Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Trump's approval will be roughly steady until the economy tanks

I think Trump's poll numbers have hit a floor. The floor is somewhere between 35 and 40% and the fluctuations between those numbers (and a bit above and below them) is just noise. The bottom line is that everyone has made up their mind about Trump. If someone has stuck with Trump this long no new fuckup or scandal at this point is going to change anything. Similarly, Trump doesn't have much room to grow. No one who hates Trump is going to become a Trump fan no matter what he does at this point.

The thing that might change things is a serious downturn in the economy. Although the stock market has stopped doing well ever since Trump got serious about tariffs, the economy has continued to grow and the jobs numbers are not bad. I think the only way to lower Trump's floor is if the economy turns really bad, meaning low growth and significant increase in unemployment. Until that happens, Trump will probably stay where he is.