The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Staff Reports
Posted: Sunday, January 21, 2018 11:25 AM
OPED: Newt: What The Elite Media Is Not Telling You About President Trump's Approval Ratings
The most recent average of polls has President Trump at 39 percent approval.
One news analyst wrote that Trump is turning us from a 50-50 country to a 60-40 country, with the new majority consolidating against the president.
In their eagerness to declare the Trump presidency a failure, the elite media is failing to inform us of two things.
Macron is not alone. British Prime Minister Theresa May earned a 34 percent satisfaction rate, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a July approval rating of 34.2 percent, and the Democratic Party in the United States received 38 percent approval in June.
First, President Reagan had a similar period during his first term when his approval rating fell to 35 percent -- even lower than President Trump’s. Reagan bounced back, carried 49 states in a landslide reelection, and went on to oversee an economic boom and change world history by pushing the Soviet Union into collapse.
So, history tells us that presidential approval ratings at this point in time are not indicative of a president’s future success.
Second, in addition to failing to contextualize President Trump’s approval ratings in history, the elite media is ignoring the present. Look, for example, at the radically different way it has treated President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France.
According to the elite media, Macron is the brilliant young technocrat who saved France from Marine Le Pen and Trump-like populism. Macron won with a stunning 66 percent of the vote. He formed a new party which swept the legislative elections, giving him a unique opportunity to reform France.
The news media loved him. They lionized him because he was seen as the anti-Trump. Macron was smooth where Trump was rough. Macron was sophisticated and international where Trump was an American populist (oh how it pains the elite media to have a crude populist as their president when they could have someone elegant who understands fine wine and cheese).
Unfortunately for the elite media, the Macron myth has not aged well. As voters came to know him, they were put off by his icy, imperialist aloofness. As they came to understand his proposed reforms, they decided they opposed them.
Macron was at 64 percent approval in June. Now, less than two months later, he has fallen to 36 percent....BELOW TRUMP.
How can the elite media explain this collapse?
How can the elite media rationalize that their young, moderate, sophisticated technocrat is now below President Trump?
They can't.
So, they don't.
However, Macron is not alone. The elite media has also failed to inform viewers that the approval ratings of other world leaders have been recorded at similarly low levels in recent months.
For example, British Prime Minister Theresa May earned a 34 percent satisfaction rate, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a July approval rating of 34.2 percent, and the Democratic Party in the United States received 38 percent approval in June.
All of these approval ratings are lower than President Trump’s - but you don’t see the elite media fighting to break that news story.
So, the next time you watch biased and uninformed TV pundits opine on President Trump's approval ratings, remember two things: President Reagan’s 49 state reelection victory in 1984 and the current ratings of other world leaders.
Then relax and enjoy the nonsense knowing it is just that: nonsense.
Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."