OPINION:
President Donald Trump’s approval numbers have just jumped, and according to newly released Associated Press and CNN polls, he’s up 7 percentage points from last month.
And it’s not that difficult to see why. This is the direct fallout of positive White House economic moves coupled with rebound resistance to the overreach of the media and political left to paint Trump as all that ails the world.
Not only is Trump’s economy working.
But the constant barrage against Trump has cast him a victim. And how the base does rally about a victim. Right?
By the CNN numbers, Trump’s at a 42 percent approval rating with Americans, up 7 percentage points from February — and that’s despite Robert Mueller and the left’s ongoing Russia attacks, the left’s characterization of White House personnel changes as evidence of chaos and poor leadership and, of late, the whole pornographic Stormy Daniels takeover of the media cycle.
Go figure.
Forty-eight percent of Americans give Trump the thumbs-up for his handling of the economy, according to another poll from CNN/SSRS. And 46 percent in the AP survey say they’re fully on board with Trump’s tax cuts.
Once again, that age-old political mantra raises its head: It’s the economy, stupid. Always the economy.
But there’s something more going on with Americans that has contributed to Trump’s popularity boost, too, and it goes like this: Conservatives are sick and tired of being whipped by elites. The scandals surrounding Trump aren’t sticking. And part of the reason is the left has overreached on taking down Trump.
The Maxine Waters of the country, the antifa and Black Lives Matter of the nation, the Women’s March types who’ve been calling for Trump’s head on a plate since the days before he even physically took over the White House have had their day. The Russia collusion, the revelations of anti-Trump FBI agents’ texts — and now, the all-courts press of students-slash-political operatives to condemn the Second Amendment and all conservatives who support it — all these things have been stirring the Trump-supporters’ pot.
It’s not that Trump is scandal-free, or even completely innocent of all of which he’s accused. It’s that it’s too much, too frequently, with all the attacks.
It’s that the Trump voters have seen the anti-Trump light from the get-go and they’re not going to just sit quietly by and let the left, the media and the elites on the right steamroll over this White House. Trump rose to the top riding a wave called chaos. The fact that his presidency has been marked by chaos — some fabricated; some self-created — is only an “expected” in the minds of his supporters.
They were ready for the fight when they voted him in.
Here’s how tight his base has rallied: Politico/Morning Consult found 56 percent of registered voters believe Trump had an affair with Daniels. But nearly half said the affair doesn’t change how they view Trump.
And that speaks volumes. It says voters knew Trump wasn’t the perfect candidate during the campaign season. But they knew he was the right candidate the country needed to turn back all the progressivism and Deep State influences of recent years, and for that, were willing to cede on certain points for the sake of the larger war.
Now? Trump’s rising poll numbers show simply his supporters haven’t been taken off guard, they haven’t been surprised by the chaos and, more importantly, they’re not going to stand down and surrender the war just because the media, the elite, the left say they should.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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