At 39 per cent, Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating after 100 days in office of any US president since the second world war. There are two types of people in the world. There are those who will regard that terrible number as the story, and those who won’t be able to believe that it is so high. The second group have a better handle on things.
Too much is being made of the public backlash — such as it is — against Trump. Just 6 per cent of those who backed him last November regret doing so. (And these remorseful few must be weighed against the 3 per cent of Kamala Harris voters who say the same about their choice.) This is after the tariffs, the ambush of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, the promotion of Tesla cars on the White House driveway. For reference, Trump had ratings almost as low eight years ago, and went on to run Joe Biden close for re-election, before winning in 2024.
Even if the turn in sentiment against Trump were as decisive as billed, the message would be — what? Trample the constitution, but don’t dare get the economics wrong? And in this there is liberal solace to be found, is there? For his first impeachment, Trump withheld aid to Ukraine, which had been under attack since 2014, to secure its help in digging dirt on Biden. For his second, he tried to overturn the result of a presidential election, in the course of which effort people died. Voters decided last November that such acts aren’t disqualifying. If stock market reversals push them over the edge now, that is fair enough, but let us contain the moral jubilation.