Why Trump Isn’t Worried About His Low Poll Numbers

Rick Klein: “It’s a dismal set of numbers, six months in. President Trump is pronouncing them to be ‘not bad at this time.’ He’s wrong as a historical matter, though not necessarily as a practical one. The president’s 36 percent approval rating in the new ABC-Post poll means he has his base, and that’s basically it. That’s how he is choosing to govern, with a slashing style and regular outrages – as perceived by all those who have been loyal throughout. He is both governing and communicating as if the other two-thirds of the country don’t matter, or matter less than those who elected him. Or maybe he’s just banking on the rest of the country’s getting used to the deception and misdirection.”

“Reading the poll based on how Trump’s inner circle does, the president enjoys an 82 percent approval rating among Republicans, pointing toward a motivated base and a Republican Party that’s not going to quickly abandon his legislative efforts. (How much does he need a strong economy in his equation?) What the president won’t sweat? The 63 percent of Americans who think Don Jr.’s meeting with Russians was inappropriate, or the 70 percent who view the president’s own behavior as ‘unpresidential.'”