To watch CNN’s incessantly negative coverage of President Donald Trump, one would think the president has absolutely no chance whatsoever of winning re-election in 2020.
Yet a newly released CNN poll shows that a majority of Americans believe Trump is on track to do exactly that: Win re-election and remain in the White House for another four-year term.
The poll, the results of which were posted Wednesday, was conducted for CNN by independent research company SSRS and queried more than 1,000 respondents between May 28-31 on a host of issues related to Trump.
One question asked respondents to provide their “best guess” as to whether Trump would win re-election or not.
A whopping fifty-four percent of those polled said they believed he would win, while 41 percent said they thought he would lose and 5 percent offered no opinion either way.
That’s a rather remarkable number, and if it were to hold true and translate into actual votes come Election Day in 2020, Trump could win his second term in an electoral “landslide.”
Making that number even more remarkable is the fact that it’s almost a complete reversal from the results obtained by the same polling firm with the same question in December 2018.
At the time, just 43 percent of respondents said they believed Trump would win, and 51 percent said they believed he would lose.
As much consternation as the Trump re-election question likely gave the folks at CNN, they were probably irked even more by the fact that Trump performed better on this question than former President Barack Obama did in May 2011.
Eight years ago, only 50 percent of respondents believed Obama would win, while 44 percent believed he would lose and 6 percent offered no opinion. As we obviously all know, Obama won re-electionin 2012.
One probable reason for this stunning result in a CNN poll about Trump’s re-election chances is that, despite the network’s terribly biased coverage of the president, the incredible state of the nation’s economy has managed to override the incessant negativity and constant yapping of talking heads.
Asked to rate the nation’s current economic state, 70 percent of respondents in the CNN poll said the economy was either “very” or “somewhat” good, while only 29 percent rated it as “somewhat” or “very” poor.
It’s worth noting that one would have to go all the way back to the period between 1997 and 2001 to find similar high marks for the state of the economy in this particular poll.
It should also be pointed out that Obama’s high-water mark on this particular question was 53 percent “net good” in September 2016, unless one were to count the 57 percent “net good” mark reached in January 2017, though that was no doubt attributable to the substantial economic boost caused by Trump’s 2016 election.
As for Trump’s impact on the economy, the poll revealed that 52 percent of respondents approved of how he’s been handling it, compared to 41 percent who disapproved.
The Hill summed up the new poll’s results nicely: “The most recent poll shows Trump scoring his highest marks on his handling of the economy, with 52 percent approving and 70 percent saying the economy is in good shape.”
Furthermore, the economy was far and away the top reason cited — 26 percent — by those who said they approved of the president’s overall job performance to explain why they did so.
Only 1 percent of those who disapproved of the president’s overall job performance cited the economy as their main beef.
To be sure, this particular CNN poll doesn’t guarantee Trump’s victory in 2020.
But given the historical strength of incumbent presidents seeking re-election, especially when paired with a strong economy, the odds are most certainly aligned in his favor at the moment.
Indeed, quite a few modelers and predictors — even those who openly admit their distaste for the president — have concluded that Trump’s re-election is far more likely to occur than not, provided things like the economy remain the same or better over the next year and a half.
CNN can talk trash about Trump all day long.
But the numbers don’t lie — a significant majority of the country can clearly see that Trump is winning when it comes to the economy.
And it’s not likely that American voters will decide to ditch a proven winner and change horses mid-stream in 2020 if the economy continues to remain as strong as it is now.
If unemployment stays historically low and the US Economy is still growing Donald Trump will have a good chance to be reelected. The Dems at this stage mostly just hate Trump and do not have anything else unifying them.
It is early the election is Nov. 2020 and current polls do not mean squat.
While pol after poll shows American disapprove of Trump, the media has failed to interpret this response correctly. People who say they disapprove of Trump’s performance in office are really thinking about aspects of his personality. They don’t like his salty public remarks about his political opponents, and even members of his administration. They don’t approve of his awearing or using four-letter-words in some of his public appearances. The reports of his past affairs, and theallegation that he paid blackmail to a high-class hooker with whom he had a one-night stand, upset them. They were disappointed that he hired a somewhat dubious lawyer to prevent his getting bad publicity, sometimes by paying blackmail, and that he wasn’t altogether up front about having done this.
On the other hand, the majority of voters strongly approve of his policies and actions as President. They approve of his getting tough on countries that practice unfair trade with the United States. They approve of his efforts to bring industry to the United States, and to stop even more companies from moving their plants abroad. They approve of his proposed tax cuts. They approve of his efforts to halt illegal immigration, even the courts and the Democrats in Congress (and some Republicans and big businessmen, too) have thwarted these efforts. They approve of his efforts to achieve some sort of detente with Russia and end Cold War II. THeydon’t approve of the Democrats’ war propaganda. They approve of his efforts to make peace with North Korea, even though they know it is a risky policy. But Americans have always believed it is right to try to negotiate with potential enemies, and only go to war as a last resort.
Most people, however, also think Trump is right to get tough on Iran with severe economic sanctions, while trying to avoid military action as except as a last resort. They realize that allowing the ayatollahs to acquire nuclear weapons would put the uSA at great risk.
In short, the majority of Americans disapprove of some aspects of Trump’s personality, but they approve of his Presidential actions. So the majority will vote to reelect him, even though they are not entirely comfortable with him as an individual. They vote to elect a good President, not to decide whom to invite to dinner.