OPINION:
President Donald Trump’s latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll numbers show him at a 45 percent approval rating, up a full percentage point from June — and that’s despite the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin that the left wanted to turn into the next Russia collusion piece of evidence.
Know what that means?
It means come November, and come 2020, the candidates seen as sane will win.
Here’s the thing: This poll was conducted between July 15 and July 18, at a time when the left was swinging hard to prove Trump’s lackluster performance against Putin was the next link in Robert Mueller’s Russia collusion chain.
The left went nuts; the media went nuts; the establishment GOP went nuts; heck, even conservatives who normally support Trump criticized some of his rhetoric at this summit.
But in the end, America’s voters spoke louder. And in the end, it’s all about the voter, not the pundit. True?
While a Washington Post/ ABC poll found that 50 percent of U.S. adults disapproved of Trump’s handling of Putin, and 40 percent think he went “too far” in supporting his Russian counterpart, “the event has not at this time proved to be a significant turning point in his presidency,” the newspaper wrote.
In other words, beyond the Beltway, the Helsinki summit was barely a blip on the radar of political watchers. Republicans who loved Trump still love Trump; Democrats and elitists who detest him, still detest him.
A bigger factor on voters’ minds? The left’s insanity. The Trump Derangement Syndrome that’s affecting even some on the right.
It’s nearly gotten to the point that Maxine Waters seems sensible.
You’ve got James B. Comey of former FBI fame begging Americans to vote Democrat, but at the same time, begging Democrats to quit being so socialist. You’ve got socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joining forces and actively — openly! — touting their socialist politics to would-be voters. You’ve got nut jobs in the media screaming that Trump’s a “traitor,” Trump’s guilty of “treason,” Trump’s dealings with Putin were “treasonous,” and — here’s a good one, courtesy MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle — America ought to “rewrite the Constitution and have another president take over right now.”
And then came this, from former Republican governor, Christine Todd Whitman: “My Republican colleagues,” she wrote, in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. “We must put aside the GOP label, as hard as that may be, and demonstrate the leadership our country needs by calling on the president to step down.”
For all that — for all that anti-Trump frenzy floating about, not just post-Helsinki but post-2016 election — the polls say the American people still love the guy.
“Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Inches Higher, Buoyed by Republican Support,” ran one Wall Street Journal headline.
And from Newsmax, this: “NBC/WSJ Poll: Trump Approval at All-Time High.”
Yes, indeed. Trump voters aren’t just still Trump voters. They’ve become even harder core Trump voters. Now combine that reality with a soaring economy, an applause-worthy unemployment rate — including the jobless numbers for blacks — and a dreary, outlandishly negative catcall of a platform from the Democratic-Socialist Party, and what do you have?
An American electorate that’s going to vote as sanity dictates. An American constituency that’s deaf to all the anti-Trump babble. A batch of American voters who will choose the candidates who best exemplify sanity among this ongoing storm of political insanity.
In this coming election cycle, it’s the candidates perceived by voters as most mentally stable who will win.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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