Day 1,316: As Trump formally accepts Republican nomination with 70-minute ramble, he remains historically unpopular
Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday evening at the semi-virtual Republican National Convention. Breaking all sorts of norms and laws, the event was staged at the White House where Trump rambled, stumbled and mumbled, lied, spoke nonsensically and took credit for Barack Obama’s accomplishments.
Largely unstated by Trump was a reference to deadly Hurricane Laura still ravaging the Southern U.S. (Notably, at a Thursday FEMA briefing, Trump was not only late to the meeting due to a fundraiser running long, but brought along son Eric with him.) Also ignored at the RNC were protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake and the ever-rising death toll from COVID-19.
Aiming to look at the world through the rosiest of GOP-tinted glasses, anything remotely resembling controversial or negative was tamped down, hoping would-be voters would miss what’s patently in front of their faces.
Yet Trump’s popularity shows that Americans are acutely aware of Trump’s shortcomings.
His approval rating has been underwater since two weeks after his inauguration. According to FiveThirtyEight’s blended average of polls, Trump’s net popularity sits at -12%, with over 54% of Americans disapproving of his job performance.
Save for a few days over the past 3.5 years, Trump’s popularity has remained under 50% the entirety of his presidency.
At the same point in their presidencies, Trump has rarely, if ever, been more popular than Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush or Ronald Reagan.
Of course, the true measure of Trump’s popularity will come on November 3, 2020. But if the GOP is hoping to whitewash Trump’s history before Election Day, the numbers say they have a long way to go. And Trump delivering as his nomination acceptance speech a 70-minute screed that more or less repeats the same MAGA talking points since the last election cycle is probably not going to change many minds.
1,316 days in, 146 to go
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