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In little over a month, President Trump has signed over 70 executive orders and has done more than 150 things worthy of an entry in the Times Trump tracker. Some days it feels as though there is too much news to monitor — even for reporters, let alone the average reader.
This feeling of overwhelm is exactly what the strategy of flooding the zone is supposed to do: inundate people with so much activity that they will miss important developments or even tune out from the news completely.
That was the plan, anyway. It turns out that, broadly speaking, Americans have not lost the plot just yet. A majority of Americans said they were familiar with 14 of 17 news stories that took place in Trump’s first month in office, according to a new survey by YouGov.
The survey, which was fielded Feb. 14 to 18, shows that Americans are most informed about the U.S.A.I.D. shutdown, Elon Musk’s claims of fraud, federal government layoffs and Trump’s ban on transgender athletes from women’s sports.
The story line that people said they knew the least about? The controversy over the Justice Department’s request to dismiss the case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.
News consumption tended to track along partisan lines, with Republicans more likely to have heard about the Israel-Hamas cease-fire, the transgender athlete ban and Ukraine negotiations, while Democrats were more likely to have heard about ignoring orders from federal judges and attempts to drop charges against Adams.
There are other indications that people are still paying attention. House Republicans are going back to angry voters in their home districts, frustrated that Congress hasn’t done enough to curb the Trump administration’s excesses. And consumer confidence nose-dived this month as fears over tariffs and economic instability began to take hold.
If people are paying attention and many of them are unhappy, why hasn’t there been more of a public response to the past month of mayhem?
One reason could be that Americans just aren’t quite sure how they feel yet, despite being reasonably informed about these stories. It might take a while for voters to make a firm decision about which Trump moves are OK and which are real problems.
Another explanation could be that after Jan. 6, two impeachments and multiple civil and criminal indictments, what else is there to do if you are mad at Trump? This time around — unsurprised by him yet unsure of what’s next — people aren’t looking to take the streets; they’re looking for leadership.
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