If you believe current polls, Trump is about to be sworn in with the lowest approval ratings of any PE in recent history. The last I heard, it was about 40%.
Undoubtedly, Trump doesn't believe the polls (unless they show him with high approval numbers, of course). More than most politicians, Trump seems to be extremely selective in what he chooses to believe. This is not only true for poll numbers; it's also true for intelligence briefings and probably everything else under the sun, as well. Maybe that's how Trump got himself into such hot financial water with his casinos at one point. But you can't compare taking a chance at going bankrupt and risking personal financial ruin with running a country when your responsibility is to assure the safety of all of its citizens and the cost of not meeting those responsibilities could be a national disaster. Frankly, it's just plain dangerous for any president, especially one with very limited experience, to discount the knowledge and experience of men and women who collectively have several decades of real world experience in such matters. Think about it for a minute. Imagine all the fiascoes that would take place as a result of someone in a position of responsibility refusing to accept bad news and then acting to address one or more problems in order to try to fix those problems! However, in a president that strikes me as just plain scary.
Don't think so? Imagine a situation in which Trump refuses to believe evidence from our intelligence community that Russia is about to move troops into a NATO country simply because Putin promised his good buddy, Trump, that he had no such intention! I mean, it's not like there isn't any fairly recent history of this kind of thing given that Hitler invaded Russia back during WWII, thereby catching Stalin completely off guard after they previously agreed to carve up Poland between them. Believe me, this is the kind of thing that the leaders of NATO countries are worried about, and, given everything that Trump has said in the last few months, who could blame them for feeling that way, right? Well, I think it's safe to say that nobody (nobody in the West, that is) is hoping for anything like that to happen. However, if something like that DID happen, I think it's safe to say that Trump would have a hard time convincing anyone that plunging approval ratings could be summarily dismissed as being a result of a biased media. That brings me to the point of this thread, albeit, in a roundabout way.
At this point, for the most part, the country seems to be split into 2 distinct camps.
One camp is comprised of Trump supporters who think Trump is going to shake up the status quo in such a way that things will get decidedly better for both average citizens and the country as a whole. The other camp is comprised of people who believe that Trump is an inexperienced loose canon who is in WAY over his head as president and that a disaster of one kind or another is going to befall this country as a result of his leadership.
Obviously, both views can't be true. Admittedly, it's also possible that neither is true. Perhaps it will be a mixed bag of results. However, for the sake of argument, let's simply assume that one of those two views will prove to be the case.
Okay, now's the time to put up or shut up. It's time for people to go on the record. Where will Trump's approval ratings be by Independence Day (the 4th of July 2017)? Will Trump be UP in the polls with a lot of successes to point to which he would undoubtedly take credit for? Or will Trump be DOWN in the polls as a result of his erratic nature and unpredictability with a lot of failures which he would undoubtedly blame on others?
I'll make the categories fairly large.
Below 20%, 20-29%, 30-39%, 40-49%, 50-59%, 60-69%, 70-79%, 80-89%, Above 90%.
Undoubtedly, Trump doesn't believe the polls (unless they show him with high approval numbers, of course). More than most politicians, Trump seems to be extremely selective in what he chooses to believe. This is not only true for poll numbers; it's also true for intelligence briefings and probably everything else under the sun, as well. Maybe that's how Trump got himself into such hot financial water with his casinos at one point. But you can't compare taking a chance at going bankrupt and risking personal financial ruin with running a country when your responsibility is to assure the safety of all of its citizens and the cost of not meeting those responsibilities could be a national disaster. Frankly, it's just plain dangerous for any president, especially one with very limited experience, to discount the knowledge and experience of men and women who collectively have several decades of real world experience in such matters. Think about it for a minute. Imagine all the fiascoes that would take place as a result of someone in a position of responsibility refusing to accept bad news and then acting to address one or more problems in order to try to fix those problems! However, in a president that strikes me as just plain scary.
Don't think so? Imagine a situation in which Trump refuses to believe evidence from our intelligence community that Russia is about to move troops into a NATO country simply because Putin promised his good buddy, Trump, that he had no such intention! I mean, it's not like there isn't any fairly recent history of this kind of thing given that Hitler invaded Russia back during WWII, thereby catching Stalin completely off guard after they previously agreed to carve up Poland between them. Believe me, this is the kind of thing that the leaders of NATO countries are worried about, and, given everything that Trump has said in the last few months, who could blame them for feeling that way, right? Well, I think it's safe to say that nobody (nobody in the West, that is) is hoping for anything like that to happen. However, if something like that DID happen, I think it's safe to say that Trump would have a hard time convincing anyone that plunging approval ratings could be summarily dismissed as being a result of a biased media. That brings me to the point of this thread, albeit, in a roundabout way.
At this point, for the most part, the country seems to be split into 2 distinct camps.
One camp is comprised of Trump supporters who think Trump is going to shake up the status quo in such a way that things will get decidedly better for both average citizens and the country as a whole. The other camp is comprised of people who believe that Trump is an inexperienced loose canon who is in WAY over his head as president and that a disaster of one kind or another is going to befall this country as a result of his leadership.
Obviously, both views can't be true. Admittedly, it's also possible that neither is true. Perhaps it will be a mixed bag of results. However, for the sake of argument, let's simply assume that one of those two views will prove to be the case.
Okay, now's the time to put up or shut up. It's time for people to go on the record. Where will Trump's approval ratings be by Independence Day (the 4th of July 2017)? Will Trump be UP in the polls with a lot of successes to point to which he would undoubtedly take credit for? Or will Trump be DOWN in the polls as a result of his erratic nature and unpredictability with a lot of failures which he would undoubtedly blame on others?
I'll make the categories fairly large.
Below 20%, 20-29%, 30-39%, 40-49%, 50-59%, 60-69%, 70-79%, 80-89%, Above 90%.
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