Poll: Grade trump on his first 100 days in office

[The_Doctor]

So, let me tee up a response. I gave him a C-/D+. He's done worse than I anticipated, honestly.

The first and most clear failure of the Trump Administration to maintain a strong coalition of support within Congress and the public. Every administration is tasked to do this as their first priority. Between the 40-42% approval ratings and routine disunity in Congress (see the AHCA) it's clear the administration has failed here.

The failure of the AHCA is a black mark on Trump's record. It definitely is gonna hurt his agenda and makes him look weak. Congress doesn't fear him now and won't back him on unpopular agenda items. They know the score and that will be consistent throughout his presidency. No way to spin it, it'll hurt.

The judiciary also has no problem resisting him. He's been hit by judges for the travel ban, the sanctuary city executive order, and so on. These judges obviously see a weak president who is unable to really fight back. Expect the judiciary to continually rein him in including the center right Supreme Court.

The Russian investigation continues to haunt him with revelations about Mike Flynn, Carter Page, and Paul Manafort. The Flynn thing was a serious self inflicted blow. The FBI confirming that they are investigating Trump's campaign in connection with Russia will be an enduring issue that will haunt his presidency.

He's embraced the traditional neoliberal dogma which probably hurts his base in the long run and where he needed to talk about innovative ideas instead of the same old ideas he has lapsed into conventional ideas. He should've embraced net neutrality, for example, and held a harder line on repealing and replacing Dodd-Frank.

His biggest failure is as a communicator. The administration routinely fails to communicate a narrative to the country about the intended destination and how we're getting there. “Making America Great Again” is a vague platitude and Trump doesn't bother continually educating the public and winning support. He continually reinforces his opposition, making life harder for his supporters in the long run. He treats the presidency as a series of set pieces instead of a continuing narrative.

Now the stuff that raises him from an F to D+/C-.

He put a conservative on the Supreme Court. That's no small thing. He also appears to have stepped up deportations and done so without too much resistance. There has been opposition but they haven't been as successful as this largely falls within the president's executive powers.

His work with China and North Korea hasn't been too bad. He has isolated North Korea from China through diplomacy and may yet get to dismantle the nuclear program.

Overall the grade is D+/C- with little optimism his final score will be better. It is stunning how little his base expects from him and how little foresight and ambition they held for his presidency beyond beating Hillary Clinton, putting a socially conservative Justice on the Court, and restricting immigration. It's like they ignore a huge swath of issues to change up and just care about the small stuff, in comparison to Democrats who routinely want big, huge changes.