Now witnessing the Trump administration make sweeping changes, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says President Donald Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency is not an authentic government agency. It therefore lacks the authority, he argues, to make spending decisions or shut down programs.
Aiding the flailing Democrats, numerous lawsuits have been filed challenging DOGE and its leader, Elon Musk, in an attempt to stop DOGE and its attempt to scrutinize government agencies and their wasteful spending.
But Democrats are on the losing side of the argument, Rasmussen polling reveals.
Forty-seven percent of Americans believe the country is on the right track, compared to 46% who say it’s headed in the wrong direction, pollster Mark Mitchell told the Washington Watch program.
The margin is slight but it reverses a 20-year trend on the question, Mitchell told show host Jody Hice.
“This is an upset of the last like 30 or 40 years of this red team, blue team dichotomy where we talk about things like policy and political capital,” Mitchell said.
Schumer, meanwhile, has it both right and wrong. The President does not have the unilateral authority to create a permanent federal department or agency, according to the U.S. Constitution. But he can create a temporary one, as he did with DOGE through executive order the day he took office.
The Supreme Court has made clear that the Constitution imposes limits on Congress’ ability to influence or control the actions of officers once they are appointed. Likewise, it is widely believed that the President must retain a certain amount of independent discretion in selecting officers that Congress may not impede.
“The talking heads on mainstream media argue about what Americans think, and right now, what it looks like is that this is an existential crisis for D.C., for what people have termed the oligarchy, a group of unelected powers that have been doing what they want, and they've lost the ability to control it,” Mitchell said.
This group calls the DOGE cuts chaotic and seeks to continue sending federal funds overseas. Many of those contributions have gone to support pro-LGBTQ efforts and other far-left causes through USAID, DOGE’s cuts have revealed.
“But Americans are the happiest they’ve ever been as measured by, ‘Do you think the country is headed in the right direction?’” Mitchell said. “We have never seen that number positive in all of Rasmussen polling, and now it’s positive for the first time ever.”
The favorability number spikes every time a president is elected then it resettles over time, Mitchell said.
Trump’s “right direction” numbers were also strong in his first time, even late.
“The second-highest right direction there has ever been was in February of 2020, and that was every unique. That doesn’t normally happen,” Mitchell said.
Americans say they like what they’re seeing.
Trump has an approval rating of 55%, plus-12 against his disapproval number of 43%, according to Political Polls on X. That’s a jump six points from his most recent numbers on Feb. 6.
DOGE itself is at plus-10, Mitchell said.
Democrats are saying, “They weren’t legislatively created; they don’t have security clearances. Americans do not care,” Mitchell said. “They’re finally getting what they voted for.”
ABC News challenges Dem over polling
A recent Marquette University poll found that among adults:
*63% favored the government’s recognition of only two sexes.
*60% favor deporting immigrants in the U.S. illegally
*60% favor expanding oil and gas production
*59% favor an emergency declaration for the southern border.
The numbers left House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries flummoxed during an appearance on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday morning.
Host Jon Karl pointed to the ratings and asked Jeffries, who earlier this month proclaimed that Democrats would fight Trump’s agenda legislatively, in the courts and on the streets, if there was anything for which he would agree with Trump.
Jeffries turned to the price of eggs and called for a bipartisan fix to immigration.
“Inflation is way up,” under a Republican president who has been in office less than a month, the Democrat told Karl with a straight face.
On the issue of illegal immigration, Jeffries said Democrats will work with Republicans if the Democratic Party can “protect dreams, protect workers and protect families,” Jeffries said.
The American public, however, is witnessing the Trump administration follow through on a campaign promise. ICE is currently locating and arresting tens of thousands of illegal immigrants across the country, and sending them to their home country or to GITMO to await deportation.
Rasmussen and 'right track'
The “right track” question posed by Rasmussen is one additional measure of happiness among U.S. likely voters and is posed in a very simple manner, Mitchell said.
“It’s literally just is the country in the right direction or on the wrong track. The reason it’s so powerful is just because everybody asks it, and we have so much history, and the fact that it’s never been (so high) in all of our polling history is kind of sad. You’d want a representative democracy to try and maximize that number.”
People appreciate seeing strong leadership from the Oval Office, David Closson, director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, told Hice.
“The American people appreciate the policies on immigration, the work that Elon Musk and DOGE have been doing,” he said.
Trump’s team should “look at a result like this with the Rasmussen poll as a general validation that a lot of the policies and decisions that they're making are resonating with the American people,” Closson said.
The right track as a political perspective then from the Christian perspective are not always the same things, Closson said.
In the early days of Trump’s second term, the logic in his executive orders tilts in favor of life; the recognition of only God’s two genders shows a country “getting back on track in a way that’s consistent with moral order,” Closson said.
Trump doing more than promising
Not only has the number never been positive, it’s often been much lower, in the upper teens or low 20s, Mitchell said.
He cited the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and the demonstrations at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 as examples.
Americans are unaccustomed to politicians following through on promises at this level, Mitchell said.
“This is new because, again, Trump didn't come in with some kind of policy promises," Mitchell pointed out. "Trump came in promising aggressive action, and everybody said, ‘Yeah, sure.’ Well, we’re seeing it.”
More shock to the system is coming with next month’s budget ceiling discussion in Congress, Mitchell predicts.
“It's not going to play out the same way because people see through, I think, the political lies, like the way that Chuck Schumer just gotten brutalized on Twitter," he observed. "I don't think we've ever seen anything like that.”
Schumer faced widespread mockery last week after launching a "tip line" and calling on whistleblowers to expose corruption, abuse and threats to public safety, Fox News reported.
