Trump for ending shutdown amid dwindling popularity

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that elections the night before had not been good for Republicans, and he blamed the results in part on the government shutdown, which he said had not hurt Democrats in the way he thought it should as a leftist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayor election.

Read more: New York, New Jersey, Virginia polls to test Trump agenda

Trump, speaking to Republican lawmakers at the White House, encouraged his party allies to do away with the filibuster in the US Senate to ensure Republicans could continue to pass their legislative agenda.

He expressed these views about the Democrats won the governorship elections in New Jersey and Virginia. But the biggest setback came in New York City where Zohran Mamdani — a Muslim and staunch socialist — became the mayor of the world’s financial capital.

The results came as The Economist in a latest report noted that “no recent president has fallen so low [in popularity] so quickly as Donald Trump” and said, “His net approval rating — those who approve of the job he is doing less those who do not — is minus 18”.

And the biggest shift away from “Trump has been among Americans under 30 years old”, says The Economist. “His net approval among that group was positive 3 when he returned to the Oval Office. Now it is minus 40.”

EVEN WHITE AMERICANS AREN’T HAPPY

Ironically, The Economist also mentioned that the numbers are poor even on the issues at the centre of Trump’s political platform.

For example, the US president has been taunting how tough he is on immigration. However, the net approval for “his handling of immigration is minus 7”. It is minus 33 in the case of inflation and prices.

And immigration naturally leads us to the white Americans — the support base of Trump. But he is even unable to appease them.

That’s why the white Americans, “who approved of him on net by 16 points back in January, are now evenly split”.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma — a deep red state — “has swung hardest, from positive 27 net approval to minus 12”.

The Economist, using the YouGov’s data, also projected Trump’s approval rating state by state. Amid the widespread dissatisfaction even in states that voted for Trump just a few months ago, the reading shows that Republicans will face competitive races in next year’s midterm elections.

Earlier, a CNN poll showed that “the Democratic Party holds a sizable enthusiasm advantage” with views of Trump “dip further into negative territory”.

It reported that “Trump’s approval rating in the poll stands at 37 per cent, the worst of his second term in CNN polling and roughly equivalent to his 36 per cent approval rating at this point in his first term”.

It’s a developing story. Details to follow.