‘Shameful’: Trump Threatens to Redirect Student Loan Borrowers to Most Expensive Repayment Plans

More than 7 million borrowers booted from a Biden-era loan forgiveness program will have to quickly switch to a new plan using a system that’s been backed up for months.

University of Chicago graduates celebrate during the commencement ceremony on June 7, 2025.
(Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Stephen Prager
Mar 27, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

After axing a Biden-era student loan repayment program, the Trump administration is threatening to kick its millions of mostly low-income beneficiaries onto the government’s most expensive plan unless they switch to a new one quickly.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Department of Education was beginning to email the more than 7 million people enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) program, telling them they needed to change their plan within the next 90 days.


Trump ‘Too Busy Siding With Wall Street,’ Says Warren as US Credit Card Debt Crisis Explodes

Around 4.5 million of those borrowers earn incomes between 150% and 225%, allowing them to qualify for zero-dollar monthly payments under SAVE, which the Trump administration effectively killed in December after settling with Republican states who’d brought lawsuits against the program under former President Joe Biden.

Anonymous officials told The Post that those who do not switch plans within three months of receiving the email will automatically be re-enrolled in the Standard Plan. Unlike SAVE, which is income-based, the Standard plan has borrowers pay a fixed rate over 10 years.

Standard typically carries the highest monthly payments, and those transitioning to it from SAVE could pay more than $300 extra per month in some cases, with the poorest borrowers seeing the sharpest increases.

While 90 days may seem like plenty of time to switch to a less expensive repayment plan, it’s not nearly that simple.

Due to the large exodus of borrowers, the Department of Education has struggled to process all the forms, processing only about 250,000 per month. Many borrowers who have tried to transition have found themselves waiting months for a reply.

To make matters more confusing, many of these borrowers will have to switch programs again soon, since all but one repayment program will be dissolved on July 1, 2028 as a result of last year’s Republican budget law. The remaining plan will also be income-driven, though it is still expected to cost borrowers more each month.




According to a report released last month by the Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers, two groups that support loan forgiveness, nearly 9 million student loan borrowers are in default. During Trump’s first year back in office, the student loan delinquency rate jumped from roughly zero to 25%, which it called “precedent-shattering.”

“Much of the rise in delinquencies can be linked to the Trump administration’s actions aimed at increasing student loan payments,” the report said. “The US Department of Education blocked borrowers from accessing more affordable payments through income-driven plans, having ordered a stoppage in application processing for three months and mass-denying 328,000 applications in August 2025. As of December 31, 2025, a warehouse’s worth of 734,000 applications sat unprocessed.”

Being in default has major ramifications for borrowers’ finances. Those with delinquent loans saw their credit scores decrease by an average of 57 points during the first three quarters of 2025, dragging around 2 million of them into “subprime” territory, which forces them to pay thousands of dollars more for auto and personal loans and makes them more likely to have difficulty finding housing and employment.

The report estimated that if those booted from SAVE defaulted at the same rate as other borrowers, the number of student loan borrowers in distress could rise as high as 17 million.

According to Protect Borrowers, the typical family will pay more than $3,000 per year in additional costs as a result of the end of SAVE.

The end of SAVE comes as oil shocks caused by Trump’s war in Iran have spiked gas prices and threaten to raise them throughout the economy, adding to the already elevated costs of food, housing, and transportation resulting from the president’s aggressive tariff regime.

“In the middle of an affordability crisis driven by Donald Trump,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), “Trump is killing a plan that lowers student loan costs. It’s shameful.”

On Palm Sunday, Christians Across the Country Will Reclaim our Faith Through Love

The Trump administration carries out policy violence that directly contradicts everything that Jesus taught. It’s time to make some noise.


A large group of protesters, including clergy, gathered outside Terminal 1 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in St. Paul in frigid, sub-zero temperatures on Friday, January 23, 2026 to demonstrate against the ongoing immigration enforcement operations in the Twin Cities metro area, Operation Metro Surge.
(Photo by Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Rev. Martha Bardwell
Mar 27, 2026

Common Dreams


On Palm Sunday, March 29, thousands of Christians across denomination, geography, culture, and race will be out in the streets. We will sing. We will pray. We will march. We will magnify our God in Jesus Christ who came among us to love, liberate, teach, heal, and give us abundant life. We will renounce the death-dealing cruelty, lies, and greed of our federal administration and demand a society that is rooted in love of neighbor—in feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and welcoming the stranger.

