Trump’s presidency can be described as nothing short of ruinous for the nation. His policies are not just causing considerable damage, but they are also gaining less and less favor with the American public. Unexpectedly, since 2022, we have seen an economic contraction. This suggests that Trump, instead of taking over an upward-trending economy and enhancing it with sound conservative policy, chose to steer our country towards recession with his stubborn imposition of tariffs.
The administration and its loyal backers are conveniently ignoring these facts, shouting vehement denials. Trump’s MAGA followers keep attempting to uphold his supposed ‘massive’ mandate, which, in all reality, was never there – an unwelcome truth for those creed-keepers. Voters, however, aren’t so easily deceived. Indeed, Trump’s rapidly falling approval rating reflects America’s growing dissatisfaction with these unpopular policies.
The worrying facts are stating it clear, Trump’s rating in his first term’s first 100 days is the worst any president in the past eight decades has had. Republicans are vociferously denying reality. If there was indeed a persuasive mandate for the president, approval ratings would look vastly different. But the evidence shows that only about 39% of Americans support Trump’s course of action.
The specious argument of an inherent mandate typically applies when one party gains majority in Congress. Interestingly, Republicans, who actively control Congress and have the power to turn Trump’s policies into law, are holding back. Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance, seem consumed with the idea that election victories are an absolute endorsement of all the victor’s beliefs by the American populace.
This stance ignores political realities and suggests a distortion of democratic principles. Vance appears to harbor the notion that winning an election, even by the thinnest margin, offers a blank check to throw around ones every ideology. Americans, however, did not choose Trump for the sake of pursuing his radical worldview.
The motivation behind his election was not his ideologies, rather it seems at that point, the country held more trust in Trump than Vice President Kamala Harris to carry out the presidential duties properly. Recent times have shown, though, that Americans are displeased with how Trump carries out those tasks.
Should we adopt Vice’s perspective on elections, then the Supreme Court justices who ruled against President Joe Biden’s attempt to cancel student loan debt or the courts that denied Biden’s forced vaccination campaign, are seen as overturning the election results. While we can agree that Trump doesn’t have all-out powers, he is functioning precisely in the manner we anticipated.
Despite a narrow victory, Trump has become a lame-duck president, taking liberties to drive his vision for America, regardless of how it impacts his popularity or the nation’s welfare. Clear proof lies in his implementation of tariffs.
For ages, Trump’s sole consistent policy stance has been his faith in the potential benefits of tariffs for the U.S. economy. Now, freed from the constraints of campaign promises and granted autonomy by congressional Republicans, Trump can finally put that belief into practice.
Unfortunately, the outcome of this policy experiment has been nothing short of disastrous. The economy is shrinking, the stock market is plunging, and sooner or later, we’ll witness a hike in the prices of many goods due to these damaging tariffs.
Ironically, Americans seem to prefer the first-term Trump, the version of him that was held in check by the Republican establishment. Now, in his second term, his acts are so severely disliked, the chances of Republicans clinching victory in the near future are looking pretty grim.
It would serve Republican politicians well to accept this glaring reality. Trump has stretched far beyond what he was elected to do – which was, in essence, not to be Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. That, truly, is the mandate he holds.
The post Trump’s Disastrous 2nd Term: Far Worse than Biden and Harris appeared first on Real News Now.
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