Donald Trump appears to be a highly divisive figure. Adored by his core base, tolerated by most Republicans, loathed by Democrats. His approval rating, given the economy, is low. Trump is, in fact, the first leader since Reagan whose approval rating is lagging behind consumers’ positive assessment of the economy.
That is what Bloomberg concluded following extensive analysis of polling data.
“There’s a huge disconnect. The economy doesn’t seem to be dominating in a way that it often does in elections,” Karlyn Bowman, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, explained.
Trump’s personality and “the circus in Washington” seem to “drown out everything else,” Bowman added.
Trump’s larger-than-life personality and scandals that have plagued the White House from the moment he stepped into the highest office in the land may have not impacted the economy, but they have — if nothing else — influenced Republican political strategy ahead of November midterms.
The New York Times reported September 8, after obtaining an audio recording from a Republican event in the city of New York, that top Republican and federal budget director Mick Mulvaney told donors that Trump’s unpopularity remains a concern for the party ahead of midterms, but added that the economy under President Trump is a strong political asset. In particular, it is an asset because, according to Mulvaney, Democratic candidates continue to run on a message of blocking Republican economic policies.
The Democrats, Mulvaney told donors, cannot offer anything to voters outside of the left, since their candidates lack a coherent political message. The Democratic Party is a party defined by opposition to Trump, he asserted.
There’s never been a president this unpopular with an economy this good https://t.co/Vwo03mS7WZ pic.twitter.com/u3Jh6fUNe3
— Bloomberg Politics (@bpolitics) September 13, 2018
President Trump is infamous for hyperbolic, sometimes inaccurate, and outrageous statements.
A controversial Washington Post analysis, published August 1, showed that Trump has managed to make 4,229 false or misleading claims in 558 days.
After studying the way Trump speaks for two years, Georgetown University’s Department of Linguistics, as the Washington Post reported, concluded that the president’s speech patterns include sudden topic shifts, casual tone, simple vocabulary, and hyperbole.
According to Bloomberg ‘s analysis, hyperbole appears to be President Trump’s greatest enemy when it comes to public perception of his economy. Trump often boasts via Twitter about creating the best, strongest economy ever. While that is simply not true, Bloomberg noted, the U.S. economy is, in fact, on a roll.
Wages are on the rise and unemployment is near the lowest since the 1960s.
Simply put, Democrats and Republicans perceive Trump’s presidency differently, according to Bloomberg , whose polarization index shows that the difference in sentiment between Democrats and Republicans is approaching levels last seen during the Bush administration and the Iraq war.
