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Biden and Trump Both Share 54% Unfavorability Rating, Same as Clinton In 2016

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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump could be cruising towards a 2020 rematch with overtones of 2016, as a new poll shows each candidate with an 54% unfavorable rating.

A new Economist/YouGov poll, taken between December 16-18, asked 1,500 adult American citizens about their favorability of a number of world leaders. When it came to Trump, 42% rated him favorably—22% very favorable versus 19% somewhat favorable—and 54% unfavorable, split by 45% finding him very unfavorable to only 9% rating him somewhat unfavorable.

Biden has the exact same overall numbers, 42% favorable to 54% unfavorable. His split was similar, too—20% were very favorable, 22% somewhat favorable, 12% somewhat unfavorable and 42% very unfavorable.

READ MORE: Trump Hints He May Split from GOP, Dooming Their 2024 Election Chances

Other figures asked about included former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, with a 29%/51% favorable/unfavorable split, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a 32%/39% split, Russian President Vladimir Putin with 77% unfavorable and only 12% favorable, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a 45%/30% favorable/unfavorable split. The poll has a 3.5% margin of error.

Given how most polls show Trump leading the GOP primaries, it increasingly looks as if 2024 will have the same candidates as 2020. However, the unfavorability ratings of both candidates echoes the 2016 election, when Trump won against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

A RealClearPolitics analysis of polls taken the week before the 2016 election show Clinton with a 54.4% unfavorable rating. Trump’s unfavorability that week was only slightly worse at 55.4%. While a Gallup poll that week made things look even worse for Trump, with 61% unfavorability to Clinton’s 52%, the polling organization points out that while Trump’s unfavorable score was the worst in polling history, Clinton’s was second-worst.

If 2016 is any indication, this could lead to a victory for Trump. While Clinton did get the popular vote by 2.9 million, Trump won with 304 electoral votes. In 2016, Biden won all the states Clinton won, plus Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. In Arizona, Michigan and Georgia, according to FiveThirtyEight, Trump leads. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania appear to be more of a tossup, with some polls leading Biden, others leading Trump, and some too close to call.

If these trends hold true over the next year, it appears that Grover Cleveland will no longer be the only president to have two nonconsecutive terms.

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FCC Poised to Review Disney Licenses Amid Trump Pressure Over Kimmel Joke: Report

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The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to review Disney’s broadcast licenses, according to an exclusive report by Semafor.

According to Semafor, a person familiar with the FCC’s thinking said the review is not directly tied to a monologue delivered last week by ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel, which targeted President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

But NBC News, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported later on Tuesday that the FCC is expected to order Disney’s eight broadcast stations to file their broadcast license reviews early.

A source told NBC News the move was “unprecedented” and directly tied to Kimmel’s comments.

On Monday, First Lady Melania Trump blasted ABC, demanding the broadcast network hold Kimmel to account.

READ MORE: Trump ‘Frustrated’ by Ballroom Legal Battles — So GOP Wants You to Pay for It: Report

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” the First Lady said on social media. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” she continued, calling the late night host a “coward” who “hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”

Later on Monday, President Trump went even further than the First Lady, demanding Kimmel “be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”

Days earlier, on Thursday night, in a mock version of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel delivered several jokes, including saying: “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Kimmel delivered his monologue two days before an alleged assassination attempt targeting Trump and top administration officials at the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.

READ MORE: Coming Price Spike Made Worse by Trump Could Deal ‘Fatal Blow’ to GOP: Report

 

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Coming Price Spike Made Worse by Trump Could Deal ‘Fatal Blow’ to GOP: Report

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President Donald Trump’s insistence that his Iran war is nearly over is causing energy producers and the stock markets to misjudge what some believe could be a protracted military engagement. That miscalculation may lead to lower or insufficient oil and gas production — and ultimately large price spikes for consumers at the pump, Politico reports.

Trump’s “jawboning” has been largely successful, keeping oil prices lower than they would be, according to Politico. But there will be a price to pay.

A gas price shock that “hits people in the face” will come as summer travel heats up, Dan Pickering, chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners, told Politico.

“There’s a day of reckoning coming,” Pickering added. “It will be painful because I can tell you that the stock market’s ignoring this.”

That gas price spike could deal a “fatal blow” to Republicans’ chances of holding on to the House majority, Politico notes.

READ MORE: ‘This Will Backfire’: DeSantis’s New Redistricting Map Is Already in Trouble

Rosemary Kelanic of the libertarian-leaning Defense Priorities think tank says the Trump administration’s insistence that the war is nearly over is preventing energy companies from producing more. Why ramp up production if a return to normal is in sight?

Politico notes that if the war doesn’t end very soon, there won’t be enough oil for the world, Kelanic said.

Kelanic told Politico, “By talking down the market so effectively, when the price spike becomes inevitable, it’s going to hurt way worse because we’ll have lost weeks or even months of time where producers could have been ramping up output.”

Emma Anderson, author of “Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates” and a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, a foreign policy research institute in Washington, told Politico that it will take months after the war for gas prices to return to normal.

“Prices at the pump are going to go up over time,” she said. “The costs of goods are going to go up as diesel goes up. Shipping will get more expensive. Trucking will get more expensive. The things you buy at the store will get more expensive.”

READ MORE: Trump ‘Frustrated’ by Ballroom Legal Battles — So GOP Wants You to Pay for It: Report

 

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Trump ‘Frustrated’ by Ballroom Legal Battles — So GOP Wants You to Pay for It: Report

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Twelve hours after a gunman tried to attack Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, President Donald Trump used the incident as justification to build his $400 million, 90,000 square-foot ballroom.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump wrote on Sunday. NBC News characterized the claim as “without evidence.”

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” Trump added.

According to Bloomberg News, even at 90,000 square feet, the proposed ballroom would not be large enough to seat the dinner’s two thousand guests. Nor is the dinner a White House function — it is a private event.

Trump has been “frustrated” by legal challenges to his ballroom project, Bloomberg added.

From the start, the president maintained the ballroom would not cost taxpayers a dime, but rather, be privately funded by “many generous Patriots, Great American Companies, and, yours truly,” as the Associated Press reported last year.

READ MORE: ‘This Will Backfire’: DeSantis’s New Redistricting Map Is Already in Trouble

Now, according to Bloomberg, Trump allies are pushing for federal taxpayer funds to be used to pay for the ballroom.

“Key Republican senators are pushing to use federal funds for the construction of the White House ballroom President Donald Trump has planned, citing increased threats following Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner,” Bloomberg notes.

The lawmakers calling to use taxpayer funds for Trump’s ballroom include U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Katie Britt (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO). They “plan to try to attach funding for the ballroom to a federal spending bill.”

“I will be introducing standalone legislation tomorrow to authorize and appropriate money to fully fund the White House presidential ballroom,” Graham wrote on Sunday, “which over time will provide adequate security for this president and future presidents for events like the White House Correspondents Dinner.”

Punchbowl News’ Laura Weiss reports Senators Graham and Britt are holding a press conference Monday night for their bill to fund the ballroom.

READ MORE: ‘Hateful’: Melania Trump Demands ABC ‘Take a Stand’ Against Jimmy Kimmel

 

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