Opinion | Trump Voters Love Him More Than Before. Four Conservative Columnists Pinpoint Why.
Patrick Healy, the deputy Opinion editor, hosted an online conversation with four Times Opinion columnists about the Trump administration’s popularity among Republicans and why so many in the party believe the country is heading in the right direction.Patrick Healy: David, Bret, David, Ross: Donald Trump is the only president in our lifetimes who’s had a net-negative job approval rating in his first 100 days in office.Trump also has the largest gap in approval ratings in 80 years — 90 percent of Republicans like his performance, while only 4 percent of Democrats do.
Those Trump supporters are really on board with him; more registered voters think America is on the right track than at any point since 2004, according to a new NBC News poll.To be clear, a majority still say America’s on the wrong track, and Trump’s polling on the economy is sagging.
But I want to dig into why more voters feel better about America’s direction now than compared to under Presidents George W.Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Trump 1.0.And I wanted to do so through the eyes of my more conservative colleagues.
The four of you span the ideological spectrum on the right, and you’ve all written extensively about Trump.Why do so many Republicans like the direction Trump is taking the country in? Is it about his style, or his policies, or the mind-set and mood of the G.O.P., or something else?David Brooks: I’d start with the world we’ve been living in for the last decade or so.
According to an Ipsos survey last year, 59 percent of Americans think our country is in decline.Sixty percent believe “the system is broken.” Sixty-nine percent believe the “political and economic elite don’t care about hard-working people.” If those are your priors, then you’re going to be happy with a president who wields a wrecking ball.Healy: As Trump liked to say while campaigning, “What the hell do you have to lose?”Brooks: I’d add another phrase: “brokenism.” This is t...