We believe that the time is now to publicly reclaim the heart of our faith with spiritual and moral clarity and with committed, disciplined action. Over these last months, I and my neighbors witnessed firsthand the terror of Operation Metro Surge. We saw constitutional observers harassed, followed, detained, and—in the case of Renee Good and Alex Pretti—killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. We saw neighbors—children, elders, mothers, fathers—abducted from bus stops, childcare centers, homes, and workplaces. We then heard government officials lie about what we witnessed with our own eyes.

Operation Metro Surge has ended in Minnesota, but our free fall into authoritarianism has not. When our government funds detention centers and war and gives tax breaks to the richest Americans, all the while making devastating cuts to healthcare, food assistance, and other programs that better peoples’ lives, we cannot stay silent. This is policy violence that directly contradicts everything that Jesus taught. It’s time to make some noise.

Our Palm Sunday Faith Actions are inspired by the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, surrounded by crowds who hailed Jesus as Lord and shouted “Hosanna!” meaning, “Save us!” The subversive nature of Jesus’ action here cannot be overstated. In a city under the grip of Roman rule, calling anyone “savior” or “lord” besides Caesar Augustus was dangerous. The imperial cult was the “religion” of the land, requiring submission to Caesar above all. And yet, as Jesus enters Jerusalem, the crowds make a bold public counterclaim with their shouts of “Hosanna.” Jesus is cast as a fulfillment of words spoken by the prophet Zechariah about a humble king of peace:
He will cut off the… war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations.
(Zechariah 9:10)

Jesus’ entry, then, was no mere parade—it was risky, disruptive, and tension raising. We read in Luke’s account that the Pharisees try to get Jesus to tone it down: “Teacher, order your disciples to stop!” These well-meaning words remind me of the white clergy in Alabama who told Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King that his direct action campaign to desegregate Birmingham was “unwise and untimely.” But like Dr. King in Birmingham, Jesus stays the course with prophetic clarity.

Matthew dramatizes the tension even more: “When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil” (Matthew 21:10). The Greek word here translated as “turmoil” is related to the word seismos, meaning earthquake. This connection helps us see a deeper meaning: Jesus came to bring about a seismic shift in the way we live, love, and perceive God’s work in the world. Jesus came to shake up the very foundations of human society. His way of humble service and self-giving love make the tectonic plates of empire rumble and crack.

If we keep reading in Matthew’s gospel, we find another seismic event—this time, on that early morning when the women come to the tomb that holds Jesus’ crucified body. An earthquake erupts as an angel arrives and rolls the stone away that had sealed the tomb up tight. In this resurrection dawn, we see that what seems solid and fixed in the eyes of empire can be changed, moved, and shattered in the light of God’s love.

This Palm Sunday, we will be part of the turmoil and part of the quaking. We will be part of the crowd, praising Jesus as the one who saves us and seeking to live out his command to love God and neighbor. Together, we will be a surge of love and nonviolence, care and compassion. We hope you will join us in the streets.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Rev. Martha Bardwell
Rev. Martha Bardwell is the lead pastor at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.

Unprecedented God Squad Meeting Could Push Gulf Species Toward Extinction

If the defense secretary forces the God Squad to grant this sweeping—and unprecedented exemption—all the threatened and endangered creatures, both large and small, that call the Gulf waters and coastlines home will be at risk.

The critically endangered Rice’s whale (pictured) would be at risk if Endangered Species protections are waved for oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
(Photo by NOAA)

Jane Davenport
Mar 27, 2026

Common Dreams

The Trump administration has made clear from day one that it intends to dramatically expand fossil fuel extraction on federal lands and in federal waters, with no regard for the consequences to wildlife or the public interest. In the latest jaw-dropping move, late on the night of March 25, government lawyers revealed in a court filing that, on March 13, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly contacted Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to demand he convene a meeting of the Endangered Species Committee, or “God Squad.”

Secretary Hegseth’s rationale for the convening is based on a false narrative that “national security” reasons dictate that the God Squad must grant an Endangered Species Act (ESA) exemption for all oil and gas activities the Interior Department authorizes in the Gulf of Mexico.




