Joe Hooper
Features editor
jhooper3@jccc.edu
Despite overwhelmingly negative media coverage and record low job approval ratings, many that have supported him thus far continue to have faith in Donald Trump. Collin Gustin and Sam Stueve, president and former treasurer of the College Republicans respectively, stand firmly behind their man.
“I do,” said Gustin when asked whether he stood by his vote for Donald Trump. “One hundred percent.”
Stueve, who hosts the Shut Up and Listen talk show on ECAV Radio, said he believes the newest president has been covered unfairly by the media. Stueve said he believes there is no objectivity anywhere – anything the president does, whether it’s good or bad, will be portrayed in an unfavorable manner.
“You see a lot of positives coming out of the Trump administration so far that just doesn’t get light,” Stueve said. “It seems to all be focused on Russia, who talked to who, when they talked to that person, why they talked to that person, and quite frankly, where Trump farted on what day.”
Trump, who passed the 100 day mark of his presidency on April 29, said in an address last Friday he believes his first 100 days in office to have been “just about the most successful in our country’s history.”
To back up his claim, Trump would go on to cite the overwhelmingly positive job growth numbers the US economy has enjoyed in the first four months of 2017.
Stueve, while he said feels that Trump’s term has had both good and bad points, said he believes job growth has been Trump’s greatest accomplishment thus far.
“He has done a great job with job creation. He has produced hundreds of thousands of jobs in his first hundred days. It’s just impeccable the things he’s done as a businessman,” Stueve said. “Before he was even in office, he was making business deals for people to come back and things like that and you’ve never seen things like that from a president before, ever.”
The economy added over 500,000 new jobs in the first two months of 2017 before slowing down significantly, adding just 98,000 jobs in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, while the job growth numbers weren’t there, the unemployment rate dropped to a ten-year low of 4.5 percent.
Despite the silver linings in the March report, Gallup job approval polls showed Trump’s approval rating dipping slightly. His approval rating, which had climbed back up to 43 percent after hitting record-low 35 percent in the final week of March, slipped back down to 40 percent amidst growing tensions with North Korea in the final week of April, perhaps signaling support for the president is on the wane once again.
A February poll conducted by The Washington Post of 1,000 Americans spread across the country showed that of the 339 participants who voted for Trump, only 12 would vote differently if given the chance.
Texas House Representative Lamar Smith said he believes Trump’s record-low approval ratings stem from the overwhelming amount of negative coverage he receives, as reported by the Washington Examiner.
“Maybe the media is having an impact on the public’s view of the president,” Smith said in his interview with the Washington Examiner. “Even if most of America thinks the media is biased, they still can be influenced by that bias, and I think that helps explain some of the public opinion polls of the president.”
Gustin, who was recently in Wichita helping with the campaign for Ron Estes to replace former Kansas Congressman and newly-appointed head of the CIA Mike Pompeo, said he believes, however, that the newest commander in chief’s approval ratings aren’t as low as the media is reporting.
“Those polls that say he has a low approval rating are the same polls that said Hillary Clinton had a 99 percent chance to win the election, so I don’t buy that,” Gustin said. “I don’t believe they are that low.”
The most significant dip in Trump’s job approval ratings, accurate or otherwise, coincided with his party’s failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, and replace it with their own plan.
Gustin, who said he was slightly disappointed his party couldn’t come up with a better replacement plan in the seven years since the act was first passed, said while he believes the current situation looks bad for the Republicans, he looks forward to seeing what our president can put together after work and deliberation with Democrat officials.
“I think he’s 10 steps ahead of everybody,” Gustin said. “I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised with whatever outcome we get.”
All students that are interested in attending the College Republicans’ meetings can do so at 3 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month in CC 211.