A Miserable First Anniversary For Señor Trumpanzee, The Fake TV President

by Richard Serra

Tonight, Señor T has planned a gala celebration for multimillionaires only at his palatial Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Pikers will have to cough up $100,000 a couple but the ones who really want to kiss TRump's lard ass have to pay a quarter million dollars for a pair of tickets, which entitles them to participate in a "roundtable." Everybody who buys a ticket gets a notoriously shitty Mar-a-Lago dinner plus a picture of themselves with Trumpanzee and an opportunity to laugh at the working class suckers who voted for Trump in 2016. Members of Congress-- from both parties-- have noted that the optics of Trumpanzee taking off on Air Force One for his estate while the government is preparing to shut down-- something 32% of voters blame of congressional Republicans and 21% blame on Trump himself-- is less than ideal.

North Carolina congressional candidate Jenny Marshall noted that her opponent, Trump rubber stamp Virginia Foxx said she " hadn't given much thought to" Trump’s performance in his first year in office and that she "wasn’t sure if there was anything Trump hadn’t done well." Marshall reminded her Piedmont supporters that Foxx "sides with him on nearly everything, from his discriminatory travel ban to his attempt to repeal Obamacare to his appointment of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education (the worst Secretary of Education in our nation’s history!) She’s made it clear, time and again, that she would rather toe party lines and cozy up to GOP leadership than stand for the people of the 5th district... [What] really angers me about Virginia Foxx’s recent interview is the fact that she didn’t even think about the performance of the leader of our country. As a representative of the people, it is her job to serve them and their communities, not ignore their needs by refusing to think critically about the policies being put in place by the leader of the free world. The bottom line? Rep. Foxx needs to be removed from office in November. More than that, she needs to be replaced by someone who actually does care about the people of this district and is willing to do the hard work needed to make sure they all enjoy economic, racial, social, and environmental equity-- no exceptions." Democratic candidates across the country are hanging Trump around the necks of incumbents like the albatross he has become.

Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reported Friday morning that As Trump's first year in office ends, his support base has eroded and the opposition is energized. They noted that he started his Oval Office occupancy as a polarizing figure and "ends his first year a beleaguered one." They cite a new poll to back up their assertion.

Just under one-third of those polled, 32%, approved of Trump’s job performance, compared with 55% who disapproved and 12% who were neutral. That 23-point deficit represents a significant decline since April and the last USC/L.A. Times national poll, which found Trump with a 7-point approval deficit, 40% to 47%.

Looking just at residents of 11 key swing states, Trump’s standing is virtually the same-- 33% approve, 54% disapprove-- evidence that his problem goes far beyond the big, Democratic coastal states.

Moreover, opposition to him has intensified-- 42% in the poll said they disapproved strongly of Trump’s job performance, up from 35% in April. A much smaller group, 15%, voiced strong approval, down slightly from April.

The 55% disapproval closely matches the average of other recent, nonpartisan polls; the 32% approval is several points lower than the average, most likely because the USC/L.A. Times poll explicitly gives people the option of saying they neither approve nor disapprove, which not all polls do.

Widespread disapproval of Trump’s performance has also dragged down his party’s standing. Asked which party’s candidates they would favor if the congressional elections were being held today, those polled sided with the Democrats by 11 points, 51% for Democrats to 40% for the Republicans.

Democrats have held their own supporters better than Republicans have: Eight in 10 people who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 said they definitely would vote for a Democrat for Congress if the election were held now. Just two-thirds of people who voted for Trump had a similarly definite intention of voting for a Republican.

History indicates that with a double-digit lead on the congressional ballot question, “the Democrats would be very likely to take the House” in November, said Robert Shrum, the veteran Democratic strategist who directs USC’s Unruh Institute of Politics, which co-sponsored the poll. “The Republicans could be in real trouble.”

...Most of those who had not made up their minds in April now have done so, and by almost 2 to 1, they have gone against Trump.

“The people who were ‘waiting to see’ in the spring have mostly moved toward disapproval,” said Jill Darling, survey director for the USC economic and social research center.

Even among those who voted for him, Trump’s popularity is tepid. Asked to rate him on a 0-100 thermometer, Trump voters gave the president personally an average score of 64. His policies won a score of 72. By contrast, the antipathy from Clinton voters was intense-- they gave Trump a personal score of 7 and a policy score of 9.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll also released yesterday isn't quite as dire for Trump... but still pretty dire. It would Trump's approval at 39%, which is still "the lowest mark in the poll’s history for any modern president ending his first year. Fifty-seven percent disapprove of Trump’s job, including a majority of respondents-- 51 percent-- who now say they strongly disapprove, which is a record high for Trump in the survey. That’s compared with 26 percent of Americans who strongly approve of the president’s job."

The only group that approves? Republicans (78%). Democrats' approval is 8% but what is catastrophic for the GOP's midterm election hopes is that among independent, just 33% approval of how Trump is doing his job. The biggest voting block in midterms, seniors, give Trump a 41% approval, and those under 35 give him a 35% approval.

"Asked which words best described how they felt about Trump’s first year as president, respondents' top answers (allowing for multiple responses) were 'disgusted' (38 percent), 'scared' (24 percent), 'hopeful' (23 percent), 'proud' (12 percent) and 'angry' (11 percent)... 'A dumpster fire,' said an independent male from California in summing up Trump's first year in office. 'He does not represent the values of the country,' added a female Democrat from Wisconsin. 'He has no compassion and he should not be our president.'"

Wisconsin voters have buyers' remorse-- and they'll take it out on Trump enabler and apologist Paul Ryan in November