SUPPORTERS of President Donald Trump chastise his critics and non-supporters for not being on board the “Trump train” even after he won the majority vote of the Electoral College, which catapulted him to the United States’ highest office.
Even as they hail him for churning executive orders one after another to build the border wall, temporarily ban refugee immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries, plans to repeal Obamacare, deregulate financial institutions and give more tax breaks to the wealthy, appoint billionaires in his administration, etc., there has been no honeymoon stage for those who disapprove of him and his vision and plans for America.
Millions protested on the streets across the United States and around the world on the second day of his presidency, in airports after his “Muslim” travel ban, and many more are expected as people exercise their First Amendment right to voice out their opposition of the direction Trump is steering America into.
His supporters contend that Trump was just fulfilling his campaign promise to the American people and that the rule of the voters who elected Trump into the highest post of the land should be respected as a mandate for Trump to move forward — an argument that can be debunked by the fact that Trump did NOT win the vote of more Americans, having lost the popular vote to Democratic candidate nominee Hillary Clinton by nearly three million votes.
In the onset of his presidency, Gallup Poll revealed Trump garnered only a dismal 45 percent approval and 45 percent disapproval. Data show he is the first elected U.S. president to start out with a job approval rating below 50 percent in the history of Gallup surveys, which date back to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953.
By comparison, Gallup Poll has the following approval ratings for his immediate predecessors:
Barack Obama 68%
Bill Clinton 58%
George W. Bush 57%
George H.W. Bush 51%
Ronald Reagan 51%
And in just eight days into his term, a majority of those surveyed by Gallup Poll said they do not approve of Trump’s performance as president.
Polling data showed it took the following days for his immediate predecessors to reach the below-majority approval rating:
Reagan: 727
Bush I: 1,336
Clinton: 573
Bush II: 1,205
Obama: 936
WHAT should Trump do to win the support of most Americans moving forward?
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
