While Donald Trump maintained that bombarding the public with a flurry of policy changes and events kept his approval ratings steady during his second tenure, a closer look reveals the reality. A significant number of voters with limited exposure to various substantive happenings expressed their approval for his performance. Alarmingly, almost half of the modest 42% who approved his tenure confessed to their scarce awareness of the various upshots of his administrative resolutions.
It’s notable that Trump’s approval seemed to significantly draw from lower-information voters – an occurrence that isn’t necessarily surprising given his history. These voters have always proven elusive for pollsters, thereby making their precise influence challenging to measure. However, this situation also begs the question of why some voters are less informed about key decisions and events in the Trump era.
Detangling the barrage of news events under Trump’s administration presented its difficulties even for the most politically astute. Indeed, during his first 100 days, Trump had the highest number of executive orders under his belt compared to any other recent president. This hurried state of affairs had the unsettling purpose of spinning the news cycle so fast that it was virtually impossible for keen observers to keep track of every essential event.
A staggering one-third of voters admitted a limited awareness of one or more significant happenings during Trump’s initial 100 days. However, it is important – and worrisome – to note that regardless of this, the majority of Americans claimed to be avid observers of news from Trump’s administration. But just how accurately were they perceiving this information?
Immigration, one of the most controversial topics of Trump’s presidency, delivered him his highest approval rating. Still, the majority disapproved of his handling of this critical issue, shedding light on the inadequacy of his policies. Paradoxically, voters who claimed ignorance about certain incidents were also more likely to approve of Trump’s approach to immigration – underlining the power of information, or lack thereof.
It’s worth understanding just how much their ignorance shaped the perception of voters who were less informed about immigration cases. Oddly enough, these same voters were more inclined to consider Trump’s stance appropriate or not harsh enough – a clear depiction of how limited information can distort perspectives.
The assessment of Trump’s economic policies provides another intriguing insight. Following his inauguration, Trump presided over the largest downturn in the S&P 500 seen by a new president since Gerald R. Ford in 1974 when the Watergate scandal had left the country in shambles. Nonetheless, a sizeable 20% of voters claimed to have scant information about this economic event.
Curiously, these uninformed voters tended to be more approving of Trump’s economic measures. Despite this, Trump’s standing with voters concerning the economy has been dwindling. A mere 43% of respondents approved of his economic strategies in a late April poll, indicating a loss of faith in his administration’s economic proficiency.
Looking back a year, a significantly higher 64% of voters reminisced proudly about Trump’s economic policies during the first term. This comparison highlights the question of what might have caused this sharp drop over the course of a year – particularly among a demographic that was previously more supportive.
One could argue about the harmful implications of selective information filtering that consumers of news can employ. However, it appears that voters who were less informed about current affairs shared a common trait: their primary news source was social media, a platform notorious for misinformation and bias.
Disturbingly, there is an emerging pattern that points towards falling approval rates for Trump among those voters who don’t follow news closely. Whether voters attributed their dissatisfaction to the unsettling state of the economy or to the character of the news trickling down to them remains to be discovered.
The post Trump’s Enigmatic Approval: How Ignorance Played a Role appeared first on Real News Now.
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