Trump honors those who voted for him

Trump jawboned U.S. companies to stop exporting jobs and persuaded some to promise new jobs at home. He formally withdrew from President Obama’s 12-country trade deal with Asia, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He reaffirmed his intention to build a wall on the border with Mexico, banned refugee admissions from Syria and ordered “extreme vetting” for would-be refugees from other countries. He instructed federal agencies to minimize any effort to make Obamacare work. He removed obstacles to the Keystone XL and Dakota access pipelines, and ordered that they be built with American steel. And next week, he plans to nominate a new Supreme Court justice whose name, he’s said, will thrill conservatives.

A Quinnipiac Poll released Thursday found Trump’s job approval among all Americans at an anemic 36%, a result far worse than any incoming president in modern history.

But inside the survey was a striking contradictory trend: Trump’s rating has actually improved among Republicans since his inauguration.

Two weeks ago, the same poll found that 76% of Republicans approved of the job Trump was doing; now that number is at 81%. Among Democrats, his rating sank from 10% to a barely measurable 4%.

Now that he’s in office, in other words, Trump is alienating yet more Democrats, but solidifying his hold on Republicans.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mcmanus-trump-success-20170129-story.html