President Trump’s rapid-fire coverage actions are reshaping the federal authorities, and to Fox Information, they’re merely pursuing “frequent sense.”
Enacting “daring and typically painful measures” is price it, one Fox Information host mentioned, to reach at “frequent sense.” Mr. Trump’s time period thus far, one other Fox pundit concluded, may very well be summed up with that easy catchphrase: It’s a “restoration of frequent sense.”
“Trump isn’t radical — he’s simply radically altering our nation again to regular,” Jesse Watters mentioned throughout Monday’s episode of “Jesse Watters Primetime.” He mentioned Mr. Trump’s plans to “deport migrants” and reduce waste have been “all commonsense strikes.”
The flood of “frequent sense” feedback on Fox Information echoes the language Mr. Trump and his new administration have used to justify his insurance policies — a lot of which have deeply divided the nation, polls have proven. The administration has deployed the slogan to help a variety of actions, from banning paper straws to reversing efforts to stem local weather change, and has described his first weeks as a “revolution in frequent sense.”
“It’s straightforward to do a very good job when you find yourself appearing on frequent sense and you’re talking the reality,” mentioned Karoline Leavitt, the White Home press secretary, at a current briefing.
The shared language displays the deepening ties between the federal government and the right-wing media, particularly Fox Information, by far the nation’s hottest cable information community. Almost 20 former Fox Information alumni have joined the administration, together with on the highest ranges, with the previous hosts Pete Hegseth taking up the Pentagon and Sean Duffy main the Transportation Division. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, has received her own show on the community.
Fox Information declined to remark. The White Home didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The suggestion from Fox Information and the White Home is that Mr. Trump’s “frequent sense” insurance policies will not be solely the appropriate ones but additionally have extensive help among the many overwhelming majority of Individuals. Polling has supplied a extra difficult image.
Mr. Trump’s efforts to ban variety, fairness and inclusion — often called D.E.I. — evenly divide the nation, in accordance a New York Times and Ipsos poll from January, earlier than his inauguration: 48 p.c wish to get rid of such packages whereas 47 p.c help them.
The identical may be mentioned for elements of Mr. Trump’s Center East coverage. (Mr. Trump has supported aid for Israel, whereas 53 p.c in the identical survey mentioned the US was spending an excessive amount of to help the nation.) Deporting all unlawful immigrants, a cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s immigration coverage, has a slim majority of help, with 55 p.c backing the thought.
A few of Mr. Trump’s different insurance policies are extra widespread: Most Individuals — about 80 p.c, together with two-thirds of Democrats — mentioned transgender ladies shouldn’t be allowed to compete in ladies’s sports activities, in line with the January ballot. (Mr. Trump signed an govt order barring their participation.) A bigger share, about 87 p.c, help deporting unauthorized immigrants with a legal report, the ballot discovered. (Mr. Trump signed a legislation in January that will deport undocumented immigrants charged with a wide range of crimes, from shoplifting to homicide.)
Different insurance policies pushed as “frequent sense” by Mr. Trump and conservative media shouldn’t have current polling to evaluate their recognition, together with ending the penny and requiring a photograph ID to vote.
The embrace of “frequent sense” has surged on Fox Information, the place the time period was talked about almost 500 occasions in January, in line with information from Critical Mention, a media monitoring firm, a rise from round 200 monthly within the years prior.
A number of the mentions on Fox Information come from its personal “Common Sense Department,” a phase hosted by Hint Gallagher that reacts to information based mostly on what “frequent sense” would dictate.
As Mr. Trump moved to dismantle the US Company for Worldwide Improvement, which supplies funding for humanitarian packages around the globe, protests erupted and Democratic lawmakers held rallies in help of the group.
Mr. Gallagher dismissed the fracas throughout a phase by highlighting some packages funded by U.S.A.I.D.: “Widespread sense wouldn’t describe this as international support however fairly a home boondoggle, a multibillion-dollar boondoggle.”
Latest polling reveals {that a} majority of Individuals — about 60 p.c — help specializing in issues at residence fairly than overseas, a shift from 2019, when Individuals have been evenly break up on that query. (A ballot on international support spending, from 2014, additionally confirmed that 95 p.c of respondents overestimated or didn’t understand how a lot the US spent on international support. The right reply: lower than 1 p.c of the federal finances.)
Mark Levin, a Fox Information host and shut ally of Mr. Trump, appeared to acknowledge the echo between the White Home and Fox Information when he raised the president’s catchphrase on his present.
“What Trump is proposing shouldn’t be radical, it’s ‘frequent sense,’ as he places it,” Mr. Levin mentioned. “When he says ‘frequent sense,’ for many people, it means conservative. As a result of conservative is frequent sense.”
Ruth Igielnik and Christine Zhang contributed reporting.
