Congressional Democrats are resisting President Trump with every fiber of their being. The Democratic mainstream media is also dead set against the president.
But many ordinary Democratic voters appear to be keeping an open mind, and Trump is gaining a grudging respect from some of them. That, at least, is the finding of a new poll from CNN.
Trump isn’t exactly killing it in the CNN poll. It shows him at 41 percent approval and 53 percent disapproval. That’s about where he was a few months ago when CNN conducted its previous survey.
But 52 percent of Americans approve of the president’s handling of the economy of the economy. And 57 percent say things are going well. That’s eight percentage points more than earlier this year, and it’s the highest mark since January 2007, before the last recession.
If Americans continue to believe things are going well, it’s unlikely they will want to change presidents. However, the presidential election is a long way off.
What about this year’s election? Good feeling about how things are going certainly won’t hurt the GOP. CNN points out that the last two times the House of Representatives changed hands, Americans thought the country was in far worse shape than they do now. Just 27 percent said things were going well in June of 2010, and in May of 2006, the number was 46 percent.
The improvement in the “how are things going” number is driven mostly by Democrats, though. 40 percent of the Dems in the survey say America is doing well. Only 25 percent said so in February. And 26 percent of Democrats approve of Mr. Trump’s handling of the economy, compared to 15 percent three months ago.
I’m not expecting Democrats to support GOP congressional candidates this year regardless of how they feel the country is faring. But if the Democrats nominate a radical candidate for president, and if America continues to fare well under Trump, it becomes possible to imagine Trump peeling off some Democratic support in 2020, or at least an erosion of support by some Dems for their Party’s nominee.
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