HT FiveThirtyEight
Nearly one year ago
It has almost been a year since DJT beat HRC in Election 2016 to capture enough votes in the electoral college to secure the Oval Office.
What has happened over these nearly twelve months? Chaos. Crazy. Controversy. Crack-ups. Cockamamie. Cuckoo. And those are just the words to describe the communications team at the White House.
A Gallup tracking survey released Monday puts the Trumpster’s approval rating at just 33 percent. FiveThirtyEight’s average of polls puts Trump at about 37 percent, so maybe Gallup is a bit of an outlier. But at 33 or 37, Trump is easily one of the most unpopular first-term presidents in modern history.
I cannot foresee any action inducing event that will reverse this trend and move DJT anywhere near even 45 percent job approval. Even a horrible terrorist attack will do little to move a majority of Americans to support this dude.
Only 44 of America's citizens have held the title POTUS. It is hard to believe this is how any of the other 43 would have told DJT to act and preside in his first 12 months in office.
Even with this state of affairs, yes, I think he can get re-elected.
Being popular and winning elections are not the same thing.
Due to the current voter base of the Great Lakes, a sense of doom surrounding globalization for some, the divided Democrat party, and the rules of Electoral College all provide solid reasons for why DJT can get re-elected in Election 2020.
America's demographics and rules for democracy help The Donald immensely.
But as he sits in the residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the warm glow of a big-screen stuck on Fox News Channel, he knows deep down he will never be a fashionable or aspirational American leader. He knows he will need to double-down on his polarizing nature, employ more aggressive campaign tactics, and will undoubtedly need to cast the Mueller investigation with its slow drip of indictments, arrests, and plea agreements as a wedge between the haves and the have-nots.
The next 12 months will let us know if American in the short-term or the long-term will add a 45th person to the POTUS list.
- Marc A. Ross
Tech's big week on the big stage
The top lawyers for Facebook, Google and Twitter will appear in three consecutive hearings before lawmakers investigating the role their sites played in Russia’s interference in Election 2016.
Big Tech forced to answer public questions on Russia ads: FT reports, Facebook, Google and Twitter executives face hearings as regulation pressure grows.
Globe and Mail: Silicon Valley's trust is on the line at U.S. congressional hearings
Tuesday: The Senate's Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism on how social media networks have been used to promote terrorism or radicalization.
Wednesday: Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence holds hearings focused on misinformation and fake accounts linked to Russia that were used to purchase ads during Election 2016.
