Public opinion tends to move in the opposite direction of policy. But how does the public learn that policy is changing, enabling their adjustment? And does a polarized and inattentive public still react together in response to policy?
Stuart Soroka and Christopher Wlezien, the key developers and testers of the thermostatic model, find that television and newspaper coverage provides a good signal of which way national policy is heading. And the public as a whole, not just the most informed or a shrinking middle, receive that signal and respond by adjusting their preferences--favoring more spending when it declines and less when it increases. The result is that they tend to think each side goes too far moving policy in their preferred ideological direction. Thatâs frustrating to policymakers, but it may represent democracy in action.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during aâ Steel Across Americaâ event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundationâ sâ Steel Across Americaâ event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this yearâs memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about â he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as theyâve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy PelosiâŠwith graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story â one heâs told before â about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, thereâs no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. Thereâs no evidence that building was collapsing â in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. Thereâs no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isnât even the worst part. Pretend it was all true â why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because thatâs who Donald Trump is. Heâs a malignant narcissist.
Heâs also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, whoâs made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and thereâs nothing he wonât do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran â two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
âAnd I will tell you, weâre right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And theyâve been punished greatly. As you know, weâve really taken it to them.â
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, Iâm utterly sickened by Trumpâs crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And Iâm relieved he wonât be given a platform to do it again on Fridayâs anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.