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On March 16, Burgum publicly announced a snap God Squad meeting on March 31 to consider exempting oil and gas activities in the Gulf from the ESA’s requirement that federal agencies avoid taking actions likely to jeopardize the continued existence of endangered and threatened species. The cryptic notice gave no indication that “national security” reasons warranted the meeting—the first in 35 years.

Certainly, none of the detailed statutory prerequisites to a God Squad vote have been met, and no complete exemption application has been teed up for the committee to consider, let alone for the public to examine.

No administration, Republican or Democratic, has ever tried to write itself a blank check to ignore the ESA’s requirements.

It cannot be a coincidence that Secretary Hegseth demanded a God Squad meeting just two weeks after the United States launched airstrikes across Iran. Iran has now blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for 20% of the world’s oil and gas supplies. The result: Global oil prices have spiked, and Republicans are on the ropes. But bypassing the ESA to further the administration’s massive plans to expand Gulf oil production will do nothing to help Americans facing higher energy, food, and consumer goods prices today.

The truth is that the ESA has never stood—and is not now standing—in the way of oil and gas development in the Gulf. To assert otherwise is a red herring.

In fact, data shows that the ESA almost never stops projects.

Defenders of Wildlife’s Center for Conservation Innovation analyzed over 88,000 US Fish and Wildlife Service ESA consultations that took place between 2008-2015 and found that not a single project was halted or extensively altered due to a jeopardy finding. Most projects were not even delayed, and only two consultations resulted in a jeopardy finding.

And for a jeopardy opinion, the wildlife agency must try to develop a “reasonable and prudent alternative” that allows the project to go forward while avoiding jeopardy. The wildlife agency works closely with other federal agencies to ensure their actions can proceed without risking a species’ extinction.

If the defense secretary forces the God Squad to grant this sweeping—and unprecedented exemption—all the threatened and endangered creatures, both large and small, that call the Gulf waters and coastlines home will be at risk. From the critically endangered Rice’s whale with only 51 surviving animals to the beloved Florida manatee, from the tiny Alabama beach mouse and five sea turtle species to the largest animal that has ever lived, the blue whale and more—all will suffer the consequences if their ESA protections are ripped away.

No administration, Republican or Democratic, has ever tried to write itself a blank check to ignore the ESA’s requirements.

Invoking “national security” cannot justify potentially pushing the Rice’s whale—or any of our nation’s irreplaceable wildlife species—over the brink of extinction. If this administration were truly concerned about national security, it would focus on what is most important to Americans—a healthy environment; clean, renewable energy sources; an abundant and affordable food supply; public lands to recreate on; and the protection of our country’s shared heritage of treasured lands, waters, and wildlife.


Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.


Jane Davenport
Jane Davenport is a senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife.
Full Bio >

Sanders-Casar Proposal Takes On Billionaires Relocating Sports Teams for Corporate Welfare

“Professional sports teams should be owned and controlled by the fans who love them, not by the multibillionaire oligarchs,” Sanders said.

US Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) speaks during a press conference with Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) during the introduction of the Home Team Act at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on March 26, 2026.
(Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Mar 26, 2026
COMMON DREAM

US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar on Tuesday introduced a bill that would require owners of professional sports franchises who are considering relocating to give the communities in which they are located a chance to buy the teams first.

“The American people are sick and tired of billionaires threatening to move the sports teams they own to different states unless they get hundreds of millions in corporate welfare to build new stadiums,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement announcing the Home Team Act.

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“In my view, professional sports teams should be owned and controlled by the fans who love them, not by the multibillionaire oligarchs who are getting even richer by charging outrageous prices and getting taxpayers to pick up their extravagant costs,” he continued.

“You shouldn’t have to be wealthy to take your family to a football game,” Sanders added. “You shouldn’t have to fear that a multibillionaire will move your favorite team to a different city if taxpayers refuse to subsidize it. The Home Team Act is a very modest piece of legislation that begins to address this problem. I am proud to support it.”

The Home Team Act is cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut—which lost the National Hockey League’s Hartford Whalers to North Carolina in the 1990s—and five House Democrats.

