Poor Poll Numbers Don't Yet Reflect the Full Picture
Apr 30, 2025 3:09 PM ET
by Philip Elliott
President Donald Trump’s polling is in the landfill and his economy is not much better. That doesn’t mean either has hit rock bottom.
The souring headlines are impossible to miss, even for those who have treated his second term as something to tune out, avoid, or deny. Trump’s rampage through the professional, permanent class of government workers has cost tens of thousands of jobs and reduced the federal payroll to 1960s levels. At least 120,000 feds have been cut or targeted for reductions, according to CNN’s headcount. Trump’s war on the budget—even though net spending is actually up since he took office—has drastically reduced contracts with outside companies and vendors, often with no clear plan for making up for the services they were providing. The daily chaos is in your face with hourly outrages and a constant stream of outbursts.
The only thing falling quicker than Washington’s patience with the White House is the U.S. economy, which has been rocked by fears of a trade war fueled by escalating and irrational tariffs.
On Wednesday, as markets were falling once again and the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy actually shrank in the first quarter, Trump tried to lay it all on the feet of his predecessor. “This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” he messaged on his social media platform. (Never mind that in January of last year—while still a candidate—Trump claimed that Biden deserved no credit for a surging market, arguing that investors were making money on the promise of Trump’s return to power.) And when meeting with his Cabinet later in the day to mark his first 100 days in office, he doubled down ...
https://time.com/7281690/donald-trump-dolls-tariffs-polls/