If you follow Democrat news sources, you would think that the entire country had turned against President Trump. There are headlines about Trump’s “record low” approval ratings and stories about Trump voters who regret their votes. But not everyone has turned against Trump.
This week he went to Medora, North Dakota to open the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. The library is an impressive project, and a point of pride in North Dakota. Trump and leading North Dakota politicians flew the new Air Force One on its maiden flight to Bismarck, then took the Freedom Train to Medora. I believe this is Trump arriving in Medora, not departing, but in any event the crowd is adoring:
This is the crowd near the library as President Trump arrived to give his speech. (If it doesn’t load, refresh the page.)
The visit was, for Trump, a triumph in a state he carried by 36 points in 2024.
Is he really sinking like a stone in the rest of the country? Rasmussen notes that Trump’s approval was unchanged for the month of June, at 43%. In my opinion, it probably should have declined in June due to events (or lack thereof) in Iran. But it didn’t.
Trump’s 43% doesn’t sound gaudy, but it isn’t much below where Barack Obama stood in Rasmussen’s poll at about this point in his second term, which was around 47%. And Joe Biden’s approval rating at this point in his only term was 44%. It has been a while since we had a president who commanded broad support.
It is reasonable to expect that when the Iran conflict concludes and gas prices return to normal, Trump’s approval will rebound to where it was before that conflict began, i.e. 45-48%. What is unusual about Trump is not his purported unpopularity, but rather the extent to which he is reviled by Democrats many of whom openly yearn for his assassination.
A footnote: pollsters have observed that Trump’s decline in approval in recent months has mostly been among those who don’t vote. The Rasmussen survey is unusual, if not unique, in that it always polls likely voters.
