What do Trump's supporters think of the political pushback he's faced

NPR's Michel Martin speaks with Will Sommer of The Bulwark about the pushback President Trump has faced at home and abroad on some of his policies and initiatives.

MICHEL MARTIN: You know, one thing we were wondering about was - how are these setbacks playing out in right-wing media, which plays such a big role in amplifying President Trump's point of view? We called Will Sommer for this. He's a senior reporter with the center-right political news and opinion website The Bulwark, where he reports on right-wing media. Will, good morning. WILL SOMMER: Hi. Thanks for having me. MARTIN: So thanks for coming. So big-picture, how are these setbacks, these recent events, being covered by conservative and far-right media? Or are they being covered? SOMMER: Well, you know - and you hit on something there, which is that a lot of the times, these outlets just choose not to cover bad news about Donald Trump. I mean, in the case of Fox News, which is obviously the big elephant in the room here, they often skip negative news about Trump, and they certainly are in this case. You know, often, whether it's, you know, them or smaller outlets or kind of right-wing media personalities, they can just choose to say, you know what? We're not going to get into what's going on in the Bab al-Mandab Strait or something. MARTIN: Wow. OK. What about the Fed? Kind of hard to ignore what the Fed is doing or has done. And Trump spent a good part - has spent a good part of his term so far attacking then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates. He picked a new chair. The Fed still raised rates. Is that being covered, and can you talk about how? SOMMER: It is. I mean, I am seeing criticism of the Fed chairman over this. I mean, you know, already. I mean - shoot - within the Trump administration, people are criticizing him as well. And so people are - there is this sense of, you know, going back a decade now, if the administration or if someone Trump appointed does something he doesn't like or that the base doesn't like, they can always say, like, oh, the deep state got to him. And we're seeing a lot of that - this sense of, like, this Washington swamp - and really, like, very little engagement with really, like, the facts on the ground. MARTIN: And what about the Supreme Court? Same thing. The Supreme Court decision on mail-in ballots - same thing. Are they ignoring it? Or are they lambasting the Supreme Court justices, particularly the ones that the - President Trump appointed, who did not go along with his perspective on this? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, they're very much attacking the Trump appointees. You know, in this case, they're really taking their cues from Donald Trump's Truth Social posts, where they can say, OK. Look. Apparently, we're going to attack these justices that he appointed. Again, I mean, there is a sense in right-wing media - there's - typically, you don't really compromise. You kind of keep attacking. These are the people who are almost always on your own side. MARTIN: What about the legal back-and-forth with the Kennedy Center? How much attention is that drawing, and how important is this in MAGA world? I mean, obviously, in Washington, D.C., this is - the Kennedy Center is a hugely important cultural institution. It's important to the local economy, the artistic economy. Certainly, people - as we know, artists from all over the world - come to perform there. And people come from all over the country as tourists. They come and visit it. But is this an issue? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, this is an interesting one because, on one hand, I - I'm seeing a lot of echoing of the Trump line that, you know, this building was going to collapse. Only he can save it. Of course, he deserves to have his name on the building. On the other hand, I am seeing in kind of smaller right-wing social media accounts some people saying, you know, look. Is this really what we sent Donald Trump to do, is to sort of play around with the Kennedy Center, to make the statues golden in D.C.? So there is this amount of skepticism. And I think you're seeing this with voters as well, this idea that - to the extent that people are aware of kind of what the president's getting up to in terms of, like, the physical building of D.C. and the Kennedy Center, they're seeing it as - sort of as a distraction. MARTIN: I was going to ask you about that. But I do think, as a - just as a point of information, one of the points that the president seems to continue to gloss over is the financial precarity, in part, results from the fact that he did put his hands so heavily on the building - the fact that donors are fleeing, artists are fleeing and patrons are fleeing. And that fact seems to be getting lost in all this. So before we let you go, Will, so - how would you describe the kind of conservative media ecosystem overall? Does it continue to sort of be rallied around certain sort of themes and talking points? Or are you seeing any fractures there in which different outlets consider important - what they're choosing to cover and so on? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, I think there's definitely fracturing going on. I think, particularly among sort of YouTubers, people who are into conspiracy theories - people like Candace Owens or Tucker Carlson - we're seeing this sense of kind of an abandonment of Trump. But even more broadly, sort of, in MAGA media, I think there's growing dissatisfaction. MARTIN: That's interesting. That's Will Sommer of The Bulwark. Will, thank you. SOMMER: Thanks for having me. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

