Polls: Trump, Musk Must Eat Worms, As Mandated By Beloved Playground Ditty

Look, the law is the law.

On her MSNBC program Thursday, Rachel Maddow was both surprised and enjoying herself a little as she shared a bunch of recent poll results about Subpresident Donald Trump and his boss, Overpresident Elon Musk. Long story short, Americans for the most part can’t stand either of ‘em.

In fact, she noted, Donald Trump set a record, even for himself as compared to his first term: First time a US president, ever, had a negative approval rating in the Gallup poll on the day he took office. That was new, even if it was only a one-point gap, with 47 percent of respondents choosing “approve” and 48 percent “disapprove.”

Trump’s Numbers Gallup Downward

And now, in its most recent poll, Gallup finds that Trump’s current approval is headed underwater like a Cybertruck in the rain. From that 47 percent approval rating in January, he’s now down to 45 percent “approve” and 51 percent “disapprove,” or a six-point deficit, poor thing.

On issue after issue, even the ones that presumably got him elected, Trump’s policies — insofar as he has any — simply aren’t winning with voters. Even his most popular issue, immigration, gets him just 46 percent approval, with 51 percent of those polled saying “No sir, I don’t like it!” People also seem to have noticed that prices didn’t go down on Day One, so Trump’s rating on the economy is only 42 percent “approve,” 54 percent “disapprove,” and the rest unable to reply because their phones were turned off for nonpayment.

Chart courtesy of Gallup.

As ever, Gallup notes that Republicans had a much higher opinion of Trump than Democrats and independents, but failed to use the phrase “mass psychosis” in saying so.

Trump Can’t Stand Seein’-en These CNN Numbers

Trump is also underwater — 47 percent approve, 52 percent disapprove — in a new CNN poll, which also found that

A broad majority feel the president isn’t doing enough to address the high prices of everyday goods. And 52% say he’s gone too far in using his presidential power, with similar majorities wary of his push to shutter federal agencies and elevate Elon Musk to a prominent role in his efforts to reshape the government.

A great big 62 percent in the poll said Trump hasn’t done enough to “reduce the price of everyday goods,” a view that actually crosses party lines. As ever, there are the expected disparities in degree, with “47% of Republicans, 65% of independents and 73% of Democrats” saying Trump is falling down on high prices and also getting his stink on them, too. So yay, everyone sing Kumbayah, but not loud enough to draw unwanted attention.

A bit over half of people in the CNN Poll say they feel “pessimistic” (18 percent) or “afraid” (35 percent) about Trump’s return to power, while just 20 percent said they were “enthusiastic” and 26 percent chose “optimistic.” CNN didn’t specify how many of those in the “enthusiastic” column were Republican members of Congress begging MAGA supporters to please stop pointing guns at their children.

Also too, where big majorities of Democrats (87 percent) and independents (57 percent) agree that Trump has gone too far in using the power of his office (or let’s be clear, using more power than he legally has), a depressing 75 percent of Republicans “say his use of presidential power has been about right, 11% think he’s gone too far and 13% that he hasn’t gone far enough.”

Republicans are also weirdly OK with Trump’s proposal to do some light genocide by forcing all Palestinians out of Gaza and then build an all-American amusement park there, and Trump resorts too. That was the least popular Trump policy/whim on which CNN has polled at this point in the reign of the Mad King:

Overall, 58% call that a bad idea, including 86% of Democrats, 60% of independents and 27% of Republicans. A plurality of Republicans take a neutral position on it (47% call it neither good nor bad), and just 26% call it a good thing.

As for other Trump “policies” or “snits” or whatever, we couldn’t find detailed crosstabs on those, but we’d bet a nickel most normie Dems and independents are similarly horrified, while Republicans skew the totals because so many think Trump is the bees’ knees (but they don’t believe bee sting allergies are real).

Sizable shares are skeptical about his efforts to trim government programs and shut down federal agencies. About half (48%) say he’s gone too far in changing the way the US government works, with 32% saying his approach has been about right and 19% that it hasn’t gone far enough. Larger shares say he’s gone too far in cutting federal government programs (51%), that it’s a bad thing that he has attempted to shut down entire agencies such as the US Agency for International Development and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (53%) and that it’s bad he gave Musk a prominent role in his administration (54%).

Oh yes, do hold onto that bit about Musk, because as we’ll see, when polls ask specifically at the slumming DOGE billionaire, the numbers only go lower.

I Don’t Have A ‘Washington Post’ Pun. Ipsos Facto, I’m Beat

Finally, a new Washington Post-Ipsos poll (gift link) on Trump’s first month in office looks at Trump’s overall approval rating and at what respondents think of particular policies and actions so far.

Weirdly, there’s a slight gap in the results depending on whether people say they “approve or disapprove” of how Trump is doing in office, and whether they say they “support” his actions in his first month. When it’s framed as approval, 45 percent approve and 53 percent disapprove (with the expected partisan differences).

But the numbers came out a little different when people were asked if they “support” the old fascist. 43 percent support what Trump’s been up to in his first month, and just 48 percent are opposed. But within those categories, “Those who strongly oppose outnumber those who strongly support by 37 percent to 27 percent.”

Once more, there’s a big partisan split, and you should factor that into every discussion of Trumpian poll numbers every time.

Almost 9 in 10 Republicans support his actions, while 9 in 10 Democrats oppose them. Among independents, about 1 in 3 support what he’s done, and half oppose. The remainder are unsure whether they support or oppose what is taking place.

Also, a significant portion of the electorate is apparently as stupid as the average domesticated turkey, at risk of drowning from staring fixedly at the sky whenever it rains.

On the whole, 57 percent of Americans say Trump has exceeded his authority as president, with strong majorities of both Democrats (92 percent) and Independents (61 percent) seeing things clearly, but that total is skewed by Republicans, of whom 79 percent appear to like the idea of having a dictator.

As for Ovepresident Musk, he’s definitely disliked more than Subpresident Trump. Overall, only 34 percent approve of “the job that Elon Musk is doing within the federal government,” whatever it might be, with 49 percent disapproving and a much higher 14 percent unsure what they think.

The poll also suggests that even among Republicans there are limits to how much the Trumpian halo rubs off on the unelected billionaire schmuck: just 70 percent of Republicans approve of Musk, with the remainder split between “disapprove” and “no opinion” at 15 percent. Also too:

Americans disapprove by a 2-to-1 margin of Musk shutting down federal agencies that he decides are unnecessary, and most (63 percent) are concerned that his team is gaining access to sensitive personal data of individuals.

On the other hand, good old Republican distrust of government, and the decades-long spread of that distrust to the general public, seems at work in this next bit:

[The] public is closely divided on whether he is mostly cutting wasteful spending or slashing necessary programs, 37 percent versus 34 percent, with 26 percent saying they are not sure.

There’s a lot more, but it’s a nice day out and we have a big bucket of long thin slimy ones, big fat juicy ones, and itsy-bitsy fuzzy-wuzzy worms to send by express mail to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, the end.

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Why Are Republican Senators Rolling Over And Playing 'Possum?

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[Gallup Poll / CNN / WaPo (gift link)]

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