Why Trump's 'accomplishments' haven't helped his poor approval rating

[LetMyPeopleVote]

To think that the president “crushed his first six months in historic ways” is to ignore what the public wanted, expected, needed and asked for.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trumps-accomplishments-havent-helped-poor-approval-rating-rcna221135

With this in mind, Axios published a much-discussed item this week, noting Trump’s second term at its sixth-month mark.

President Trump, in terms of raw accomplishments, crushed his first six months in historic ways. Massive tax cuts. Record-low border crossings. Surging tariff revenue. Stunning air strikes in Iran. Modest inflation. Yet poll after poll suggests most Americans aren’t impressed. In fact, they seem tired of all the winning. ... Trump appears to be losing by winning. The more he does (including issues beyond his legislative wins), the more the general public, especially independents, shrug — or recoil.

The problem with the analysis is its assumptions about what constitutes a proper political “win.” What Axios seemed to overlook is the difference between a president just doing lots of things, and a president doing lots of good things that people want and will benefit from.,....

It’s not that Americans “seem tired of all the winning,” so much as the American mainstream isn't seeing the kind of victories they want. Take the latest national poll from Gallup, for example:

Six months into his second term, President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has dipped to 37%, the lowest of this term and just slightly higher than his all-time worst rating of 34% at the end of his first term. Trump’s rating has fallen 10 percentage points among U.S. adults since he began his second term in January, including a 17-point decline among independents, to 29%, matching his lowest rating with that group in either of his terms.

As MSNBC’s Chris Hayes noted via Bluesky, “Trump has actually been remarkably successful in implementing his agenda and at the six-month mark he’s hit a low point in Gallup approval ratings. That’s because the agenda is fundamentally unpopular! Something we tried desperately hard to communicate in 2024.”,,,,,

All the while, Trump pushed a legislative package built around unpopular tax cuts, coupled with unpopular health care cuts.

To think that the Republican “crushed his first six months in historic ways” is to ignore what the public wanted, expected, needed and asked for.