Mixed report card on Trump’s first 500 days
This week marked 500 days since US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and his first tweet on Monday said: “This is my 500th. Day in Office and we have accomplished a lot — many believe more than any President in his first 500 days.”
The White House also issued a slew of statements, highlighting “President Donald J. Trump’s 500 Days of American Greatness”, of “Making Our Communities Safer and Stronger”, and of “Strengthening the American Economy”.
The listing of the 500 days top accomplishments has met with a mixed reaction — often confusing comments from the public and the media, online and offline. However, a review of some of the latest popular polls on Trump may help put the narrative into perspective.
Hours after the president’s and the White House’s statements, Sean Hannity of Fox News said Trump “proved the naysayers wrong” and it is “undeniable” that the world is seeing massive progress.
Other media and some Twitter users either compiled a list of things that Trump failed to do — like what they thought are the broken promises such as the $1 trillion infrastructure plan — or chose to fact-check Trump’s claims, such as that US citizens are enjoying the best economy and jobs “EVER”.
“His boast of record achievements on the economy and jobs ignores the Roaring Twenties, the wartime boom in the 1940s, the 1990s expansion and other times when unemployment was lower than now, economic growth was higher than now, or brisk productivity made the United States the world’s economic powerhouse,” The Associated Press said on Monday.
Gallup, in its latest analysis of presidential job approval, said 41 percent of US citizens strongly disapprove of the job Trump is doing as president, and 26 percent strongly approve, almost exactly the same percentages as the polling agency found 15 months ago, in the first weeks of Trump’s presidency.
The strong disapproval rate was one of the highest for any presidents in the history of the Gallup “strongly” question, which has been asked 82 times at irregular intervals, according to analysis by Jim Norman.
Within his own party, 66 percent of Republicans now strongly approve of the job Trump is doing, with only 5 percent strongly disapproving — this compared with 65 percent strongly approving in a poll conducted about a month after Trump took office, according to the poll conducted on May 14-20.
Another poll conducted by the Pew Research Center said that the number of US citizens who say they agree with Trump on many or all issues has risen since August, while a majority of them found little or no common ground with him on issues.
Interestingly, the survey found a narrow majority, 54 percent, say they are either very or somewhat confident that Trump will negotiate favorable trade agreements with other countries.
The Trump administration's tactics in negotiating with China and other trade partners, including allies, are sometimes perplexing to the public and pundits.
“Each time the United States seems to be set on a course of action, the president shifts gears and kicks the dust up all over again,” William Alan Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.