3 | the viability of American democracy. |
| 0:50.0 | And there is still huge polarization. |
| 0:52.9 | If you look under the hood of these numbers, it really is. |
| 0:55.5 | Democrats are going this way. |
| 0:57.1 | Republicans are going this way. |
| 0:58.6 | However, independents are more in the direction of Democrats right now. |
| 1:03.4 | And Jasmine, another thing that stands out in this poll, 53% of respondents say President |
| 1:08.3 | Trump's policies have had a negative impact on them personally. |
| 1:12.0 | That is different than, you know, abstract disapproval. This is people speaking about their |
| 1:17.7 | direct experience. And I think that is reflected in a lot of people's discomfort with the |
| 1:22.7 | tariffs. Obviously, we know that those were just struck down the way that he was using them |
| 1:25.8 | by the Supreme Court. But we've heard people be really frustrated about the tariffs, frustrated about high prices, |
| 1:31.5 | frustrated about the economy not being as good as they've heard the president say, and also |
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