It was 1998, and the House of Representatives had just passed two articles of impeachment for the “crimes and misdemeanors” of Bill Clinton.
This followed months of intense scrutiny by Congress and the national media over Clinton’s sexual indiscretions: an allegation of sexual harassment by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones, and allegations of an affair with Arkansas intern the White House, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton, you’ll recall, was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice.
At the time, these were still considered outrageous charges. The saga brought up several other ugly and alarming accusations against Clinton, including other matters, various claims of sexual assaultand even an accusation of rape. It was humiliating both for the country and for the Clinton family.
But in a shocking twist, the embarrassment was short-lived. Clinton approval ratings it shot itself. After taking office in 1993, he spent his first term what are they going from 36% to 64% approval. In his second, he stayed in the ’50s and ’60s. But after his impeachment, he reached his highest rating yet with a 73% approval rating, higher than Ronald Reagan’s highest. . He left office with a 65% approval rating, more than any outgoing president since Harry Truman.
Donald Trump is not Bill Clinton.
While he has so far avoided accountability for myriad alleged crimes, ranging from sexual assault to obstruction of justice, mishandling of documents and rigging of elections, all of that is being put to the test as various investigations unfold. looming over the presidential candidate, most immediately a potential indictment payable from a porn star.
The position of Trump and those of Trumpworld is that this is all really good for him, especially as he heads into his 2024 campaign.
After all, no one likes to play the victim more than Trump. And to his perennial supporters, the polling and insistence are proof of what Trump has said all along: that “the deep state,” the Democrats and the Justice Department have something against him. And, as one of his recent fundraising emails ominously warns, “if this political persecution goes unchallenged, one day it won’t be me they target…it will be you.” Trust me, Trump voters believe this deeply.
But for all the talk about “Teflon Don” and Trump’s uncanny ability to effortlessly navigate scandals that would have ended anyone else’s career, an arrest for any of the alleged crimes he faces would not be politically good for Trump. .
He is tried turning this latest moment of infamy into a rallying cry for his base, as he has done in the past. But today your current approval rating stands at a measly 41%, and its unfavorable rating at 54.8%. It is down from a favorable 43.3% at the beginning of the month and 46% this time a year ago.
In the years since he left office, the January 6 insurrection, multiple investigations and document raid at Mar-a-Lago have not done what Trumpworld insists, which is help Trump.
The insurrection, in fact, sunken Trump’s approval, which went from a high of 49% in May 2021 to just 34% in the weeks after he told his supporters to march on Capitol Hill. Even among Republicans, he lost 13 points.
The raid on Mar-a-Lago, where he was definitely not supposed to keep classified documents, was not the political windfall it promised it would be.
“I don’t even like to say it, because frankly it sounds so trivial…” he said, “My survey numbers have skyrocketed because of” search. “I have never been involved in an event that has driven me like this.” Except that wasn’t true at all.
Immediately after, trump views —between Republicans and the country—did not change statistically.
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On the day of the raid, August 8, 2022, his approval rating was 42%. A month later, on September 8, it was at 40%. And today, remember, it’s still at 41%. No statistically significant change.
And within his party, a few months after the raid, a poll chain it showed that he was losing the support of the Republican Party, not winning it. In a poll it went from a high of 95% approval among Republicans in 2020, to fall 30 points to 64% in December 2022.
However, no one can argue with how good these scandals have been at lining Trump’s pockets.
fundraising after the Mar-a-Lago raid, Trump made a million dollars a day for several days.
And his Presidential campaign says he raised $1.5 million in grassroots fundraising in the three days since Trump said he was going to be arrested over the hush money claim.
Trump’s scandals can be profitable for him and can excite his base. But they have certainly been bad for his political prospects. With an election on the horizon, and any of several possible indictments looming, no one should believe him when he says this is all good news.
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