Can Trump Move the Needle?
Trump’s State of the Union outlined his focus this year, and if he will stay on message, this will be a winning path to midterm retention of majorities.
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned — this is the sum of good government.” —Thomas Jefferson (1801)
When Donald Trump returned to office a year ago, his administration faced a massive cleanup on Aisle America after the Biden/Harris debacle.
The Trump administration faced the consequences of Biden’s open borders, crushing inflation, systemic election fraud, suppression of free speech, regulations choking economic and business growth, and perilous national security threats — including Russia’s war on Ukraine and radical Islam’s war against Israel.
Despite those challenges, Trump’s administration can boast an extraordinary record of domestic and foreign policy success in its first year, as he successfully outlined in his State of the Union this week.
The list of what Democrats in the chamber refused to applaud reveals much about their contempt for our country. Fortunately, with 80 Jackass Demos AWOL from the chamber hosting their alternative “Hate America” events, there were fewer distractions during the president’s remarks.
As a stark reminder of how disastrous the foreign policy failures of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were, Tuesday marked the anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, what Biden estimated would be a “minor incursion.”
That invasion was the direct result of Biden’s appeasement of Soviet-era tyrant Vladimir Putin, and the deadly consequences are an estimated 140,000 Ukraine military and civilian deaths. That blood is on Biden’s hands — and all who put him in office. (Notably, there have been more than 325,000 Russian military deaths, more than any major power since World War II.)
The Trump administration’s policy successes notwithstanding, there have been some substantial messaging failures in recent months, which have taken a polling toll on Trump and, by extension, Republicans.
Despite the MSM’s constant ad revenue churn about midterm elections as if they were tomorrow, there is time for Trump to refocus on the economy and taxes and move the voter approval needle in the right direction. But Republicans can’t afford more distractions.
In the last three months, after the Left propagandized the weaponization of ICE operations across the nation, the administration has finally gotten the ICE optics right — but not before a lot of damage was done.
As Border Czar Tom Homan insisted last year, the focus all along should have been arresting and deporting the “worst of the worst.” But unfortunately, the administration was not just focusing on the “worst of the worst,” and that gave Demos a big opening to vilify ICE and Trump. Fact is, the reputable Pew Research Center reports that nearly all Americans (97%) “support deporting those who have committed violent crimes.” The ICE refocus needs to be loud and clear moving forward in order to stem the decline of Republican support from both Hispanic and independent voters.
The administration’s second, and now most pressing, messaging failure relates to the economy. Trump has endeavored to refocus on “affordability” and taxes, but Republicans must stay on message.
Initially, Trump attempted to deflect the “affordability” issue by declaring that “the word ‘affordability’ is a Democrat scam … a con job by the Democrats” that “doesn’t mean anything to anybody.”
Affordability actually means a lot to just about everybody, regardless of political affiliation. And Trump’s telling people that everything is great is not sufficient.
Trump can’t tell voters their financial concerns are just a perception problem. Middle-class earners know better, and gaslighting Americans on the impact of Biden-era inflation on their family budgets will not work.
Perceptions notwithstanding, Trump has made remarkable progress restoring and growing the economy after four years of the Biden/Harris disaster, as well as taming the 40-year record-high inflation that Trump’s administration inherited.
One tool Trump has used boldly over the past year to help balance international trade has been the imposition of tariffs. As I noted last year, “We have been in a global trade war for 60 years, and getting our butts kicked. Trump is the first U.S. president in decades with the guts to fire back.” And those tariffs have been successful.
Unfortunately, last week — almost a year after the Trump administration started levying tariffs — the Supreme Court determined that he exceeded his authority to do so, though he has reimposed tariffs using a different authority, which may or may not stand SCOTUS scrutiny.
Despite his economic policy progress this past year, Trump’s approval rating on the economy has flatlined, even among his own voters, and his general approval rating is now 42.5% according to RealClearPolling, down from 50.4% when he took office. Fox News polling indicates a 44% overall approval rating.
Notably, his approval rating among independent voters is just 22%, down from 38% a year ago, though an increasing number of independents are disillusioned Democrats.
Yes, polling is subject to the “Pollaganda Effect,” which The Patriot Post defined two decades ago as an insidious practice the Leftmedia utilizes to shape public opinion, especially during election cycles. Pollaganda is a hybrid word combining polling and propaganda that describes a subtle scheme of circular messaging that, in effect, creates an echo chamber of public opinion.
But defining this corrupt media practice does not change the fact that the Demo/MSM polling propaganda machine is a highly effective tool for controlling public opinion.
That makes it ever more critical that Trump and his administration make the economy their top issue, and that voters know it. He must stop the rope-a-dope distractions and stay on message.
The good news is that Democrat polling is worse, with party favorability at just 36%. And Demo congressional approval, even according to polls that tend to be favorable, has now plunged to only 29%. In fact, only 67% of Demos have a favorable view of their own party.
Of course, another factor in moving the needle in national elections is voter integrity. That begins first and foremost, as Trump noted in his SOTU, with passage of the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.
As Douglas Andrews recently noted, “According to Gallup, a requirement to present photo ID before voting is favored by 84% of Americans.” He also noted that “requiring proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time is favored by 83% of Americans.” In fact, 82% of Latinos, 76% of Blacks, and even 71% of Democrats support requiring a photo ID to vote.
Again, can Trump move the voter approval needle to the right ahead of the midterm elections in eight months? If not, that will have dire consequences for Republican retention of narrow House and Senate majorities in the midterms.
However, with the impact of upcoming Trump measures, the effects of which consumers will actually feel, despite all the Leftmedia propaganda to the contrary and Bait-n-Switch Spanberger’s failed SOTU rebuttal, I believe that needle will move in the right direction! If Trump stays on message, this will be a winning path to midterm retention of majorities.
And a final note about Trump’s SOTU…
Regarding the Medal of Honor awards to CAPT Royce Williams (USN) and CWO Eric Slover (USA), predictably some Trump-deranged Demos have politicized the awards by demeaning the recipients as political props.
In fact, the heroic recipients of these Medals of Honor received high-profile recognition at a high-profile event by a president who has restored integrity, mission, and morale to our Armed Forces. Presenting the awards on behalf of Congress at a State of the Union was a fitting venue before a proud nation.
(CWO Eric Slover will be featured in my Profiles of Valor this week.)
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
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