GEOFF BENNETT: And for more on the latest political news, including the fallout from President Trump's meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and analysis of that PBS News poll, we're joined now by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter, and Tamara Keith, NPR senior White House correspondent.

With a welcome to you both.

All right, Tam, so according to this PBS News/NPR/Marist poll, Americans are divided about President Trump's job performance.

And in this latest poll, 56 percent of Americans say the president is rushing to make change without considering the impact of his decisions.

That includes two-thirds of independents and 11 percent of Trump voters.

What stands out to you about this?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: The two-thirds of independents, because independent voters are sort of the canary in the coal mine for approval of what the president is doing.

And when you are winning independents as president, you're doing well.

When independents are moving away from you, that's an indication, because, at this point, partisan views are so set in stone that Republicans will automatically say that Trump is doing great and Democrats will automatically say that he is doing terrible.

So you look to the independents.

And in this case, two-thirds of independents say that the president and DOGE are rushing too much to make change.

That is certainly like a yellow flashing light for the White House.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Amy, on his handling of the economy, our poll found that 42 percent think President Trump is changing the economy for the better, 46 percent think for the worse.

But perhaps more telling, 56 percent of people expect grocery prices to actually go up over the next six months.

And that's with those extensive tariffs that take effect tomorrow.

You wrote recently about the warning signs for Republicans on the economy.

What are you seeing?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Yes, I used the same term that Tam did, which is sort of the flashing yellow lights here for Trump and for Republicans.

Look, we have seen a couple of things in these last few weeks.

The first is a drop in consumer confidence that's being captured in a number of different surveys.

And then we see, like this Marist poll, that the president's overall approval rating on the economy is in more negative territory than positive territory.

And that's not usually where Donald Trump is.

If you go back and you look at the Marist poll from the summer of 2018, which was the last time that this poll asked about these issues while Trump was in office, so there wasn't any data from 2017, but, at this point in 2018, opinions about Trump overall were much lower, opinions about his handling of immigration, his handling of foreign policy much lower than they are now.

But his opinion the economy, how well he was handling the economy, much higher back in 2018 than it is today.

And I think a lot of it is driven by the fact that there are so many voters out there, especially independent voters, who voted for Donald Trump with the really emphasis on his ability to lower prices and to focus on the economy.

And that's one other number that has been showing up.

This one was a CBS poll from this weekend; 80 percent of voters saying inflation is the top issue for me.

And yet only 29 percent think that Donald Trump is focused on that issue.

GEOFF BENNETT: Tam, meantime, it would appear that the fallout from President Zelenskyy's calamitous visit to Washington, that Friday Oval Office meeting, the fallout from that continues to grow.

President Trump and his top advisers continue to criticize Zelenskyy, his outlook on the war, his demeanor.

They're suggesting that he might need to resign.

They're also saying that he doesn't necessarily want peace.

The rhetoric from the White House in many ways mirrors the rhetoric from the Kremlin, trying to paint Zelenskyy, not Putin, as the warmonger.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

And President Trump was asked about that today and didn't really engage on the question, despite being asked and hearing the question.

He does not seem to be concerned about Moscow being very happy with the rhetoric coming out of the White House.

But the White House was clearly very happy with how that meeting went, with the blowup, with all of the attention that it generated, because, if they weren't happy with it, we would have seen President Trump.

We would have seen him over the weekend.

We would have seen him today.

But, instead, he has been quiet.

He has not wanted to step on that news cycle.

And then what you have seen is Republican allies of the president going on Sunday shows, otherwise going out and backing him.

And there's a reason for this in part.

The public has gradually over the last several years, in part because of Trump and other Republicans, and in part because Russia has done a decent job of getting its views into the American bloodstream, the American public has really soured on Ukraine in this war.

GEOFF BENNETT: Amy, on that point, I mean, the same partisan attacks that sought to rehabilitate the January 6 rioters, you could argue, could also tear down President Zelenskyy.

How fixed are Americans' views on the war in Ukraine?

AMY WALTER: Well, I agree with Tam that they are really driven by partisanship more than anything else.

So they're fluid in the sense that where partisans go -- partisans will go with wherever their leaders are going.

So, back in 2022, for example, an equal number of Democrats, Republicans, independents supported Ukraine as the war was breaking out.

But as we moved into 2023 and 2024, especially as Trump was critical of Ukraine, was more supportive of Putin, and as then-President Biden going to Ukraine, increasing aid to Ukraine, you saw Democrat support pretty much stay where it was at the beginning, but Republican support crater and independents going down as well.

And so I do think, look, the challenge with foreign policy in general, when it comes to American voters, American voters, some do, but most don't have hard and fixed opinions, especially about the state of the -- where the European line should be drawn or not.

And so they are really following the folks that they trust with -- either within a party or, in many cases, whatever information source they're using to get most of the information and they just will go along with that.

And when that side shifts, they shift with it.

GEOFF BENNETT: Should we expect to hear more from President Trump on this when he addresses the joint session of Congress tomorrow?

What are you watching for?

TAMARA KEITH: Yes.

So I asked the White House for a preview.

They sent me a FOX News exclusive that they had given to FOX.

But, yes, peace around the globe is on the agenda, pushing Congress to pass border security funding and generally pushing Congress to do his agenda, talking about the economy and what he's done.

And also we can expect him to talk about his accomplishments in the first month-and-a-half in office.

This is the way the White House has described it.

You know, I talked to a former White House official from the first administration who said he expects President Trump's message to be, get on board or get out of the way.

GEOFF BENNETT: OK. Tamara Keith and Amy Walter, thanks, as always.

AMY WALTER: You're welcome.