Trump’s ‘Presidential’ Missile Attack on Syria Has Done Nothing to Help His Approval Rating

Nor Did Approval of Gorsuch to Supreme Court

Americans may never know President Donald Trump’s motivation for sending 59 Tomahawk missiles into Syria, destroying planes and equipment, but not the airbase’s runways. Maybe we should take the Commander-in-Chief at his word, when he said the images of the babies who died from the sarin gas President Assad apparently dropped on his own citizens moved him – even though he told Russia he was going to bomb the war-torn country, allowing them to take action before the missiles rained down.

Maybe we should believe those who said Trump ordered the missiles to be launched because he needed a deflection from the Russia stories. Or maybe we should believe those who say his tanking poll numbers were motivation enough for Trump to take action.

Sadly, whatever the real reason – or reasons – prominent journalists, like CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, MSNBC’s Brian Williams, the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, were only too happy to use the attack to label Trump “presidential,” or to sing his praises for taking military action.

And while a bare minimum of Americans support Trump’s use of force against Assad, the move has not improved Trump’s approval ratings, not one bit.

The President had, by comparison, a reasonably good week last week. Judge, now Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed by the Senate, after Majority Leader McConnell changed the rules, and he got good overall press for his action against Syria. Trump also didn’t do anything exceptionally damaging, aside from voicing support for Bill O’Reilly after the Fox News host was exposed for having paid, along with his employer, about $13 million to five women who accused him of sexual harassment.

The missiles were launched Thursday night. Gallup’s daily presidential approval tracking poll takes a three-day rolling average to calculate Trump’s approval and disapproval rating. So, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with the results published Monday. 

Giving it one extra day to sink in, there’s been no change whatsoever.

Thursday approval: 40%

Monday approval: 40%

Thursday disapproval: 54%

Monday disapproval: 54%

At least Americans aren’t fooled.