Public sentiment has been turning sharply against Donald Trump as the government shutdown stretched on beyond its third week, and even one of the most Trump-friendly cable news outlets is no longer giving the president any cover.
This week, Fox News published an op-ed on the front page of its website claiming that Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are schooling Trump when it comes to the shutdown and that the public has turned against the president. Written by Leslie Marshall, the story noted that most Americans seem to agree with the Democrats that Trump’s border wall would be an ineffective way to combat illegal immigration and address border security.
Marshall needled Trump even more by pointing out that Pelosi, one of his main adversaries, is more popular with voters than he is at this point.
“While most voters believe there is a border crisis, they don’t feel Trump’s border wall will solve the problem, echoing the sentiments of the Democratic leadership,” she wrote. “Add in that Trump’s approval ratings stand at 41 percent, the lowest since September, while his disapproval rating is 54 percent, the highest it’s been since September. Plus the fact that for the first time in his presidency, he is less popular than Nancy Pelosi, his main adversary.”
The shutdown began just before Christmas after Trump rejected a bipartisan funding measure and insisted that Congress provide funding for the border wall. Democrats have remained steadfast in their stance not to offer any funding, and the shutdown has become the longest in American history.
With the shutdown keeping more than 800,000 federal employees out of work and out of a paycheck, public opinion polls show that the majority of Americans blame Trump, and that number is growing. A recent poll from the Washington Post/ABC News found that 53 percent of respondents blamed Trump and Republicans, another from CBS News /YouGov poll found that 47 percent blamed Trump, and a CNN poll found that 55 percent blamed Donald Trump for the shutdown.
President Trump has insisted that he is not going to compromise with Democrats to end the government shutdown, and that he is comfortable in his unbendable position. But privately, it’s sometimes a different story. https://t.co/v4dLdtLwxm
— Khashoggi’s Ghost ??? (@UROCKlive1) January 17, 2019
Donald Trump may have himself to blame for the public sentiment. In the days before the shutdown began, he said during a televised meeting with Democratic leaders that he would “proudly” shut down the government in his demand for border wall funding and that he alone would take the blame. Trump quickly shifted away from that position, taking to Twitter to lay blame at the feet of Democrats, but the majority of Americans do not agree.
