The Trump Economy

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Tune in on this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire, John Heilemann and Mike Barnicle as they weigh in on President Donald Trump’s standing after a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll revealed only 35 percent of Americans approve of POTUS’s handling of the economy. “There's nothing more glaring than to be putting gas in your car alongside someone you know across from you in another bay—a guy driving a pickup truck who works hard for a living and is putting gas in his pickup truck—and he's looking at those numbers roll up and he's furious about the cost of gas. And he has a Trump bumper sticker on the back of his pickup truck. The irony—the irony—of being deceived by people they voted for is really impactful,” says Barnicle about Trump supporters amid surging gas prices.

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The Trump Economy

ICE Crackdown Fallout

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“Let's separate law enforcement—legitimate law enforcement, city police departments—from what we're talking about here and what we're seeing on your screen. It's basically a poorly trained paramilitary outfit. That's what it is. And the absurdity of DHS is just in their pronouncements that DHS does not target children. Look at these scenes. Look at how tear gas—no matter what you fire from a tear gas gun—envelops a whole neighborhood, drifts down a street. A kid could be going to school half a block or a block away from all of this tear gas, and he or she is going to inhale that,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with Mika Brzezinski, Jonathan Lemire and ProPublica reporter Lisa Song about her independent news organization's investigation which revealed that ICE officers have escalated the use of the chemicals—tear gas and pepper spray—throughout recent immigration crackdowns under the Trump Administration, causing harm to at least 79 children across the country in the process.

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ICE Crackdown Fallout

Hope and Uncertainty in America

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“Dritan, when you pull the tabs internally on these polls, do you get any sense of the feeling of confidence that young Americans with young children starting up families that they have less confidence in the future than other people?” asks veteran columnist Mike Barnicle of HarrisX founder and CEO Dritan Nesho who joins Morning Joe to discuss polling data from the American Confidence Tracker, a new survey that picks up where Gallup's monthly presidential tracking poll left off. Hear Nesho breakdown that despite the fact that "Americans are very frustrated” with the current economic situation, “two-thirds still say that the American dream is attainable to them."

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Hope and Uncertainty in America

Too Much, Too Disconnected

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Mike Barnicle and Fab Five Freddy joined "The Beat with Ari Melber" for an edition of “Fallback,” during which they highlighted what they see as signs of a culture that’s gotten out of balance: the Met Gala’s display of wealth and celebrity excess, the normalization of a $9 Starbucks coffee, and the way smartphones have reduced eye contact, curiosity, and real-world connection. "America should never again confuse wealth with wisdom,” says Barnicle. Catch the conversation here.

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Too Much, Too Disconnected

Civil Rights at a Crossroads

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"We've made enormous progress in race relations in this country, but the historical weight of discrimination based on color still is with us. It still burdens the United States of America, still prevents the United States of America from grasping the claim to being a truly great universally together nation…It’s been 61 years since Bull Connor and Selma, Alabama…this decision...opens the door, gives license to too many state legislatures to turn back the clock,” says veteran columnist Mike Barnicle during this Morning Joe conversation with National Action Network President the Rev. Al Sharpton about the Supreme Court having struck down Louisiana’s existing congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander in a ruling that dealt another blow to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Hear Sharpton’s assessment that “you can turn back the clock, but you can’t turn back time” when it comes to civil rights, explaining that he is “confident that we can take this bad and hugely impactful decision and use it to energize.”

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Civil Rights at a Crossroads