Boo-boys sound warning to Trump

APPROVAL RATINGS STILL DROPPING Most vociferous supporters, including Donald Jnr, played down jeers.

US President Donald Trump’s mixed reception from football fans on his political home turf in the US south on Monday underscored the risk in his unrelenting and contentious focus on core supporters.

The 45th president rarely moves outside his comfort zone, and so it was meant to be on a twostate whirlwind tour on Monday.

Trump visited the conservative bastions of Tennessee and Georgia, cozying up to farmers and throwing red meat to college football fans by attending a championship final game.

The day – flush with paeans to gun ownership, the flag and life at home on the ranch – was a decent snapshot of Trump’s first 12 months in office.

Since entering the White House, Trump has played squarely to his conservative base, with uncompromising positions on immigration and a host of wedge issues.

“Oh are you happy you voted for me?” he told members of the Farm Bureau, a farmers group, who applauded wildly. “You are so lucky that I gave you that privilege.”

White House aides assume he is already running for re-election in 2020, and they are betting his coalition of rural, white and conservative voters can deliver another victory.

But that looks like an increasingly risky proposition.

Like predecessor Lyndon Johnson, Trump’s movements have been limited by his deep unpopularity.

His approval ratings nationwide are around 35-40% and in some states they are even more anaemic.

Whole swathes of the country are virtual no-go zones.

He is the first president in decades not to visit the country’s most populous and economically important state, California, in his first year in office.

On Monday, in Atlanta, as he strode to midfield to observe the nation anthem in a college football championship, a chorus of boos blended between the cheers to serve as a small but symbolic warning.

While Trump’s most vociferous supporters, including his son Donald Jnr played down the jeers – and in some case even denied they happened – some in the Republican party will worry.

A Republican president, visiting the south, during a sports event between two overwhelmingly right-leaning states should be an easy victory.

Already, party stalwarts are concerned about what is in store for November congressional elections. – AFP