If passed as written, the bill would:Require sports franchise owners to provide notice a year before moving the team to a new community, defined by crossing state lines or moving to a new Metropolitan Statistical Area;
Give communities a chance to purchase a franchise during that year, including through the sort of successful community ownership model used by the National Football League’s (NFL) Green Bay Packers; and

Penalize noncompliant franchise owners.

“Sports in America should be about more than just making billionaire owners even richer,” Casar said Thursday.

“Far too many Americans know the pain of losing a team, and far too many communities have had to fork over billions in subsidies just to keep an already profitable team home,” he added. “Our bill is about creating a level playing field so leagues work for fans and taxpayers, not just owners.”

Sanders’ office acknowledged that “team relocation has plagued communities across America for decades,” from the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moving respectively to Los Angeles and San Francisco in 1958 to the Oakland Athletics—who previously called Philadelphia and Kansas City home—relocating to Sacramento and, eventually, Las Vegas.

Oaklanders have arguably felt the heartbreak of losing their beloved pro sports franchises more than any other US city, having lost the As, the NFL’s Raiders, and the Warriors of the National Basketball Association in a five-year span.

“Currently, the Chicago Bears are threatening to leave the city after more than 100 years in response to the state of Indiana offering massive subsidies,” Sanders’ office said of the storied NFL franchise known for its passionately loyal fan base. “The bill would prevent the Bears from being moved across state lines without being offered for sale.”

In his youth, Sanders—who grew up during a time when Jewish players dominated racially segregated professional basketball—was known for his killer mid-range jump shot. As a senator, he has championed professional athletes, especially baseball players, during their collective bargaining struggles against oligarch owners.

Sanders still holds a grudge against the former owner of the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers of his youth who relocated the team to Los Angeles in 1958, when he was a teenager. In 2018, he posted an old Brooklyn adage that “the three worst people in modern history were Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley—but not necessarily in that order.”

Serving in the House of Representatives at the time, Sanders even had a bit part in the 1999 comedy “My X-Girlfriend’s Wedding Reception,” in which he played Manny Shevitz, a rabbi who argues that the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn was the “worst thing that ever happened.”

Sanders Spurns Melania Trump’s Vision of Robots ‘Replacing Teachers’

“We should attract the best and brightest in our country to become teachers and pay them the decent wages that they deserve.”


US First Lady Melania Trump enters the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC with a humanoid robot named Figure 03 during the Fostering the Future Together Global Coalition Summit on March 25, 2026.

(Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

Brett Wilkins
Mar 27, 2026
C0MMON DREAMS

US Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday rejected First Lady Melania Trump’s vision of a near-future in which artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots do the work of human school teachers, arguing that society should instead do better by its human educators.

The wife of President Donald Trump entered Wednesday’s gathering of the Global First Ladies Alliance accompanied by Figure 03, an AI-powered “general purpose humanoid robot” developed by the Sunnyvale, California-based company Figure..



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“The future of AI is personified,” Trump told attendees, who included Brigitte Macron of France, Sara Netanyahu of Israel, and Olena Zelenska of Ukraine. “It will be formed in the shape of humans. Very soon artificial intelligence will move from our mobile phones to humanoids that deliver utility.”

“Imagine a humanoid educator named Plato,” she said. “Access to the classical studies is now instantaneous: literature, science, art, philosophy, mathematics, and history. Humanity’s entire corpus of information is available in the comfort of your home.”

Responding to Trump’s remarks, Sanders (I-Vt.) said Friday on social media: “Call me a radical, but NO.”

“We should not be replacing teachers in America with robots,” the senator added. “We should attract the best and brightest in our country to become teachers and pay them the decent wages that they deserve.”




Trump and Macron also warned about the dangers technology poses to children in remarks that came the same week that a New Mexico jury ordered tech titan Meta to pay a $375 million penalty for endangering youth and jurors in a landmark social media addiction trial found that Meta and YouTube harmed a child user of their platforms.

The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom—who is believed to be a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination—also slapped down the idea of robot teachers, as did ordinary social media users.

“They want to replace human beings. Where will we work? How do we make money?” asked one X account with tens of thousands of followers. “No one wants this. We did not ask for it. Fuck all of this shit.”

