Trump’s 40% stick with him
by digby
Seven in 10 Americans think President Trump should allow the Russia investigation to continue, and a slight majority think Congress should pass legislation to prevent Special Counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.
Most Republicans think the president should allow the investigation to continue, but don’t support Congress passing legislation to protect Mueller from being fired.
Overall, 52 percent of Americans think Congress should pass legislation to protect the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation from being fired, including three out of four Democrats and most independents. Sixty-seven percent of Republicans, however, disagree.
Fifty-one percent of Americans see the special counsel’s Russia investigation as politically motivated rather than justified (46 percent), but seven in 10 think President Trump should allow the investigation to continue, including 57 percent of Republicans.
Little has changed since the 2018 congressional elections regarding evaluations of Donald Trump’s overall job performance. His approval rating is 39 percent among Americans overall – the same as last month – with 85 percent of Republicans approving and 90 percent of Democrats disapproving of the job he’s doing.
By almost three to one, more Americans saw the midterm elections as a rejection of Mr. Trump and his policies than an endorsement. Democrats were particularly likely to see it this way. Less than a quarter of Republicans saw the election as a rejection of the President, and half said it wasn’t about him.
But Americans continue to have positive views of the economy and the President’s handling of that particular issue. Fifty-two percent of Americans approve of the way Donald Trump is handling the economy, including nine in 10 Republicans and slight majority of independents. In contrast, most disapprove of his handling of immigration and U.S. relations with its European allies.
He’d better hope the economy stays buoyant because it’s all that’s holding up his yuge 39% approval rating:
The percentage of Americans that thinks the economy is good continues to climb. Now, 74 percent rate the economy positively, up four points from last month and the highest percentage recorded since March 2001.
He’s trying as hard as he can to fuck that up too. His trade war is biting.
The gloom-and-doom on Wall Street has wiped out the stock market’s gains for the year.
The Dow dropped as many as 596 points, or 2.4%, on Tuesday. Plunging retailers like Target (TGT) and Kohl’s (KSS) led the S&P 500 1.7% lower.
Tech stocks once again got hit hard, with the Nasdaq sinking 2%. Apple retreated another 4% after Goldman Sachs dimmed its price target on the iPhone maker for the second time in a week.
All three major indexes are now slightly lower for the year. The Dow is around 2,400 points off its peak.
“The highways will be crowded this evening as the Thanksgiving rush will begin in earnest, but this morning investors are rushing for the exits,” Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, wrote to clients on Tuesday.
The Dow lost nearly 400 points on Monday as well. This week’s selloff marks a continuation of a glum two months on Wall Street. The S&P 500 dipped back into a correction, marking a 10% retreat from the index’s record closing high on September 21.
The losses have been sparked by a flurry of concerns about everything from higher interest rates and crashing oil prices to the US-China trade war. But the overarching theme is that investors are bracing for the end of the fantastic economic and profit growth that marked the past year. Analysts expect a deceleration in 2019 driven by tariffs, the fading impact of the tax cuts and higher borrowing costs caused by the Federal Reserve.
“Put simply, stocks have already started to price in the risk of an economic slowdown,” Goldman Sachs chief US equity strategist David Kostin wrote to clients on Tuesday.
I don’t wish for economic downturns. But they are inevitable and this expansion has been going on for a long time so we are due. It would be very nice if the invisible hand could help us out here and make it happen in time to help Trump be defeated.
The Dow closed 551 points (2.25%) down today.
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