berg80
Diamond Member
- Oct 28, 2017
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Republicans insist that Trump is hugely popular. His polls say otherwise.
Exaggerating the size of a president’s victory is not new. After George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, for instance, he bragged about spending his new “political capital.” But this time, the scale of the hyperbole is classically Trumpian. As much as Republicans want to throw around words such as “landslide” and “mandate,” 2024 was one of the closest elections in American history. Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris in the popular vote by less than 1.5%; only one election in the last half-century (in 2000) was closer. And the razor-thin margins by which Republicans control both the House and the Senate testify to how closely the electorate is divided.
Still, most new presidents typically enjoy a honeymoon period: Fresh from their election victory, the public invests them with hopes for positive change and gives them the benefit of the doubt. Joe Biden, for instance, had 57% approval in the first Gallup poll of his presidency; Barack Obama came in at 67% approval. Even Bush, who like Trump lost the popular vote in his first victory, started at 57%. In fact, Trump was the only president in the Gallup poll’s history — going all the way back to Harry Truman — who entered office with an approval rating under 50%. He was also the only one to never crack 50% approval for a single day of an entire term.
On the verge of his second term, even after his first popular vote victory in three tries, Trump’s approval is weak. A new Marist/NPR poll puts it at just 44%; 49% say they disapprove of him. The Economist/YouGov poll gives him a similar 45/51 split, while a USA Today/Suffolk University survey has his favorability/unfavorability at 47% each.

Opinion | Republicans insist that Trump is hugely popular. His approval ratings say otherwise.
New surveys suggest he’ll face the same widespread public opposition in his second term that he faced in his first.

trump is wrong about just about everything but he did get this right.
Donald Trump says this is the reason he won last month's presidential election
Pointing to high grocery prices, Trump says, 'I won an election based on that'

Donald Trump says this is the reason he won last month's presidential election
President-elect Trump, in a major interview, pinpoints the key reason why he defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the White House race was Americans' frustrations with high grocery prices
If trump's policies were really as popular as The Following has been duped to believe, why the blitz of EO's on day one? Why not pass legislation to enact policy goals?
'Flood the zone': NYT report reveals top Trump aide's plan to crush foes
Miller is also calculating that he will succeed by what the Times describes as "flooding the zone" — that is, by doing so many outrageous things that Trump's political opponents will simply grow exhausted and give up fighting.
"He believes that those he regards as Mr. Trump’s enemies — Democrats, the media, groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and portions of the federal bureaucracy — are depleted and only have so much bandwidth for outrage and opposition," writes the Times. "Mr. Miller has told people that the goal is to overwhelm them with a blitz of activity."
Additionally, the report documents how Miller has risen to prominence despite or because of the fact that even many of his fellow Republicans regard him as a racist.

'Flood the zone': NYT report reveals top Trump aide's plan to crush foes
The New York Times has written a lengthy profile of top Trump aide Stephen Miller, who will be more powerful than ever in the president-elect's second White House.The profile contains a number of tidbits about Miller's strategy for the second Trump term that will include radical executive orders...

I'll be watching to see if trump gets through Feb. with an approval rating above 40%.