AMERIKAN ROBOT TEACHER 

'Prepare for the worst': Hedge fund veteran thinks the market is broken

FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the market opened in New York September 1, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

Sarah K. Burris

March 27, 2026

ALTERNET

DBi’s Andrew Beer is concerned that key financial market indicators could be broken.

Traditionally, financial markets are seen as a giant prediction machine. CNBC called it a "crystal ball." When investors think the future looks good, prices usually rise; when they expect trouble, prices fall or shift. Changes in stocks, bonds, currencies and oil often give early clues about coming growth, inflation, or crises.

That's not happening right now, however, and Beer is worried it is because the crystal ball is broken.

“It’s not normal for big markets to move as much as they are right now,” said Beer, the firm’s managing member, in an interview with CNBC’s “ETF Edge."

“Something is deeply wrong in the market’s ability to forecast the state of the world... The only thing we can all do as investors is: This is the moment to plan and to prepare for the worst. You hope for the best," he added.

“You just — you have more geopolitical risks stacked on top of each other today [and] more economic risk factors than I remember at any time in my career,” he said after more than three decades in the hedge fund industry.

There have been a number of stresses on the economy over the past 12 to 18 months, but it hasn't caused a crisis, and that isn't normal.

“These financial assets are — they’re an investment, but they’re also what you need to survive, to live on, to retire, and so it’s the very real human side of it that I hope people will focus on,” he added.

“The best thing to do in 2025 was just turn off your computer beginning of the year and come back at the end of the year, and you’ve made money, your stocks and your bonds and everything else,” he said. “It won’t continue like that. We will go through a more difficult period.”

He noted that there are so many investments in portfolios that make it difficult to calibrate, like crypto, gold and silver not to mention crude oil.

“No one has a playbook for that,” said Beer.

He's keeping an eye on private credit, which even Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is concerned President Donald Trump might open up for 401(k) investments. There are other concerns about insurance portfolios and other small areas of "the market where unusual stress could begin to spread," CNBC said.

Research director at XTB, Kathleen Brooks, penned a column Friday in which she predicts that the markets may just be immune to things Trump says after so many wild swings over the past months.

"After falling to as low as $96 per barrel earlier this week on comments from President Trump that the war could soon be over, oil traders are now discounting the daily torrent of posts and incoherent press conferences from the White House, as the war rages on. On Friday, investors are facing the facts: the Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed and it does not appear that there is a real end in sight to the war," she said.

It appears they're going to operate as if they have no faith in Trump, she suggested. Markets aren't even reacting to positive news, like Trump's announcement that he won't bomb Iran's power infrastructure this week or next week.

"Effectively, this is just another 10 days where nothing will be achieved and 20 percent of the world’s oil supply will remain constrained. This is why traders have failed to react to this ‘positive news’ and instead the sell-off continues," said Brooks.

Hackers linked to Iran claim they invaded Trump FBI director’s inbox

Alex Henderson

March 27, 2026

With U.S. President Donald Trump's war against Iran raging on, a group of hackers linked to Iran are claiming responsibility for breaking into FBI Director Kash Patel's online inbox.

On Friday morning, March 27, Reuters reported that the hackers, after invading Patel's "personal inbox," were "publishing photographs of the director and his purported resume to the internet."

The hackers, who call themselves Handala, claimed, "The so-called impenetrable systems of the FBI were brought to their knees within hours by our team."


Reuters said it was unable to immediately authenticate the e-mails Handala claimed to have stolen.

According to Reuters, an official for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) confirmed that Patel's e-mails were compromised but did not go into detail.

Growing numbers of Americans now fear Doomsday

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Bobby Colliton and Staff Sgt. Dane Hatley conduct combat survival training near Osan Air Base, South Korea, on Oct. 15, 2012 (U.S. Department of Defense/Flickr)

Alex Henderson

March 25, 2026

ALTERNET

Within Christianity, talk of Armageddon is especially prominent among far-right evangelical fundamentalists — many of whom are obsessed with the New Testament's Book of Revelation. Mainline Protestants and Catholics also read the Book of Revelation, but not in the obsessive way that evangelical fundamentalists and white Christian nationalists do. And they don't have the evangelical fixation on Armadgeddon and the End Times.

