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Could Trump Approval By Hillary Clinton Of Syria Strikes Have Influenced President’s Recent Job Approval?

By Thea Conrad
Published on: 01:56 PST, Apr 13, 2017

President Trump’s job approval was of great interest to people this week, as it showed how the Syria strikes, which have proven to be controversial and even cost Trump some followers, impacted how well the country thought he was doing. As it turned out, his approval didn’t change much at all. As of Thursday, Trump’s at 48 percent according to Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll, which is one point higher than his approval rating one day earlier. The daily poll taken immediately before Trump launched the missiles was at 46 percent. The following day it went down one point, then one point more the day after that to 44 percent before climbing to its current state.

These numbers may be surprising to some, as it was reported by Quartz that the president lost some loyal supporters as a consequence to his authorizing missile strikes on a Syrian army base. If that is indeed true, either he didn’t lose enough to matter or he won over some who had previously disapproved of him.

Protesters demonstrate their stance against war in Syria outside the White House in the wake of the attack on a Syrian army base. [Image by Rena Schild/Shutterstock]

The Syrian offensive didn’t just turn off Trump voters, but it also had the power to gain the approval of a few enemies.

Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi, who everyone knows are anything but allies to President Trump, all approved of Trump’s decision on Syria and made their approval known, which also worked to frustrate and anger the president’s supporters.

A day before the missile strikes, Hillary Clinton gave an interview at the Women in The World Summit and just so happened to mention bombing Syria. [Image by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images]

AOL News reported that on the day after the strikes Mrs. Clinton applauded Trump’s move on Syria, adding that he needs to do more to defeat ISIS. She also made it clear she’s a fan of ousting Assad from power. Hillary didn’t let the opportunity pass to criticize The Donald for his intent to not allow Syrian refugees into the country.

Washington Democrats are split when it comes to their stances on the airstrikes, but two of Trump’s most well-known naysayers, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, are on board when it comes to taking down Syria’s leader, as both praised the president for his decision to strike. All Democrats who commented either their support or dislike of the attack urged Trump to obtain congressional approval before taking such action in the future, according to Fox News.

Other Trump critics who spoke of their support of the Syria bombings include Republican Senators John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Marco Rubio.

When it comes to these three, many Trump supporters on Twitter have nothing nice to say, putting them in the same pool as Pelosi, Schumer, and Clinton, considering their interests in further involvement in the Syrian civil war.

However, just because most of the president’s supporters loathe Hillary Clinton, Pelosi, Schumer and the rest, these people do have their fans, which begs the question of could some of their supporters, and/or Americans who merely support having the U.S. involved in Syria, have become part of the Trump Train in less than a week’s time?

According to a Gallup poll conducted on April 7 and 8, fifty percent of Americans approve of the missile strikes on Syria. Interestingly, almost 90 percent of Republicans approve of the offensive against Bashar al-Assad. Amongst Independents and Democrats, those numbers are much lower, at 44 percent and 33 percent, respectively. Given this data, perhaps Trump had more Republicans than Democrats coming to his side as a consequence of the bombings.

Could it be that fans of Marco Rubio, John McCain, and Lindsey Graham were influenced enough to change their stance on President Trump? Remembering back to before Americans cast their votes on November 8, 2016, there was the “Never Trump” crowd of right-wingers who loathed Trump just as much as the “Not My President” group does now. It’s possible some of these folks are happy with his surprise move in the Middle East, given what Gallup has concluded about the country’s satisfaction regarding it.

Marco Rubio gives a statement to the press regarding Syrian airstrike. [Image by Alex Wong/Getty Images]

One interesting finding by Gallup vis-à-vis the Syria strikes are that, despite the 50 percent approval, this attack is the most disliked by Americans since the pollster began tracking such data back in 1983.

As far as comparing citizens’ reactions of Obama’s authorized bombings in Libya, Iraq, and Syria during his presidency, the partisan divide was much smaller than in Trump’s case. The Donald’s predecessor launched strikes in Libya in 2011, which yielded a Republican approval of 57 percent, with just over five in ten Democrats approving. The two parties were equally happy with Obama’s decision to bomb Syria in 2014, which was supposed to have been an attack on the Islamic State.

To analyze, if Trump’s approval rating was impacted by the Syrian strikes, Republicans made up the difference of those loyal who no longer approve, and any progressives who champion Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were not moved by their support.

[Featured Image by vector_brothers/Shutterstock]

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