In the current flurry of 100-day polling, Axios has the following: Exclusive: Most Americans see Trump as “dangerous dictator,” poll says.
My initial response to seeing the headline was this quote from a recent Atlantic piece (emphasis mine):
We asked the president if his second term felt different from his first. He said it did. “The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said. “And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
That is one helluva thing for a president to say to a reporter about himself. I am not sure how one explains it away besides some combination of megalomania and authoritarian thinking.
It is not he kind of self-image we should want from a president.
Some may see the topline of the poll and think that, well, 52% is just slightly more than his electoral vote loss, but it is pretty striking, even in as polarized a country as we live in for people to say that the sitting president, regardless of party is a “dangerous dictator.”
Note that 56% of independents agree with the statement, as do 17% of Republicans.
Even if elected officials in the Republican Party are happy to be passive, if not go along with Trump’s current approach to governing, even they will have to pay attention to the possible electoral consequences that loom on the horizon.
The good news amidst all the damage that has been done, and continues to be done, is that Trump is not popular. His overall popularity rating in this survey was only 40%.
The survey found that 83% of Republicans — a relatively low number for Trump — had favorable views of him and his actions, while 35% of independents and 8% of Democrats did.
Even authoritarians need some level of popular support for their actions. So while I will stress that the damage done by the Trump administration is real and continuing, the reaction to his first 100 days is heartening to a degree.
