The 'rise and immediate fall ↕️ of the Trump Latino Democrat.'
47 @ 42 on 100. 🎯
As I thumbed through tabs of polling to pinpoint the president’s precise approval rating on this artificially ceremonial Day 100 of Trump II, a warm flash of sanity halted my fingers on the keyboard. Did it really matter if he was at 45% (NBC) or 41% (CNN) or even down to 39% (ABC) (Slopadopolus!)? Even if he detonates the ultimate norm and pursues a third term in 2028, it’s still far too early to diagnose a patient for an operation more than two years away. Yes, Trump has lost measurable popularity since his election and inauguration because he’s doing all the things. The litany of America First campaign promises stridently unfurled with hope and headstrong confidence at his rallies are now running into real-world realities, painful tradeoffs and a court system that’s being tested as the final check on brute executive power. The cost of living remains stubbornly high and we’ve only gotten a peek at the consequences of certainly uncertain tariffs. Six trillion dollars in market loss felt like just the tip. “Whose throat do I get to choke if this proves to be wrong?,” asked GOP Sen. Thom Tillis at a Senate hearing on Trump’s tariffs earlier this month. The president’s deportation priority remains popular, but as you’ll see below the tactics he’s using to attain his
goal are increasingly unsettling voters, especially as he flirts with outright defiance of a co-equal branch of government. So it seems about right that the president, who won just 49.8% of the national electorate has been shaved down to about 42% (where New York Times/Siena measured him). “I just felt more comfortable with him last November, his policies,” Mark, a first-time Trump voter from Florida told The New York Times’ 100 Day focus group. “Now, he’s biting off a little bit more than I think he should.” So much has been spewed about a lack of leadership atop the Democratic Party in 2025. Here’s a paradigm where it actually works to their advantage. Trump is always strongest when he’s pitted against a well-defined, recognizable opponent. In a vacuum twisting by his lonesome, the public turns its nose up.
The second most popular post I’ve ever written on this Substack is an assessment that all modern presidents will continue to be permanently unpopular due to the highly polarized nature of the electorate and the little tolerance Americans have for enduring any amount of economic hardship. If ya haven’t yet, you should READ it. Seriously. Put another way, there will never be another Sept. 11th that wholly unites the country around a leader and lifts his/her approval rating to 75%. If a plane commandeered by terrorists slammed into Chicago’s John Hancock building tomorrow, it’s much more likely about half the country would immediately blame Trump than 80% rallying around him. So no, 52% of the country thinking Trump is a dictator isn’t particularly shocking. And 42% approval is just in-line for a term-limited president attempting dizzying unparalleled changes to the federal government. He holds his fortified MAGA base, but the swingers have wandered off the pool deck.
There is one prized demographic that is showing pointed signs of Trump fatigue and that’s where I’ll route the remainder of this riff. But do click thru to get the *entire* picture.
A new national poll of Hispanic voters demonstrated widespread dissatisfaction with Trump as he reaches his 100th day in office, with cost-of-living pressures driving the negative views of the nation’s second-largest voting bloc more significantly than deportation policy.
Trump’s approval rating is just 37% with Latinos in the new UnidosUS survey and his favorability score is even worse, languishing at 34%. The poll, administered by BSP Research and Shaw & Co., took the views of 1,002 registered Hispanic voters in Arizona, California, Colorado, Texas and Florida during a week in mid-April. The League of United Latin American Citizens, which endorsed Kamala Harris for president, as well as Climate Power Action, helped pay for the survey.
For more on the survey and why Team Trump says its flawed, continue reading at The Miami Herald.
Read more #TCTC>