But in an op-ed published by The Hill on March 25, researcher John Mac Ghlionn observes that fear of Doomsday is growing among Americans who aren't necessarily End Times evangelicals.

This fear, he notes, is highlighted in a new report by the American Psychological Association (APA).


"America used to reserve Doomsday talk for the guys who stored beans in their backyard and argued about the Book of Revelation on AM radio," Ghlionn explains. "Now, according to a recent paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, one-third of the country quietly suspects that the end will arrive before they get the chance to draw down their 401(k) plans. Historically, apocalyptic thinking had a specific address…. The end of the world was a conviction reserved for a certain kind of Christian, who awaited it with a feeling somewhere between dread and satisfaction."

Ghlionn adds, "These were the kind of people for whom catastrophe would finally settle an argument they had been having for decades. Everyone else just changed the channel and went back to refinancing their mortgages."

But now, according to the researcher, that "separation is gone."

"When the U.S. and Israel chose to attack Iran and kill that country's supreme leader, the phrase 'World War III' began trending on the phones of mechanics in Des Moines and software engineers in Austin," Ghlionn writes. "The researchers found that more than 100 million Americans expect the world to end in their lifetime. This not some vague anxiety, but a concrete belief that colors how these people think about climate change, nuclear war, economic collapse, and artificial intelligence. That is your neighbor, your barista, your Uber driver, and the manager at work who just updated the remote‑work policy."

In 2026, according to Ghlionn, the "Doomsday crowd" includes not only fundamentalist evangelicals, but also, ranges from "climate activists convinced we have blown past every tipping point" to "AI researchers gaming out scenarios where the machine stops taking instructions."

"Americans have always flirted with the end of the world," Ghlionn notes. "But now, for the first time, the preppers, the prophets, the climate modelers, the AI-worriers and the geopolitical realists can all point to different dashboards flashing red at the same time."

Data guru reveals Trump’s 'absolutely atrocious' loss of working-class voters

A supporter of Donald Trump rallies outside an early polling precinct as voters cast their ballots in local, state, and national elections, in Clearwater, Florida, U.S., November 3, 2024. REUTERS/Octavio Jones

Thomas Kika 

March 27, 2026

ALTERNET

Working-class voters were a "very important part" of the coalition that reelected President Donald Trump in 2024, but according to CNN's data guru Harry Enten, the latest numbers show a drastic drop in their support for him that could spell doom for the GOP in the future.

For the purposes of this latest polling, "working class" was defined as anyone making $50,000 or less a year. As Enten explained, these voters and their frustrations about the economy were key to pushing Trump over the electoral edge in 2024.

"You know, the working class... those making under $50K were a big swing vote in the 2024 election," Enten explained. "Trump was able to win them. That was a very important part of his coalition."

Now, however, the support Trump has from these voters has fallen off dramatically, with their approval rating of his job performance as president now deeply underwater. While Trump carried these voters by 2 percent over Kamala Harris, he now has a net disapproval from them by 24 percentage points, based on an average from several sources.

A similar trend has emerged across numerous voter demographics that broke for Trump in 2024, including young voters and Latino voters, casting major doubts on the GOP's ability to hang onto power in the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential race.

"But now look at this now, look at the net approval rating he has with those making under [$50K]," Enten continued. "Down it goes. Look at that, that's a 26-point switcheroo in the latest average of polls. Look at that, minus 24 points. The working-class voters are abandoning Donald Trump, those who put him over the top in 2024 are saying, 'You know what? Not for me right now.'"

On a per-issue basis, Enten noted that Trump's approval over Harris on the economy was a major factor helping him secure working-class voters in 2024, but now, that rating has fallen even harder than his overall approval. While voters in 2024 gave him a 5-point edge on the economy, his current net approval is now underwater by a dysmal 31 points.

"They have completely, completely shifted away from the president of the United States," Enten said. "He is way underwater, we're talking way more than a 20-point shift away from the president of the United States. His net approval rating with them right now is absolutely atrocious when it comes to the economy. They have seen what has happened, they have seen what has happened with tariffs, they have seen what has happened with the war, they have seen the gas prices go up, and you just say to yourself if you're a voter making under $50K, the economy is not where we want it to be, and therefore we are turning against Trump on the economy, and we are turning against him overall."

