Nearly 100 days into his presidency and President Donald Trump ’s poll numbers are at a historic low. According to an ABC/Washington Post poll, 42 percent of people say they approve of Trump’s job performance thus far, contrasting with the 53 percent who disapprove.
At this point in the presidency, this is the lowest approval rating of any president since polling began in the 1940s . And in many ways, it is emblematic of the poor approach Trump has taken to governing.
Let’s look at the record. Trump and the GOP-controlled congress have little to show for their first few months in office. The one thing the president said he was guaranteed to do was repeal and replace Obamacare — three months in and people still have their health coverage. The Trumpcare bill pushed through Congress collapsed under its own weight due to opposition from many conservatives.Trump is attempting to resurrect it, but the chances are slim. And let’s not forget the travel ban executive orders that have failed twice in the courts and the Mexican border wall that’s nowhere in sight.
Furthermore, Trump has managed to flip flop on foreign policy and little indicates that he is making strides toward any major diplomatic or military accomplishments. Trump’s actions have also caused Republicans holding town halls back in their districts to wonder if they should attend due to this new Trump-era opposition movement forming across the country.
Nearly every week, there is a new story or stories about the Trump administration and its unscrupulous relationship with Russia. Piece by piece, Russian -related information is released about Trump and his campaign, and he acts as if it doesn’t exist.
All of these new findings contribute to the president’s historically low approval ratings. However, Trump took a more optimistic view on the grim numbers.
“New polls out today are very good considering that much of the media is FAKE and almost always negative,” the president tweeted Sunday.
There is a serious problem with Trump’s fake war on fake news. The major media outlets are only reporting what’s being done. The fact that Trump doesn’t enjoy being highlighted where he has failed — and there’s a lot of highlighting — doesn’t mean it’s not true. It also doesn’t make it inherently negative.
“No matter how much I accomplish during the ridiculous standard of the first 100 days, & it has been a lot (including S.C.), media will kill!” the president spouted in a tweet Friday morning. In days preceding this tweet, he boasted to a supportive audience at a manufacturing plant in Kenosha, Wisc., that “no administration has accomplished more in the first 90 days.”
I wouldn’t necessarily call what Trump has done “accomplishments,” but he certainly has done a lot… a whole lot of nothing.
Frederick Bell is a 19-year-old mass communication freshman from Greensburg, Louisiana.