These days, Trump may be breaking new records. However, it's not on the good side. According to a survey, Trump's popularity is 50% below Obama's during the time he was sworn in. In fact, Trump's popularity is even lower than George W. Bush. But, it's not all bad news.
When it comes to fiscal issues, most Americans are still in favor of Trump. When we say fiscal issues, this includes dealing with the budget deficit, creating jobs, and improving the economy. However, most Americans are not happy with how Trump addressed the issue concerning accusations of Russia's meddling with the last American Presidential election. In fact, it's probably one of the reasons why Trump's popularity suffered greatly.
These days, more Americans are siding with the federal intelligence agencies. These are the same agencies that claimed Russia helped boost Trump's presidential chances. By the way, Trump did spend a lot of time with various national spy agencies during the early weeks of 2017.
Another reason for Trump's popularity decline is his narrow focus. By this, we mean he keeps appealing to the people who are already supporting him and continually ignoring the ones who don't. In fact, Democrats only hardened their positions, saying that Trump will never make inroads with their party.
Other interesting data claims that independent voters are skeptical of Trump's re-election in the future. So, how did Trump respond to these polls? Nothing out of the ordinary actually.
Trump quickly praises the polls when they favor him, just like what he did during the primary survey. However, in times when the polls are against him, he dismisses them and loudly accuses the polls as biased.
No matter how you debate over the subject and what your take on it is, the fact remains that poll ratings are important for any President. It's just a matter of varying levels of importance, but it is important nonetheless. A weak popularity during the early phase of a presidency is bad news, but it's not necessarily a gloom and doom scenario. Still, it can never be denied that when the majority of the people are behind the President, it helps keep the political establishment and Congress in line.
If Trump wants to improve his approval ratings significantly, then he needs to call the Republicans for aid, a party that has a good influence on both sides of the Capitol Hill. It is the least difficult route to take considering that 76% of the Republican respondents favor Trump. Also, 44% of the party members are strongly in favor of him. These numbers are according to Washington Post and the ABC News poll.
This may be the least difficult route, but it does not mean it's going to be easy. In fact, 1 out of 5 Republicans views Trump unfavorably. Also, he is not appealing enough to the voters. According to an ABC and Washington Post survey, only 1 out of 10 Democratic respondents is on Trump’s side.
