Last week, Republicans suffered a solid drubbing at the ballot box as Democratic candidates posted significant wins across the country. Voters are known to be a fickle lot, which results in power changing hands frequently from one party to another. The upshot of such inconsistent – some might say capricious – voting patterns inevitably ends in little being accomplished. Perhaps this is what the founders anticipated and hoped would be the case: that the wheels of government would turn slowly. But such careful plodding and planning is not in the DNA of President Donald Trump.
Mountains of polls have been conducted assessing the public’s satisfaction with the man they voted into office. Call it buyer’s remorse, if you will, but when asked whether they approve or disapprove of the 47th president, respondents turned negative.
Liberty Nation News has launched a polling aggregator called The Public Square, which, among other things, provides a snapshot of whether Trump is perceived by the public as accomplishing the goals he set forth in his campaign. Here are the results:
Overall, the chief executive’s approval rating is underwater, with 52.9% disapproving and 43.% approving of the job he’s done thus far. On the issue of immigration, he received higher marks from those surveyed. Still, he remains in the red with a disapproval rating of 49.9% compared to 45.7% who approve of his handling of the nation’s immigration problems.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, “527,000 illegal aliens [were] removed under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.” As well, “More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the US, including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported,” according to a DHS news release. One wonders if Trump’s disappointing approval numbers on this issue are because he deported too many or too few illegal aliens.
Trump and Inflation
On the thorny issue of inflation, the president takes a body blow with only an aggregate approval rating of 34% to 60.3% who disapprove. In September, LNN’s Economics Editor Andrew Moran pointed out, “On a 12-month basis, wholesale inflation and core PPI [Producer Price Index] eased to 2.6% and 2.8%, respectively.” This is hardly evidence of damning inflation.
Of course, inflation dovetails into the economy, where Trump is once again underwater. Just shy of 55% of aggregated polls disapprove of his performance in handling the economy; only 39.6% approve. This, despite predictions of doom and gloom, including a recession, that did not materialize when the president announced his tariff policies.
Next up in the approval ratings is arguably the most controversial: foreign policy. Even if those surveyed don’t believe the president has done well domestically, they have to admit that Trump has taken the world stage by storm. Victories in the Mideast and across the globe have catapulted him into becoming a peacemaker who uses his business savvy to help world leaders see that their hostilities are getting them nowhere. Nevertheless, Liberty Nation’s polling aggregate reveals a 50.9% disapproval rating for Trump’s handling of foreign affairs, with only 42.6% approving.
As confounding as that negative rating is, it comes on the heels of another issue the White House has tackled and with good results: crime. It’s undeniable that homicides, carjackings, robberies, and assaults have been drastically reduced in major American cities. From the nation’s capital to Memphis and Chicago, everywhere Trump has deployed the National Guard, crime rates have significantly lowered. Here, at least, the aggregate of polls is close, but it still lands Trump in the negative column: 47.6% disapprove of his handling of crime, while 46.6% approve.
Last is trade. It could be argued that trade and the tariff wars have been among the most controversial of the Trump administration’s policies. Thus, it comes as no surprise that 53.9% disapprove while only 39.2% approve.
When the White House rolled out Liberation Day, there were more Chicken Littles (the sky is falling!) than you could count. Such predictions of catastrophe were prevalent among those who believed that renegotiating trade deals with America’s world partners would cause prices on goods in the United States to skyrocket.
Lo and behold, there have been no recessions, the stock market is roaring, and, finally, interest rates are beginning to tick – ever so slightly – down.
Perhaps the age-old Chicken Little folktale applies here. This imminent belief that disaster is at your doorstep comes about when the hen becomes hysterical over an acorn falling on her head. Believing that the sky is falling, Chicken Little incites hysteria among her friends in the animal kingdom as they journey to see the King and tell him the awful news.
As they made their way, a sly fox joined the travelers and led them to his lair: “Just step inside and you will see how cozy such a house can be.” But as soon as the goose got inside, the Fox bit off its head and ate it up. Next came the turkey to the same horrible end. When Chicken Little heard the awful sounds coming from the fox’s den, she turned around and headed home. There have been many morals attributed to this story, but perhaps the one most suitable here is that unjustified fear often causes more negative consequences.
The sky is not falling in America, and such negativity only serves to fuel anticipation of calamity. The United States might be better off if its people didn’t think the sky was falling when it was only an acorn that fell upon its head.
