He’s not Don too much
SARAH BLAKE
the good news for the 45th American President on the anniversary of his shock election win: almost every person who voted for Donald Trump a year ago would happily do so again.
America’s economy is also on a march, defying expectations to double its growth rate to 3 per cent, off the back of a record-high stockmarket.
Now, the not-so-good news. With no major legislation passed, a criminal probe into the Russian ties of some of his closest confidantes, a steady stream of exiting key staff and a drubbing just this week for Republican candidates in local elections across the country it would seem generous to say Mr Trump has had a good year.
Most polls show the majority of Americans don’t believe he’s delivering on his major campaign promises, including repealing Obamacare, stopping immigration from “terror prone” Muslim-majority counties and reducing taxes – none of which have yet eventuated.
Almost two-thirds of Americans don’t trust Mr Trump to responsibly handle the growing nuclear threat from North Korea – the same proportion as told an ABC poll last week that he’s accomplished “not much” to “little or nothing” as president. The Harvey Weinstein scandal has revived attention of historic sexist comments from the former reality TV show host and sexual harassment allegations by a number of women continue to hover uncomfortably close.
Indeed, Mr Trump has historically been the most un- popular president at several key points of the past year, with his approval rating currently hovering around 33 per cent to 37 per cent.
But don’t bother telling any of this to your average Trump supporter. To these men and women, even though the President may not yet be doing what he said he would and the Republican party is increasingly divided under his leadership, they would take him over almost anyone else.
“I really don’t believe his approval ratings are that low, because I really don’t believe in the polls, because they’ve been proven to be wrong,” said Dale Rawlette, from Glen Allen in Virginia, last week.
“I think he’s been doing a fantastic job, especially with respect that we have around the world and with the economy and I just think he needs more respect from his party.”
According to Laverne Jones Gore, a conservative activist and consultant from Cleveland, Ohio, Mr Trump should be celebrated for “doing things that nobody else is doing and saying things that nobody else is saying”.
“As a Christian, I had to be quiet,” she said of America in recent years.
“You can’t talk because you may say something that’s not politically correct. Do you know how infuriating it is to be an American in America and be told you cannot talk, you cannot speak? Because it’s not politically correct.
“He allowed that anger that had gotten inside of me, as a Christian, as a mother, as an African American, as an American, as a taxpayer.
“He allowed that pressure to be released.”
And that’s why despite historically low opinion polls, almost one-third of Americans believe Mr Trump is doing a great job. Indeed almost every Trump voter from 2016 – or 91 per cent – said they would vote for him again in a recent ABC poll.
Of course, the passion of Mr Trump’s supporters is more than evenly matched by those of his critics, who come from across the country and political spectrum.
One of his most frequent sparring partners is Republican Senator John McCain, who warned after this week’s Democrat victories in governor races in New Jersey and Virginia that the 2018 midterm elections were now a genuine competition.
“Unless we get our act together, we’re going to lose heavily,” Senator McCain said.
Many liberals seized on victories for women and minorities in this week’s elections as proof the anti-Trump forces are gathering and managing to organise.
A number of the first-time female candidates who won their races last Tuesday only ran after taking party in January’s Women’s March, which was held a day after Mr Trump’s inauguration and became the largest single-day protest in US history.
Whether Mr Trump wins a second term in 2020 seems a distant question in a climate where the possibility he will face impeachment is openly discussed on each of America’s partisan 24-hour news networks.
The probe has already led to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Richard Gates facing 12 charges including money laundering.
But Mr Trump has said he welcomes former FBI chief Robert Mueller’s probe into whether his campaign worked with Russia to influence the 2016 election because it will clear his name.