'You can hear the concern': Trump's dumpster-level polling casts a shadow over CPAC

CPAC Attendee Alexander Selby (YouTube Screengrab)

Adam Lynch

March 26, 2026

ALTERNET

CNN reports right wing figures and influencers are gathering at one of the biggest conservative conferences of the year in Texas — but what's gathering with them is fear.

This year, CNN anchor Boris Sanchez reports President Donald Trump's poll numbers are in a dumpster, along with the Republican party's chances of holding on to both the House and Senate in the midterms. Government debt is also on a steep rise and the war with Iran is grievously unpopular and breaking the Republican Party into pieces.

“This isn't, you know, what I voted for,” said CPAC attendee Shashank Yalamanchi. “What I voted for was domestic policy change at home and, you know, realistic foreign policy. So, I'm just hoping we can get it all wrapped up soon.”


“I think they’ll get destroyed in the midterms,” said CPAC Attendee Alexander Selby, speaking of Republicans. “I just I get the vibe that a lot of people I knew who just voted for Trump because they thought he was cool in high school are now just like, ‘I can't stand the guy’.”

“It is like night and day,” CNN senior reporter Steve Contorno told Sanchez from the convention hall in Dallas, Texas. “Last year, CPAC was this electric, jubilant atmosphere coming off those 2024 electoral victories. Trump gave this hour long, triumphant speech. But the mood here this year could not be different.

“Against the backdrop of this Iran war that is increasingly testing the loyalty of his movements, … several of the speakers are urging conservatives to stick together to focus more on attacking Democrats rather than on attacking each other. But when I spoke with attendees here this morning, their anxieties were on full display.”

CPAC Chair Matt Schlapp admitted to Contorno earlier on Thursday that “the party is divided,” but claimed “this is a group that supports President Trump.”

Still, Contorno said the midterms “are absolutely a concern.”

“There's certainly time until November to get everyone back into the tent, but just listening to these speeches on the stage, you can definitely hear the concern that Republicans are more focused on defining what MAGA is, defining what America First means versus focusing on winning and beating Democrats.”

“Perhaps that's something that can be addressed in the coming months. But right now, those tensions are on full display here in Dallas,” Contorno said.

TRUMP LIES

'But you were in Palm Beach': Reporter fact-checks Trump to his face on mail-in ballot

Donald Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey 

 (Image: Shutterstock)

Sarah K. Burris

March 26, 2026

ALTERNET  


President Donald Trump made news after he voted by mail despite spending years railing against the practice as "cheating" in elections. His family followed suit with their own ballots for the Florida special election.

“Mail-in voting means mail-in cheating. I call it mail-in cheating, and we've got to do something about it all,” Trump said on Monday while participating in his crime task force roundtable.

His comments came after Trump and his family submitted their mail-in ballots, according to records.

After Trump spoke in his Thursday Cabinet meeting, before he began taking questions from the press, one reporter questioned him on the mail-in ballot.

Trump began by claiming that he voted by mail because he felt he was needed more at the White House.

"But you were in Palm Beach," the reporter quipped.

"That's right. And I — yeah," he stuttered. "And I decided that I was going to vote by mail-in ballot because I couldn't be there because I had a lot of different things. But, you know, we have exceptions for mail-in ballots. You do know that, right? So if you're away, you have an exception. If you're in the military, we have an exception. If you're on a business trip, we have an exception. If you're disabled, we have an exception. And if you're ill, if you're not feeling good. So I was away mostly in Washington, D.C. So, I used a mail-in ballot."

He added sarcastically, "But I appreciate the question because I know, I know, it was so well-meaning. Yeah."

“You know, brought to my attention today that we’re the only country that doesn’t — that does mail-in voting,” Trump claimed falsely in his speech on Monday. “You know, there’s not a country in the world that does mail-in ballots anymore."

A CNN fact check on Tuesday pointed out a Trump comment during the speech on Monday that President Jimmy Carter formed after his presidency, “came out and said very strongly: ‘No mail-in ballots.’”

At a press conference on March 9, Trump said: “Frankly, I think it’s probably the best thing Jimmy Carter did. He said, ‘You can’t have mail-in voting because it’s inherently dishonest.'"