Andrew Malcolm uses a HotAir.com column to ponder the perplexing fact that President Trump doesn’t appear to get much credit for the good economic news America is seeing as he occupies the White House.
Been doing some background reading and thinking in recent days on our politics, economy and president from recent weeks. We have what my grandmother would call “a puzzlement.”
Maybe you missed this too. A lot of Trump-haters would want to miss it. But Gallup this summer found that Americans’ satisfaction with the direction of our country has reached the highest point (38 percent) in 12 years, all the way well back into the George W. Bush presidency.
Gallup has measured the country’s satisfaction rate at least monthly since 2001. It has reached the 35 percent level only six times in all those years. And three of them came during this year, the second of the Donald Trump presidency.
You missed this impressively positive news because the media was busy elsewhere covering Trump’s outrageous tweets and threats, which is easier and goes down smoothly with their audiences and agenda.
The economy is expanding at a 4.1 percent annual rate at last report. Millions of jobs have been created [since] the people hired Trump in January 2017. …
… And yet Trump’s job approval is mired in the mid to low 40 percent range. The RealClearPolitics average has him now at 43.1 percent approval and 52.6 percent approval, a gap of 9.5 points. That’s no longer historically low. In fact, it’s right around other recent presidents at this point in their first terms.
But with all this good economic news Trump should certainly be flying higher than, say, Obama who struggled with an economic crisis and spent a trillion dollars in stimulus money to no great end.
