What’s that? It is, according to the most accurate pollster of 2016, President Trump’s approval rating as we approach the end of his first year in office. It is, by the way, almost exactly where Barack Obama finished his first year in office.

But there’s one very big difference. The media were cheerleading for Obama virtually every day. In Trump’s case, they are waging a jihad against his presidency.

Day after day, 24 hours a day, every power center in America — the media, the political Left, academia, Hollywood, judicial activists, deep-state bureaucrats and “#NeverTrumpers” in his own party — have ridiculed and “resisted” this president.

Yet in spite of it all, 45% of Americans still support him.

What does the Left have left? It not only threw the proverbial kitchen sink at him, it threw the microwave, the toaster, the blender and the refrigerator too!

Its one hope is that Robert Mueller can come up with trumped-up charges to force the president and Vice President Mike Pence out of office. And it is preparing for that very prospect.

As I have reported in recent weeks, the Left’s biggest donor, billionaire Tom Steyer, has spent tens of millions of dollars ginning up the radical left-wing base by promoting the fantasy that President Trump should be impeached.

So by all means, my friends, let’s celebrate that we made it through 2017! But steel yourselves for the year ahead. It is going to be one heck of a fight!

Standing With Israel

Judging by his first year in office, President Trump will go down in the history books as the most pro-Israel president since Harry Truman!

Just days after his declaration formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, top security officials from Israel and America signed a joint memorandum of understanding at the White House detailing a strategy for confronting the Holocaust-denying regime in Iran.

Reports broke late Thursday afternoon that “the agreement would translate President Trump’s October speech decertifying the Iran deal into steps on the ground.” The agreement calls for the U.S. and Israel to form several “joint teams” dedicated to:

• Confronting Hezbollah’s activities in Lebanon and Syria.

• Confronting Iran’s nuclear ambitions, including its missile program.

• Preparing for any “escalation from Hezbollah or Tehran.”

After years of getting the back of Barack Obama’s hand, top Israeli officials hailed this agreement, saying Jerusalem and Washington finally “see eye to eye on the trends and processes in the region.”

While Obama looked at the tyrants in Tehran and saw the potential for a “very successful regional power,” the reality is that Iran’s “success” comes at the expense of peace and stability for all of its neighbors, most especially the Jewish state of Israel.

The radical Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies pose an existential threat to Israel. Its leaders have repeatedly vowed to “wipe Israel off the map.” They lead frenzied crowds in chants of “Death to Israel! Death to America!”

And just this week, they doubled down on their support for the terrorists of Hamas and voted to recognize Jerusalem as “the everlasting capital of Palestine.”

But there is good news too. As President Trump makes it clear that this administration is not interested in dealing with the mullahs, Iranian dissident groups are emboldened and they are fighting back.

Protests have erupted across Iran. Referring to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and to President Rouhani, thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets chanting, “Death to the dictator! Death to Rouhani!” Others yelled, “Let go of Palestine!” and “Leave Syria. Think about us!”

“Merry Christmas” From Israel

In case you missed it, I want to share with you this video of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wishing Christians around the world a merry Christmas. In his remarks, Netanyahu said:

“I’m very proud to be the prime minister of Israel, a country that says ‘merry Christmas’ first to its Christian citizens and to our Christian friends around the world.

"I’m proud that Israel is the country in which Christians not only survive, but they thrive because we believe in this friendship among people and we protect the rights of everyone to worship in the holy shrines behind me.”