Donald Trump doesn’t care about how unpopular he is—or how unpopular he can get. His priorities lie elsewhere
Last week, President Donald Trump sat for an interview with Time magazine to reflect on the first 100 days of his second term in the White House. Trump, as he tends to do when discussing himself, let the superlatives fly. “I feel that we’ve had a very successful presidency in 100 days,” he said. “We’ve had people writing it was the best first month, and best second month, and really the best third month.” Although the fourth month has not yet concluded, I am confident I can guess how he’ll characterize it when the time comes.
Normal people do not concur with his self-assessment, to put it gently. Trump’s approval rating at the 100-day mark is the lowest of any newly elected president dating back to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who took office before the widespread availability of color television. More than half of voters say the country is headed “in the wrong direction,” which is generally not the sort of first impression that politicians aspire to make. Support for his trade war is hovering in the mid-30s, and that was before merchants began passing along the costs of tariffs to their baffled customers, who were suddenly getting hit with “import fees” that often cost more than the items in their carts. (Just in time for the shelves in big-box stores to start emptying out!)