MICHEL MARTIN: You know, one thing we were wondering about was - how are these setbacks playing out in right-wing media, which plays such a big role in amplifying President Trump's point of view? We called Will Sommer for this. He's a senior reporter with the center-right political news and opinion website The Bulwark, where he reports on right-wing media. Will, good morning. WILL SOMMER: Hi. Thanks for having me. MARTIN: So thanks for coming. So big-picture, how are these setbacks, these recent events, being covered by conservative and far-right media? Or are they being covered? SOMMER: Well, you know - and you hit on something there, which is that a lot of the times, these outlets just choose not to cover bad news about Donald Trump. I mean, in the case of Fox News, which is obviously the big elephant in the room here, they often skip negative news about Trump, and they certainly are in this case. You know, often, whether it's, you know, them or smaller outlets or kind of right-wing media personalities, they can just choose to say, you know what? We're not going to get into what's going on in the Bab al-Mandab Strait or something. MARTIN: Wow. OK. What about the Fed? Kind of hard to ignore what the Fed is doing or has done. And Trump spent a good part - has spent a good part of his term so far attacking then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates. He picked a new chair. The Fed still raised rates. Is that being covered, and can you talk about how? SOMMER: It is. I mean, I am seeing criticism of the Fed chairman over this. I mean, you know, already. I mean - shoot - within the Trump administration, people are criticizing him as well. And so people are - there is this sense of, you know, going back a decade now, if the administration or if someone Trump appointed does something he doesn't like or that the base doesn't like, they can always say, like, oh, the deep state got to him. And we're seeing a lot of that - this sense of, like, this Washington swamp - and really, like, very little engagement with really, like, the facts on the ground. MARTIN: And what about the Supreme Court? Same thing. The Supreme Court decision on mail-in ballots - same thing. Are they ignoring it? Or are they lambasting the Supreme Court justices, particularly the ones that the - President Trump appointed, who did not go along with his perspective on this? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, they're very much attacking the Trump appointees. You know, in this case, they're really taking their cues from Donald Trump's Truth Social posts, where they can say, OK. Look. Apparently, we're going to attack these justices that he appointed. Again, I mean, there is a sense in right-wing media - there's - typically, you don't really compromise. You kind of keep attacking. These are the people who are almost always on your own side. MARTIN: What about the legal back-and-forth with the Kennedy Center? How much attention is that drawing, and how important is this in MAGA world? I mean, obviously, in Washington, D.C., this is - the Kennedy Center is a hugely important cultural institution. It's important to the local economy, the artistic economy. Certainly, people - as we know, artists from all over the world - come to perform there. And people come from all over the country as tourists. They come and visit it. But is this an issue? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, this is an interesting one because, on one hand, I - I'm seeing a lot of echoing of the Trump line that, you know, this building was going to collapse. Only he can save it. Of course, he deserves to have his name on the building. On the other hand, I am seeing in kind of smaller right-wing social media accounts some people saying, you know, look. Is this really what we sent Donald Trump to do, is to sort of play around with the Kennedy Center, to make the statues golden in D.C.? So there is this amount of skepticism. And I think you're seeing this with voters as well, this idea that - to the extent that people are aware of kind of what the president's getting up to in terms of, like, the physical building of D.C. and the Kennedy Center, they're seeing it as - sort of as a distraction. MARTIN: I was going to ask you about that. But I do think, as a - just as a point of information, one of the points that the president seems to continue to gloss over is the financial precarity, in part, results from the fact that he did put his hands so heavily on the building - the fact that donors are fleeing, artists are fleeing and patrons are fleeing. And that fact seems to be getting lost in all this. So before we let you go, Will, so - how would you describe the kind of conservative media ecosystem overall? Does it continue to sort of be rallied around certain sort of themes and talking points? Or are you seeing any fractures there in which different outlets consider important - what they're choosing to cover and so on? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, I think there's definitely fracturing going on. I think, particularly among sort of YouTubers, people who are into conspiracy theories - people like Candace Owens or Tucker Carlson - we're seeing this sense of kind of an abandonment of Trump. But even more broadly, sort of, in MAGA media, I think there's growing dissatisfaction. MARTIN: That's interesting. That's Will Sommer of The Bulwark. Will, thank you. SOMMER: Thanks for having me. Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

WILL SOMMER: Hi. Thanks for having me. MARTIN: So thanks for coming. So big-picture, how are these setbacks, these recent events, being covered by conservative and far-right media? Or are they being covered? SOMMER: Well, you know - and you hit on something there, which is that a lot of the times, these outlets just choose not to cover bad news about Donald Trump. I mean, in the case of Fox News, which is obviously the big elephant in the room here, they often skip negative news about Trump, and they certainly are in this case. You know, often, whether it's, you know, them or smaller outlets or kind of right-wing media personalities, they can just choose to say, you know what? We're not going to get into what's going on in the Bab al-Mandab Strait or something. MARTIN: Wow. OK. What about the Fed? Kind of hard to ignore what the Fed is doing or has done. And Trump spent a good part - has spent a good part of his term so far attacking then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering interest rates. He picked a new chair. The Fed still raised rates. Is that being covered, and can you talk about how? SOMMER: It is. I mean, I am seeing criticism of the Fed chairman over this. I mean, you know, already. I mean - shoot - within the Trump administration, people are criticizing him as well. And so people are - there is this sense of, you know, going back a decade now, if the administration or if someone Trump appointed does something he doesn't like or that the base doesn't like, they can always say, like, oh, the deep state got to him. And we're seeing a lot of that - this sense of, like, this Washington swamp - and really, like, very little engagement with really, like, the facts on the ground. MARTIN: And what about the Supreme Court? Same thing. The Supreme Court decision on mail-in ballots - same thing. Are they ignoring it? Or are they lambasting the Supreme Court justices, particularly the ones that the - President Trump appointed, who did not go along with his perspective on this? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, they're very much attacking the Trump appointees. You know, in this case, they're really taking their cues from Donald Trump's Truth Social posts, where they can say, OK. Look. Apparently, we're going to attack these justices that he appointed. Again, I mean, there is a sense in right-wing media - there's - typically, you don't really compromise. You kind of keep attacking. These are the people who are almost always on your own side. MARTIN: What about the legal back-and-forth with the Kennedy Center? How much attention is that drawing, and how important is this in MAGA world? I mean, obviously, in Washington, D.C., this is - the Kennedy Center is a hugely important cultural institution. It's important to the local economy, the artistic economy. Certainly, people - as we know, artists from all over the world - come to perform there. And people come from all over the country as tourists. They come and visit it. But is this an issue? SOMMER: Yeah. I mean, this is an interesting one because, on one hand, I - I'm seeing a lot of echoing of the Trump line that, you know, this building was going to collapse. Only he can save it. Of course, he deserves to have his name on the building. On the other hand,