The two arguably most notable events in Trump's eleventh week in office as President of the United States are the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court and the United States' military action in Syria. Trump also publicly stated that the United States would be willing to intervene in North Korea without China's support-only days before meeting the Chinese President Xi Jinping. There were also a number of shakeups once again within the administration, not the least of which being Steve Bannon's removal from the National Security Council. With regard to public support, Trump continues to struggle with historically low approval ratings.
News on the job front: the March report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that US employers added only 98,000 nonfarm payrolls for the month. This number is far lower than the expected 180,000. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer responded to the report by deeply criticizing the President, stating, "Today's disappointing jobs number is yet another example that despite President Trump's populist rhetoric on the campaign trail that he would focus on jobs, jobs, jobs, the reality is that he is governing from the hard-right, prioritizing already-wealthy special interests over the needs of everyday Americans and as a result has so far failed to deliver on those promises... Eleven weeks into his administration, we have seen nothing from President Trump on infrastructure, on trade, or on any other serious job-creating initiative. Instead, he has focused on increasing health care costs while taking away health benefits, signing resolutions benefitting big corporate special interests and polluters, and signing divisive and disruptive Executive Orders." Schumer concluded his remarks by requesting that Trump coordinate with Democrats with regard to their economic proposals.
Such across-the-aisle rhetoric does not appear to have a promising future after Republicans utilized the so-called "nuclear option" in order to push Neil Gorsuch's nomination to the Supreme Court through a Democratic filibuster. Democrats began to hold the floor on Tuesday, during which Oregon Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley gave one of the top ten longest speeches in Senate history. He spoke for over ten hours-overnight and into Wednesday morning-in order to protest Gorsuch's nomination. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had filed to change the number of votes that are required to confirm a Supreme Court nominee, both currently and in the future. In response to Democratic opposition, Republicans went forth with the aforementioned "nuclear option" and changed the number of votes required to confirm a Supreme Court nominee: in the future, all Supreme Court judges can be confirmed by a majority in the Senate alone. The decision has been met with outrage on the left, which sees hypocrisy in the move after Republican's denied the nomination of Merrick Garland during Obama's presidency.
Trump has, however, garnered some positive press due to his military action in Syria. He blamed the chemical attacks in the region (which left at least 80 civilians dead, 30 of which were children) on former President Barrack Obama's "weakness and irresolution". In response to the chemical attacks, the United States fired over fifty Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield. The strike marks the first direct US military intervention against the Assad regime in Syria.
