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Lowest. Ratings. Ever. For Donald Trump, Who Thought Being President Would Have Been "Easier"

Stephen Colbert Summarizes Trump's First 100 Days Beautifully

By Christina St-JeanPublished 7 years ago 3 min read
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When your first 100 days in office take just 99 seconds to summarize, should you be a bit worried?  Yeah, maybe...

What perhaps has been most striking about the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's White House is that he actually thought the job would be easier than he thought. Yes, the 45th president has done a good many things that have led the public at large to scratch their head and wonder what, exactly, President Trump is thinking - certainly, his apparent hypersensitivity on Twitter is cause for concern - but his ongoing hostility to a host of individuals and groups speaks volumes already regarding the overall tone of his tenure.

Currently, Trump has made history as the president with the lowest job approval rating since the approval rating was a recorded statistic in 1938, and his first quarter approval rating has become the lowest since Bill Clinton took office and had a first quarter approval rating of 55 percent. Trump is sitting at around a 41 percent approval rating right now.

He has also dipped below the average approval rating of 53 percent of presidents between 1938 and 2017. The president does not appear terribly bothered by the idea that he is apparently not doing too well in his current position, though; instead of attending the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner, as every sitting president has done save for the exception of Ronald Reagan in 1981, Trump was in Harrisburg, PA, to celebrate his first 100 days in office, and sounded positively jovial about being out of Washington.

"A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation's capital right now," Trump said. "And I could not possibly be more thrilled than to be more than 100 miles away from Washington's swamp, spending my evening with all of you and with a much, much larger crowd and much better people, right?"

Trump's appearance in Harrisburg marked yet another post-election rally for the president, and it should be noted that Reagan, unlike Trump, had a remarkable excuse for missing the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 1981 - he was still recovering from the assassination attempt, and he called in to the event to thank the press for their continued service. First Lady Nancy Reagan even phoned in to speak with some of those who were honored that night, and it marked an important realization; the Reagans knew that a good working relationship with the press would go a long way towards revealing the inner workings of the White House and how the government worked - knowledge that many civilians don't really get a great view into beyond their history classes.

In fact, the media is one of the most significant checks that a government has against it, for without it, governments can do whatever they see fit in relatively unbridled fashion, and that's dangerous. President Trump didn't just plan on not going to the White House Correspondents' Dinner - he berated it and the people who attend it. This will only serve to further his reputation as one who does not plan on cultivating any sort of positive relationship with the press and who will continue to brand whatever the press generates as "fake news."

President Trump needs to step up and admit to himself, first and foremost, that what the media is doing is trying to hold him and his government accountable for the work they are doing. It's not "fake news" they are generating - it's news, and just because it goes against the president's beliefs or idea of what constitutes truth does not make it any less newsworthy.

The fact that pundit Stephen Colbert was able to effectively summarize Trump's first 100 days in office in a scant 99 seconds speaks volumes of just how strange, awkward and in some cases downright unintelligent those days have been.

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About the Creator

Christina St-Jean

I'm a high school English and French teacher who trains in the martial arts and works towards continuous self-improvement.

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