Summary

In his first four weeks back in office, Trump has aggressively pushed executive orders, spending freezes, and mass firings, drawing both outrage and support.

To low-information voters, this flurry of orders appears like decisive action, boosting his approval ratings despite legal challenges.

His cuts to DEI programs and USAID funding resonate with those frustrated by government spending. However, opposition to Elon Musk’s role in the administration is growing.

Democrats are urged to shift their messaging from abstract policy fights to personal impacts on local communities.

  • @bitjunkie
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    72 days ago

    The word is “propaganda”.

  • @cosmicrookie
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    602 days ago

    I don’t get this… His approval rate is dropping like a newborn whale in a Douglas Adams novel. Newly elected presidents have their higherøat approval rate right after they take office. Trumps approval rating is dropping by the day and he is losing to all other presidents before him

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/17/trump-presidents-day-rankings-approval/

    How can he be winning the PR game when he clearly is losing approval throughout the whole voter range?

    • @[email protected]
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      462 days ago

      By Susan Del Percio, Republican strategist

      Cunt is in the bag right there with him. Of course he’s wInNiNg ThE pR bAtTlE!!

    • @[email protected]
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      72 days ago

      His approval rate is dropping like a newborn whale in a Douglas Adams novel.

      Great reference. I just wish i didn’t feel like a bowl of petunias.

    • @buddascrayon
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      52 days ago

      He’s simply even more popular with the people he was already super popular with. He’s just not losing the die-hards, which is how msnbc seems to be measuring his popularity right now.

      And it’s true. Every conservative who believes in Trump that I have encountered is super happy about all of that shit that he and Elmo are doing to our government. They actually think he’s getting rid of waste. Of course they only think this because none of his cuts have impacted them yet. And because they’re conservative that’s all that concerns them. As long as it doesn’t impact them it’s not a problem.

      • @bitjunkie
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        22 days ago

        And when it does, it will be Biden’s fault somehow.

      • @cosmicrookie
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        22 days ago

        This makes sense yes. He might be getting more popular with the extreme right but losing overall rating. And as this is written by a conservative strategist, it makes sense that they are trying to present this in a way that mak s it look and sound like they are winning even though they aren’t

        • @buddascrayon
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          123 hours ago

          This is also coming out of Forbes. I would take anything they say about Trump or Elmo with a grain of salt because they’re on the side of the wealthy elites.

        • @CharlesDarwin
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          2 days ago

          And as this is written by a conservative strategist

          Wait, but the unhinged right and the Enlightened Bothsiderists keep telling me that the media is liberal.

          How can this even be?

    • @chakan2
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      102 days ago

      He’s not winning the PR game among people IRL. MSNBC still thinks there are real people on X.

      All of his wins are smoke and mirrors. Mainstream media keeps reporting on what is obviously fake instead of the protests that are getting bigger and bigger.

      I’m not entirely convinced it’s not a coordinated attempt at preventing civil war at this point.

    • @Seleni
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      2 days ago

      M’ granduncle was fond of saying: ‘figures don’t lie but liars can still figure’. So could be cherry-picked data to convince the moderates that voted for Trump or sat out the vote that he’s great after all actually no need to complain about him no sir.

      But more likely, given he’s making all the racists in the country happy by getting rid of DEI (which is their word-of-the-day stand-in for the n-word), and making all the religious fundies in the Bible Belt happy by getting rid of abortion and women’s rights, and the fact that almost all media is singing his praises…

      I’d say the Post’s numbers are off; his approval hasn’t dropped, or it has but ‘he’s doing the Lord’s work’ so people don’t care and applaud anyways even if they don’t agree.

      • @cosmicrookie
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        12 days ago

        Interesting. No paywall here.

        The point is that compared to any previous presidents (besides himself) he has a dropping approval rate.

        • @[email protected]
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          12 days ago

          Yeah but I think there is something to be said for him not being like other presidents. As much as I dislike a lot of former presidents I don’t think democracy was at stake. I think him being openly fascist kind of changes the game a bit so I don’t know how good of comparisons those are. Which is super not comforting if true

    • @BrianTheeBiscuiteer
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      22 days ago

      Not only a paywall but filth. Until Bezos divests from Wapo it’s a less outwardly biased version of X.

      • @cosmicrookie
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        2 days ago

        That’s interesting. No paywall here. But it’s interesting that you don’t find the link in the original post biased, when it’s written by Del Percio, a Republican strategist

  • @[email protected]
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    253 days ago

    No surprise there.

    A great many Americans are angry and stupid, so even the obvious harm Trump and Musk are doing is fine by them, because they actually enjoy seeing other people suffer.

    They’ll only potentially care when the whole process shakes out far enough that they themselves are suffering, and even then there’s a good chance that they’ll be unable/unwilling to assign the blame where it so obviously belongs.

    No civilization has ever collapsed without the active support of a deluded public all the way down.

    • @RememberTheApollo_
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      32 days ago

      This, and they absolutely have no clue how government runs. So they see some programs they don’t understand the purpose of being cut or people being fired from multiple agencies and they say “Good! Lookit the money we’re saving!” They have no view other than their willfully myopic and selfish short term perspective that prevents them from understand the consequences of this administration’s actions.

  • @psmgx
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    102 days ago

    “low information voters” = rubes

  • @[email protected]
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    132 days ago

    If he is winning the PR battle its only because of the corrupt media and the almost complete absence of political resistance from the “apposing party”.

    • @WhatAmLemmy
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      2 days ago

      The corrupt media, like the R “strategist” who wrote this op-ed!

  • @breadsmasher
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    122 days ago

    low information voters

    trump voters

    those who refused to vote

    all the same people. all support the destruction of america.

  • @[email protected]
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    73 days ago

    Yea, well, we’ll see how well the republicans get support 3 years from now when everyone is in even more pain than they are today.

    The people will again be looking for someone to blame, and rather than blaming themselves for being stupid and voting for Trump, they will simply throw Trump under the bus.

    • @lemmy_user_838586
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      3 days ago

      That’s assuming we have fair elections, or even elections at all. Look at how much his people have done in a month, think they won’t get around to completely rigging elections by the 2nd year mark for midterms, or 4th year mark for presidency? This won’t stop until people literally fight back. Protests won’t do a damn thing.

    • @Seleni
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      62 days ago

      No, Trump will tell them it’s the DEI Evil Democrats he hasn’t purged yet, and vote for him and his cronies so he can keep doing The Good Work! And they will believe it, and vote for him, and cheer him on.

      See: Hitler blaming the Jews for everything.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 days ago

      Any serious, viable candidates from the opposition will be ‘investigated’ and arrested on charges of ‘fraud’.

      They’ll be lucky to end up in gitmo.