Plus: SCOTUS approval sinks | Tuesday, July 30, 2024
| | | | | | | Axios PM | | By Mike Allen · Jul 30, 2024 | | Good afternoon. Today's newsletter, edited by Sam Baker, is 481 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing. ⚡️ Anita Dunn, a top Biden adviser, will leave the White House next week to advise the largest super PAC supporting Vice President Harris. (Washington Post) | | | | | | 1 big thing: SCOTUS approval near record lows | | | ![]() Data: Gallup; Chart: Axios Visuals Just 43% of Americans approve of the way the Supreme Court is doing its job — almost a record low, according to a new Gallup survey. - Republicans are overwhelmingly happy with the court. But it's underwater with independents and scraping rock bottom among Democrats, with just 15% approval.
⚡️ Between the lines: It'll probably stay this way for quite a while, Axios' Sam Baker writes. - Public opinion of the court reflects which side is winning the big cases, creating partisan splits that flip back and forth.
- Today's 6-3 court delivers very few big wins for liberals, and the court will likely have a solidly conservative majority for years, perhaps decades.
⚖️ Why it matters: Anger at the court is clearly motivating Democrats to vote, and it's pushing proposals to change the makeup of the court closer to the party's mainstream. - And while the justices long tried to position themselves and their work as apolitical, these wild swings in public approval suggest that voters don't see it that way, no matter which side they're on.
Go deeper. |     | | | | | | 2. ✍️ Project 2025 quiets down | | |  | | | Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios | | | | Project 2025 will soon stop rolling out new policy proposals for a second Trump administration, Axios' Erin Doherty reports. - The project's director, Paul Dans, has also stepped down.
💡 Why it matters: Former President Trump and his advisers have tried to distance themselves from Project 2025 — an effort led by the Heritage Foundation to craft an agenda for a second Trump presidency. - The aggressively conservative blueprint, which has been the focus of escalating Democratic attacks, isn't official Trump policy. (That's Agenda47.) But the authors include many of the former president's close allies.
💀 "Reports of Project 2025's demise would be greatly welcomed," Trump campaign co-managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement. - The Heritage Foundation said the project is not ending, but shifting from policy to personnel.
Go deeper: What Project 2025 says | | | | | | | | 3. Catch me up | | | | An Israeli airstrike today hit this building in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Photo: Hussein Malla/AP - 🇮🇱 Israel conducted airstrikes in Beirut, targeting a Hezbollah leader. The U.S. had cautioned Israel against the strike. Go deeper.
- 🗳️ Vice President Harris is expected to campaign in swing states next week with her running mate, which means she must be getting close to picking one. Go deeper.
- 🔎 "I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured," Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told a congressional committee as he recounted the mistakes surrounding the assassination attempt against Trump. Go deeper.
| | | | | | | | 4. 📸 1,000 words | | | | Photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images Simone Biles celebrates after the U.S. won the gold medal in gymnastics today. - Biles wrapped the evening to roaring applause, receiving a standing ovation as raucous cheers of "U-S-A" broke out throughout the arena.
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