As of Wednesday, Trump’s favourables had risen to 43.3 per cent and his unfavourables had declined to 53.4 per cent.
This change is modest, but it’s important to locate its source: Trump acted presidential and struck notes of unity and compromise. If he can keep that tone, his numbers should continue to rally.
Recent events can help him sustain his progress, too. First is the congressional budget agreement. It not only avoids another shutdown that would drag the President’s numbers back down, but also gives Trump $US1.34 billion ($1.89bn) for 96km of new border wall and $US23bn for other border security measures.
Some of Trump’s allies called this agreement a defeat. Most of the President’s supporters, however, will believe him if he says it’s not. They want forward progress, and they’ll get it when the new $1.34bn is used for the wall.
And that’s before the President repurposes unspent Department of Homeland Security money to pay for more kilometres of barrier. Since House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed to give “nothing for the wall”, Trump can legitimately claim he won.
Second was last week’s grilling of Acting Attorney-General Matthew Whitaker. What did the six hours of Democratic hectoring, interrupting, demanding, insulting and showboating yield? Whitaker testified he hadn’t interfered with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation or briefed the White House on the probe. When Democrats hammered him for not recusing himself from overseeing the special counsel, he parried by revealing he had acted on the advice of ethics lawyers.
And with their rapid-fire, questions-with-no-time-for-answers tactics aired live on cable TV, Democrats achieved the near impossible: they made Whitaker into a sympathetic figure. If this is their approach to the multitude of investigations they’ll unleash in the months ahead, Democrats could make the GOP overreach in the Clinton impeachment look like a model of deportment.
The third event that could improve Trump’s standing was the Democratic Party’s socialist wing unveiling its “Green New Deal”, with online fact sheets characterising it as “a massive transformation of our society.” That’s not what most Americans want.
The documents admitted “we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes” within 10 years (it really said that), but claimed a decade would be enough to end the use of oil and natural gas, “retrofit every building in America, build the smart grid, overhaul transportation and agriculture, plant lots of trees” and achieve “net-zero” carbon emissions. Right. Buckle up for the road ahead — but don’t even think about getting there by car or plane unless they’re powered by solar, batteries or wind.
While admitting this would require “massive” investment, the documents suggested “the Federal Reserve can extend credit to power these projects”. Furthermore, the government can “take an equity stake in projects.” (For how this all ends, see Russia, Venezuela and Cuba.) And oh, all Green New Deal employment must be “union jobs that pay prevailing wages” to fulfil a new federal guarantee of “a job with family-sustaining wage” for every American.
The documents were so nutty the proposal’s lead sponsor, representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, took them down.
But the non-binding resolution she introduced repeats many of their extreme proposals, including generating all US power through renewables within 10 years, “overhauling transportation” by phasing out the use of petrol-powered cars and trucks, and somehow “stopping current, preventing future and repairing historic oppression” of a dozen groups including women, the “unhoused” and “youth”.
To put Democrats on the record, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to hold a vote on the measure soon.
This will be more effective if Republicans muster a comprehensive and unrelenting critique that can help win back suburban voters who defected from the GOP in the mid-term elections. They voted Democratic to send Trump a message, not to inaugurate a gigantic socialist nanny state.
Yet a few weeks into the 116th congress, Democrats appear most interested in ideological purification, which from the outside looks a lot like self-destruction.
Losing the house hurt the GOP’s ability to pass its agenda, but could improve Trump’s prospects if America sees more of what the Democrats offered this week.
Karl Rove twice masterminded the election of George W. Bush
When play is not a game
Apparent addiction to video games may be hiding other issues.
Xi’s China fills void left by US
Moves in Europe highlight America’s fading influence.
Donald Trump’s standing has improved over the past week — for that you can credit his State of the Union address. Say what you will about the ricocheting, all-over-the-place speech, but as Trump drove to Capitol Hill to deliver it, his average favourable rating from RealClearPolitics was 40.8 per cent, with 55.5 per cent unfavourable — his worst result since early September.