Moderate America is turning against Trump ...Middle East

President Donald Trump’s approval rating has dipped to its lowest point since his return to office, with Americans feeling increasingly uneasy over his aggressive campaigns against institutions and moves to broaden his power.

About 42 per cent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance as president, down from 43 per cent three weeks earlier and 47 per cent immediately after his 20 January inauguration, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday.

The poll, which surveyed some 4,300 Americans, indicated growing voter concern over Trump’s efforts to expand presidential power, with the majority of voters saying the president must comply with federal court rulings and not withhold university funds over disagreements.

More than four fifths of voters said that presidents should obey rulings by federal courts — including, significantly, a large majority of Republican voters.

However, the shifts in opinion were seen largely among moderate voters, analysts pointed out, with the president’s core supporters remaining steadfastly loyal.

Of major concern to Americans is Trump’s open defiance of judicial authority. An overwhelming 83 per cent of poll respondents said the president must obey federal court rulings, regardless of his personal disagreements.

The majority of Republican voters, 73 per cent, and a huge majority of Democrats, 96 per cent, said Trump must obey federal court rulings.

The Trump administration has been accused of skirting, if not outright ignoring, such rulings, notably in its attempts to deport alleged members of a Venezuelan gang without allowing them to challenge their removals in court.

Legal experts have warned that Trump officials could face criminal contempt charges for defying a federal judge’s halt on the deportations.

The Terrorist Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, where the Trump administration deported alleged members of Venezuelan criminal organisations (Photo: Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

“Largely, what we’ve seen is that his approval rating has really come down from 20 January, where it sat at about 47 per cent, which is on the higher end for Trump”, said Kaitlin Senk, lecturer at the Department of Politics, Languages, and International Studies at the University of Bath.

“But then again, putting this in the context, (…) most post-World War One presidents have come into office with approval ratings above 50 per cent”, she pointed out.

Nonetheless, “I think in general, this is a fairly unpopular thing to do to defy the courts”, Senk said.

“I will say that right now, although Trump obviously has dipped in terms of his approval ratings, they’re at kind of a nadir here in his first term or in the first quarter of his second term.”

Moderates’ ‘wavering’ support

Political analysts suggest support for Trump among moderates may be fraying, particularly among those voters who initially backed him as a reaction to the what they may have viewed as the failings of the Biden administration, including its inability to address economic concerns.

“I think when you’re putting this in the context of the broader electorate, there is definitely a souring on his administration”, said Senk. Notably among “the moderates who potentially joined in that coalition to elect Trump in the first place, as sort of a backlash to the incumbent administration, to [Joe] Biden and the economy.

“I think potentially what’s happening now is you’re starting to see moderates kind of wavering a bit on their support”, she said.

The poll found that on major issues such as inflation, immigration, taxation, and adherence to the rule of law, a greater number of Americans expressed disapproval than approval of Trump’s approach.

Furthermore, about 59 per cent of respondents, including about 30 per cent of Republicans, said America was losing credibility on the global stage.

However, Trump’s aggressive immigration policy still remains highly popular among his supporters, Senk noted.

Thomas Gift, Associate Professor of Political Science at University College London (UCL) and founding Director of the UCL Centre on US Politics, said: “Donald Trump has a notoriously loyal base of support. I mean, Donald Trump survives two impeachment hearings and an unlimited number of scandals in the interim. So nothing that Donald Trump has done to this point, I think, is really going to shake his core supporters.”

Beyond the courts, Trump’s second term has been marked by an aggressive campaign to dismantle long-standing institutions — from attacking the legitimacy of federal agencies to undermining public universities he deems “too liberal”.

Trump appointed himself as chairman of the board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a move that has drawn significant attention and controversy.

Trump in the Grand Foyer of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after removing the bipartisan board of Biden appointees and named himself Chairman (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A majority of voters, 57 per cent, said Trump should not withhold funding from universities, even if he disagrees with their policies. Among those, 28 per cent of Republicans and 89 per cent of Democrats said the president should not withhold funding.

The vast majority of voters, 75 per cent, said Trump should not pursue a third term in office — a prospect in which he has expressed interest, despite it being prohibited by the US Constitution.

Even the majority of Republicans, 53 per cent, opposed the idea of him seeking a third term, according to the poll.

‘Flooding the zone’

Trump’s early-term strategy appears to be defined by an intense, fast-paced push to implement sweeping changes, echoing his former chief strategist Steve Bannon’s philosophy of “flooding the zone”, Gift pointed out.

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Trump “sees that he needs to make the most of the changes that he wants within his first 100 days, and he isn’t stopping”, said Gift.

“Steve Bannon has always talked about flooding the zone, and by flooding the zone, he essentially means doing everything at once, all at the same time at an unbelievable velocity. And it really makes Democrats sort of flat-footed because they don’t know what to respond to,” he said.

Gift said Trump’s aim to make making Canada the 51st state, reclaiming the Panama Canal, trying to seize Greenland, creating the Department of Government Efficiency, attacking universities — “All of this is just really unprecedented.”

“It’s almost like a game of whack-a-mole where they focus on one issue, and then Donald Trump is already focused on another issue,” Gift said.

“It’s really unprecedented. We’re kind of in uncharted territory, and it’s not clear how this will play out.”

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