MS NOW host Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday highlighted several new polls showing dire approval ratings for President Donald Trump, arguing “there is no escaping his culpability” on key issues such as the high gas prices caused by his ongoing war he began in Iran.
The “Deadline: White House” host began by citing “horrendously and historically low” numbers from a new CNN poll showing Trump with a 34% approval rating, an Associated Press survey placing it at 33% and a Quinnipiac poll showing his approval at an even worse 32%.
Wallace further cited a new Reuters-Ipsos poll showing most voters now believe Democrats are “better stewards” of the economy than Republicans, and asked her guests, “Bulwark Daily” podcast host Tim Miller and Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri, for their thoughts.
Miller responded: “Donald Trump, say what you want about him in the first term and even in the campaigns, he was always crazy … but he always at least pretended to care about people, right? And pretended to care about what the MAGA base wanted.”
“And he just has totally lost that, between the war, economy, prices,” he continued. “We’re putting gold everywhere in the capital now, and he doesn’t even seem to have a plan. … There’s no kind of idea for what he is going to do to address prices, to end the war.”
Wallace noted more than 70% of voters in the Quinnipiac poll said Trump faces “some” or “a lot” of blame for high gas prices and, mere months ahead of the midterms, there is “no escaping his culpability” in the affordability crisis he has repeatedly dismissed.
“Eighty percent of all voters believe that the current economy is either getting worse or staying the same,” Wallace added. “So there’s not a division in this country, in terms of people feeling like absolute garbage about the economy and blaming Trump for it.”
Palmieri argued Trump at least “used to be able to act like he cared” but now just “seems exhausted.” He has certainly appeared to have dozed off during several formal meetings over the past year and called widespread economic concerns a Democrat-led “con job.”
“And now he’s actively telling people, ‘I think inflation is fine, everything is great,’” Palmieri said. “And he’s just focused on what arcs he can build in the capital and the Reflecting Pool and more gold in the White House. And it just seems like all about legacy.”
The trio appeared to agree that his decline in approval ratings was entirely self-imposed.
Miller noted Trump launched his “obviously stupid” Iran war voluntarily, calling it “a betrayal of his voters.” He said this is why gas prices have soared, and Trump can’t just blame other people for it, as he has tried to do with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Like, this was not that,” Miller said Tuesday. “It was not some exogenous event, right? It was like, he started this war after promising that he wouldn’t — and now you’re paying more. So obviously people are going to blame him.”
Watch the full “Deadline: White House” conversation on MS NOW’s YouTube account.