Or, some would say, Trump is hurting himself. Either way, there are troubling indications that President Trump is losing his battle with the Democratic Party press. See, specifically, Rasmussen Reports’ polling.
I don’t know whether Rasmussen is any more “right” than other pollsters, but it follows a consistent protocol and publishes a three-day rolling average of likely voters, which I think makes it a valuable barometer of trends. And the trend, for President Trump, is bad. His approval rating has been dropping steadily, and is now down to 46%, with 53% disapproving:
The strength of Trump’s support is also wavering. Rasmussen’s “approval index” is the difference between those who strongly support, and those who strongly oppose, a politician. Currently those numbers are 30% and 43% for an approval index of -13:
Again, one can debate where those numbers “really” are, and every poll is different. But the trend is negative.
Trump’s current numbers are not necessarily a cause for panic. In Rasmussen’s polling, he sits right about where Barack Obama was through the large majority of his administration. In fact, Obama’s approval index was often lower than -13. It was only at the end of each term in office that Obama would briefly bounce back up again. So perhaps the current polarization of our electorate merely caused Trump’s numbers to be beaten down more rapidly than Obama’s were.
More likely, though, the incessant pounding on Trump and his administration in the press is taking a toll. Trump’s downward trend is particularly disturbing, given the run of good news he has enjoyed since his inauguration. On all fronts–the economy, ISIS–things are getting better, and Trump is making great appointments and keeping one campaign promise after another. But it appears that the press has managed to drown out the good news with its incessant and often hysterical attacks on the president.
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