Gender and education emerge as massive fault lines in the electorate: From the Politics Desk

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Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, Steve Kornacki breaks down how gender and education have emerged as massive fault lines among white voters, as our NBC News poll shows. Plus, Lawrence Hurley reports on a rare rebuke of the president from the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

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— Adam Wollner

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The gap within the gender gap

By Steve Kornacki

In last year’s presidential election, white voters made up an estimated 71% of the national electorate. That’s a number that for decades has trended downward as the country’s population has diversified, but it’s still more than six times larger than the share of Black and Hispanic voters (11% each) and nearly 25 times that of Asian voters (3%).

Typically, the white vote is understood as being Republican-friendly, with pronounced gender and education gaps.

But there is a more useful — and revealing — way to understand the politics of white voters, something that is evident in the new NBC News poll. Call this the gap within the gap.

It represents a layering of the education gap (which has exploded during the Trump era) on top of the more established gender gap. When these are combined, a gaping chasm emerges — and two specific groups come into focus.

On one end are white men without four-year college degrees. This is a generally blue-collar demographic that is now deeply aligned with Trump and opposed to progressive politics. On the other end are white women with at least a four-year college degree. This is a more affluent demographic that has been racing leftward, particularly on cultural issues, and is squarely opposed to President Donald Trump.

Both groups pack a formidable punch. Eighteen percent of all voters last year were non-college white men and 17% were college-educated white women. And they have come to exist in polar opposite political and cultural universes, each one unrelatable and probably unrecognizable to the other.

This is captured vividly in the NBC News poll. Take a basic question: Do voters have a positive or negative view of Trump? Among all voters — regardless of race, gender or class — 46% have a positive view and 49% a negative one. Among white voters only, Trump is a bit more popular: 52% have a positive opinion compared with 45% who have a negative opinion.

Meanwhile, 69% of white men without a degree view Trump positively and just 28% see him negatively — a 41-point net-positive rating. And among white women with a degree, it’s 29% positive and 67% negative — for a net-negative of 38 points. That adds up to a whopping 79-point net rating gap between these two groups when it comes to their perception of Trump.

When it comes to the various aspects of Trump’s job performance, the splits are just as massive.

More from the NBC News poll: American voters are deeply divided on DEI programs and political correctness, by Bridget Bowman

What to know from the Trump presidency today

Trump said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during their phone conversation today on an “immediate” ceasefire on all energy and infrastructure in Ukraine.
A federal judge ordered the government to reinstate U.S. Agency for International Development systems, ruling that the accelerated shutdown of the agency led by Elon Musk “likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways.”
The Trump administration said it is moving to reinstate more than 24,000 probationary workers it fired as part of its efforts to slash the size of the federal workforce.
Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, said in a memo to staff that he will “continue to make mistakes” but vowed to “learn from them.”
Trump said he is terminating Secret Service protection for his predecessor’s two children, Hunter and Ashley Biden.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Musk’s satellite internet service Starlink is providing Wi-Fi around the White House campus.

Follow live updates →

Chief Justice John Roberts pushes back against calls to impeach judges who rule against Trump

By Lawrence Hurley

Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement today rebuking President Donald Trump and his allies for calling to impeach judges who have ruled against the administration.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said in a statement.

Trump allies have called for various judges to be impeached for blocking administration policies in the first months of his second term.

But Trump himself raised the stakes on Tuesday, when he called for the impeachment of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg after he blocked the deportation of Venezuelan migrants.

“This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!” Trump posted.

Soon after Roberts issued his statement, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, wrote in a post on X that he had introduced articles of impeachment against Boasberg. He claimed Boasberg had committed an impeachable offense by issuing a temporary restraining order against the administration over its novel invocation of a wartime law called the Alien Enemies Act to deport certain illegal immigrants.

While a handful of federal judges have been removed from office in the past, it has been because of gross misconduct in office, such as taking bribes, not as a result of individual decisions they have made.

Federal judges have frequently intervened on Trump’s agenda since he took office again in January and began implementing a set of aggressive policies that have raised several novel legal issues. That has angered the administration and the broader MAGA base, leading to increasingly frequent calls for impeachment and raising concerns within the judiciary.

Today’s other top stories

Gaza ceasefire collapses: Israel’s military launched the deadliest strikes on the Gaza Strip since the agreement of its ceasefire with Hamas, killing hundreds of people and threatening to compromise the fragile truce. Read more →
Shutdown fight fallout: After days of clashes among Democrats over last week’s government shutdown fight, the party’s leaders in the Senate and House, Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, are trying to defuse tensions and refocus on thwarting Trump’s agenda. Read more →
Double duty: JD Vance will serve as the next Republican National Committee finance chair, the first time a vice president has served in the role. Read more →
‘You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here’: The bandSemisonic said it did not authorize the White House’s use of its song “Closing Time” in a video that appears to depict deportation. Read more →