In late April, as Donald Trump’s second term reached its 100-day mark, the president patted himself on the back at a rally in Michigan. According to the Republican, for the “first time ever,” a national poll found Americans agreeing that “the country is headed in the right direction.” For good measure, he added, “Has never happened before.”
There was no such poll; he simply made this up. The fiction, however, reflected one of Trump’s more common claims: Thanks to how awesome his awesomeness is, Americans are feeling a renewed sense of pride and optimism, amid widespread evidence of national greatness.
“The United States is having its golden age,” he told reporters two weeks ago.
His constituents appear to have a very different opinion about the state of the union. The Hill reported:
Two-thirds of the American public say the country has gotten off on the wrong track, according to a new poll from ABC News, The Washington Post and Ipsos. The survey, conducted last week, shows 67 percent of respondents say the country has “gotten pretty seriously off on the wrong track” while 32 percent say things “are generally going in the right direction” in the country.
According to the internal data, there have been times in recent memory when the answers to this question reflected a greater sense of optimism — in the late 1990s, for example, clear majorities believed the U.S. was headed “in the right direction” — but according to the latest data, the American mainstream now disagrees by greater than a two-to-one margin.
This isn’t the only survey of its kind. Politico reported over the weekend on the results of its latest national poll, “In a bitterly divided country, pessimism and cynicism reign supreme. … Nearly half of Americans, 49 percent, say that the best times of the country are behind them, according to The POLITICO Poll by Public First. That’s greater than the 41 percent who said the best times lie ahead, underscoring a pervasive sense of unease about both individuals’ own futures and the national direction.” If the United States has entered “its golden age,” much of the population hasn’t noticed. If recent history is any guide, Trump will continue to tell people not to believe their lying eyes, insisting that he’s responsible for creating a utopia, to the delight of the nation’s populace. But the more the president plays make-believe about Americans’ attitudes, the less likely it is he’ll pursue a more sensible course, and the more he appears hopelessly out of touch with those he ostensibly represents.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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