PRESIDENT Donald Trump promised to make America great again but 71 days into his young presidency, his approval rating has been on a free fall across the board this week.
In the latest Gallup Poll’s three-day rolling average poll, Trump’s approval slid to a historic 35 percent as of Tuesday, March 28, down from 36 percent on the previous day. His disapproval rating jumped to 59 percent from 56 percent in the same period.
But what could be troubling for Trump is that after gloating on his Electoral College win that catapulted him to the presidency (he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, by more than 3 million votes), more and more Americans are feeling that he is steering the country toward the wrong direction.
The recent NBC/Survey Monkey Poll revealed that most of the respondents, or 61 percent, feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. That’s up from 57 percent of respondents polled a month ago.
The survey began gathering data on Friday, March 24 — just after Trumpcare was withdrawn from a scheduled House vote because the Republican Party could not get enough people among its own party to vote for the health bill that was intended to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.
Opposition to Trumpcare came not only from Democrats but from Republicans coming from both ends of the spectrum. Those from the extreme right said it was Obamacare-lite, which to them was a continuation of the entitlement being provided to the people by Obamacare at the expense of the national budget.
The moderate Republicans, on the other hand, said they could not vote for the bill that would raise premiums of their constituents, cover fewer people for more cost, and deny the people all the benefits their constituents are already reaping from Obamacare.
The health care debacle is but one of the many contentions in the Trump presidency. The president continues to churn executive orders, sign bills into law that reverse the gains of the Obama presidency that protect the environment, the rights of the working middle class, the rights of consumers against greedy businessmen and corporations, the access of the poor and older Americans to basic social services like education, food assistance, health care, etc.
Another roadblock for Trump would be the ongoing investigation to determine if the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election which allegedly helped Trump win the presidency.
Abangan ang susunod na kabanata.
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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 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
