Donald Trump has received a post-election bounce in approval ratings - but they went from a dismal 34% to a pretty bad 42%. But pollster Frank Luntz, whom we have caught dissembling in the past, told Fox News viewers that “a majority of Americans have a favorable impression of him.”
Luntz appeared on the Your World show where host Neil Cavuto started the cheerleading as they waited for a statement from Trump. “He’s not president yet but he sure is doing a lot!” Cavuto said enthusiastically.
“Well, this is unprecedented,” Luntz said, sounding ebullient. “There is no president in my lifetime that has been as this active, talked to this many people, and this engaged, specifically in the economy, as Donald Trump.”
That, Luntz argued was “one of the reasons why Donald Trump’s numbers have come up so significantly in the last three weeks, that now a majority of Americans have a favorable impression of him.”
“It’s the first time since he began his campaign 18 months ago,” Luntz continued. “He’s at his high-water mark because they like what he’s doing. He’s proving to them that he’s serious, that these aren’t going to be the usual political games that Washington plays, and that he’s going to be more than their voice, that he’s actually going to take a very tough hand to the corporate community, and they like it.”
Trump may be at high-water mark but surely pollster Luntz knows it’s very low. The highest post-election poll (Bloomberg) has Trump’s favorability at 50%. Most of the others have him well below that. The latest, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that only 40% have positive feelings for him. 50% approve of how he is handling the transition.
Not surprisingly, host Cavuto did not correct the record.
Watch Luntz pull the wool over Fox News viewers’ eyes below, from the December 21, 2016 Your World.
I think my favorite Fox News lie of the week was Corey Lewandowski peddling the nonsense that “Donald Trump just won the biggest electoral victory since Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984!” I really have to wonder if these guys are aware that these lies are easily disproven with a five second check. For goodness sake, if Trump has the biggest victory since Reagan’s 1984 landslide (which is what they’re trying to call back to, of course), then what does that say about the victories of Obama in 2008 and 2012, and the re-election romp of Bill Clinton in 1996? Does Fox News really think people are so stupid as to not remember what happened only four years ago?
How about this one:@frankluntz, your so-called “focus groups” are a total joke. Don’t come to my office looking for business again. You are a clown. Also Donald.
But now, Luntz will kiss Trump’s backside, just to keep his republican cred alive and republican doors open. As Roger Stone tweeted, Luntz is “a pathetic turd.”
It’s crap like this where the librul media focuses on bullshit while giving Orange Hitler a pass that makes just shake my head and mad as hell.
I can see in the final moments of America when the last Russian nuke takes us all out because Trump is an incompetent asshole NBC News will be cheerfully informing at least he didn’t run a private server in his house. ;^)
I have mixed feelings about protectionism but when I support it it’s always some intelligent, target approach to trade. “Intelligent” and Trump don’t belong in the same sentence. In fact, it’s hard for me to say “Trump” in a sentence without including the adjective “moron”, “idiot”, “fool”, “head up his ass”, etc.
A 5% across the board tariff even under perfect circumstances is purely symbolic to placate his rust belt voters under the hopes the smoke won’t clear for 4 years so he’ll get reelected. Forgetting retaliation, the cost structure of competing against China is such even with, say, them foregoing currency manipulations (a classic Chinese ploy to beat unfair trade restrictions) there is absolutely no way for America to compete with run-of-the-mill factory jobs. For example, are we as willing as China to trash our environment to promote cheap business growth?
http://thediplomat.com/2013/01/forget-air-pollution-chinas-has-a-water-problem/
We going to abolish the minimum wage? Get rid of the 40-hour work week. We’ll need to. China is a bottomless pit of cheap labor.
The greater point is egocentric Trump think he’s the master of deal making. So he’s playing a transparent game of dropping extreme ideas like 80% tariffs against China or Mexico paying for the ‘greatest border wall ever’ hoping an extreme position will give him bargaining leverage.
A perfect example is his latest ridiculous Tweet storm on escalating the nuclear arms race. Unfortunately for idiot Trump, Putin is a lot smarter and simply shrugged in reply even while the pair exchanged diplomatic love letters.
Of course, how smart and great of a deal maker is a fool who negotiates in 140 characters?
I’ve heard talk of Trump talking about a 5% across the board import tariff. Wow!! As a blue collar working class guy, I say Wow. As a long time political observer, I say don’t hold your breath. Even before the first big deal trade agreement dreamed up by HW Bush and birthed by Bill Clinton, this country has had a long time aversion to import tariffs. But as a blue collar guy, I do appreciate the effort.
We’ll see.