OPINION:
As the establishment media outlets parrot the message that President Trump has failed on nearly every front during his first 100 days in office, a new ABC News-Washington Post poll reminds us — as if we need further reminding — of the yawning chasm between Washington, D.C.’s ruling class and the everyday Americans who elected Mr. Trump.
While nearly all Washington elites — including many congressional Republicans — deem Mr. Trump’s first 100 days a failure, the vast majority of those who voted for him (94 percent, according to the new poll) are happy with his performance. And, when asked if they would vote for him again today, 96 percent of Mr. Trump’s original supporters say yes. These figures are hardly indicative of the doomsday picture the Washington Establishment has attempted to portray of the president’s first 100 days in office.
The unreported story behind the poll numbers is that Mr. Trump’s first 100 days actually have been an utter disaster — for Democrats. And for the Washington Establishment. But certainly not for the president, or for his base.
The poll’s message, writ large, even if the media chooses to ignore it, is that Democrats are in terrible shape.
Mr. Trump’s first 100 days in office have reduced the progressive movement to a limp “resistance” effort. Liberal progressives no longer have a forward-looking agenda; they are wholly retrograde, stuck in November, and still smarting at their surprising loss. And as for the hyped-up grassroots “Resistance” effort? It has come up short, not once, but twice in the two recent U.S. House special elections, despite massively outspending the GOP. Money, it turns out, is a poor substitute for a winning message when it comes to election outcomes.
But perhaps the most stinging bite, as revealed in the poll, is that even after all of the media’s hysteria about the turmoil of Mr. Trump’s first 100 days in office, Hillary Clinton would still lose to Mr. Trump if the election were held today.
This poll cements for us that the election wasn’t a fluke or an aberration. It was, instead — and this is a terrifying reality for liberals and the Washington Establishment — an accurate temperature-reading of Americans’ priorities. Election Day was a resounding rejection of Mrs. Clinton, the candidate. But over the last 100 days, we have witnessed Americans’ wholesale rejection of the liberals’ agenda. The former was a minor setback; the latter, however, is a devastating blow to Democrats.
Over the past 100 days, the starker the contrast between Mr. Trump’s agenda and the Democrats’ agenda, the more sharply Americans have applauded his successes.
And just what are those successes?
On the immigration front, Mr. Trump has already made good on his campaign promise to get tough on illegal immigration, and his policies have had the direct effect of driving down illegal border crossings to a 17-year low.
On the economic front, Mr. Trump has already removed more job-killing regulations than any president in U.S. history — with an estimated net annual savings of $18 billion. The president’s commitment to slashing onerous and expensive regulations that impede job growth may be part of the reason why consumer confidence has reached its highest level in 16 years, and why the stock market is at an all-time high and still rising.
Mr. Trump is also delivering on his campaign promise to change the culture in Washington. Over the past 100 days, he has initiated new rules to reshape the way Washington does business, halting the revolving door between lobbyists and government officials.
Americans, it seems, knew exactly what they were doing in sending a businessman to Washington to disrupt business as usual in a town that is culturally a million miles away from normal America.
But Mr. Trump’s greatest victory thus far has been the confirmation of his nominee to the Supreme Court — the first time since 1881 that a president has done so in his first 100 days in office.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, while listening to oral arguments during his first week on the bench, asked of one government attorney: “Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if we followed the plain text of the statute?”
Exit polls on election night confirmed how important protecting the late-Justice Antonin Scalia’s legacy on the Supreme Court was for many Trump supporters. In Justice Gorsuch’s modest plea that we defer to the “plain text” of laws, most conservatives heard Scalia’s enduring voice and influence. Mr. Trump did not make merely a good choice for the Supreme Court; he made a brilliant choice.
In show business, it is said you should always leave the audience wanting more. Mr. Trump’s first 100 days in office leave voters wanting more. More promises kept. More rattling of Washington’s status quo.
If Mr. Trump’s first 100 days in office are a foretaste of what he plans to accomplish during the remainder of his first term, well, the Washington Establishment should consider itself forewarned.
• Jenny Beth Martin is the president and co-founder of Tea Party Patriots.
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