FiveThirtyEight’s top politics stories last week

A [FiveThirtyEight] email [Popular In Politics] Thursday, February 2, 2017 [1. Trump Finds The Weak Spot In Obama’s Protections For Scientists] UPDATE (Jan. 26, 3:44 p.m.): Bill Hall, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, emailed us a statement on Thursday disputing reports that HHS was directed to stop communicating with the public. “Contrary to erroneous media reports,” Hall said, “HHS and its agencies continue to communicate fully about its work through all of its regular communication channels with the public, the media and other relevant audiences. There is no directive to do otherwise.” [Read more] [2. Three Days Into Trump’s Presidency, 45 Percent Of Americans Disapprove Of His Performance] President Trump has been in office for three days, and on Monday he got his first job approval rating. Forty-five percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance; 45 percent disapprove, according to Gallup. That’s an improvement on his low favorability ratings, but it’s not good. Indeed, it’s the lowest job approval rating for any new president since at least Harry Truman in 1945 (as far back as we have polling), and it suggests Trump failed to take full advantage of the transition period to build support. [Read more] [3. The Long March Ahead For Democrats] Saturday’s Women’s Marches, which rebuked President Trump on the day after his inauguration, probably drew more than 3 million participants between hundreds of locations across the United States, making them among the largest mass protests in American history. The marches recalled the tea party protests of April 15, 2009, an event that helped to mark the beginnings of a backlash to former President Obama — but overall attendance at the Women’s Marches was about 10 times higher than at the tea party rallies, according to our estimates. [Read more] [4. Trump Could Really Mess Up Mexico’s Economy] Rigoberto Valderrama Padilla has been living in San Diego for 30 years. Originally from Acapulco, Mexico, he now works for a construction company and regularly sends remittances for food and other necessities to his family back home. “This income is crucial for them. I want to help however I can,” Valderrama says. He is not the only one. [Read more] [5. The Electoral College Blind Spot] [Read more] --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play] [Politics Podcast: The Beginning Of The Trump Presidency] [FiveThirtyEight] [ESPN] [Unsubscribe] Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 147 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10023.