Donald Trump would be on track to win a historic landslide in November — if so many US voters didn’t find him personally repugnant.

Roughly 53 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of the former president. And yet, when asked about Trump’s ability to handle key issues — or the impact of his policies — voters routinely give the Republican candidate higher marks than President Biden.

In a YouGov survey released this month, Trump boasted an advantage over Biden on 10 of the 15 issues polled. On the three issues that voters routinely name as top priorities — the economy, immigration, and inflation — respondents said that Trump would do a better job by double-digit margins.

Meanwhile, in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, 40 percent of voters said that Trump’s policies had helped them personally, while just 18 percent said the same of Biden. If Americans could elect a normal human being with Trump’s reputation for being “tough” on immigration and good at economics, they would almost certainly do so.

Biden is fortunate that voters do not have that option. But to erase Trump’s small but stubborn lead in the polls, the president needs to erode his GOP rival’s advantage on the issues.

  • @ClanOfTheOcho
    link
    48 months ago

    It’s not as simple as people pretend. But not all that complicated, either. 65 was the “full” retirement age before law changes in the 80s. For most workers today, it’s 67. But wait! The amount you will get per month from social security depends on 2 things – how much you paid into the system, and what age you actually are when you retire. You can start collecting at 62, but it will be considerably less per month than if you retire at the full retirement age. And to confuse things more, you can keep working until 70(?) and the amount you will get continues to increase every month, so I’m not sure why full retirement age is 67 instead of 70.