Republicans Declare Low Trump Approval an Electoral Luxury Brand

Republicans declared Friday that President Donald Trump’s 32 percent approval rating proves his political brand has finally become exclusive enough to win the midterms without the cumbersome participation of most Americans. A national poll showed Trump falling three points in a week, while Republican approval of his performance dropped from 82 percent to 73 percent. Party strategists hailed the figures as a breakthrough in elite electoral minimalism, explaining that popular support had become hopelessly mass-market and therefore incompatible with conservative principles. Democrats led the congressional ballot 43 percent to 35 percent, placing Republicans within eight points of a commanding moral victory.

Trump said the decline reflected his unmatched ability to transform rejection into prestige. “You don’t want everybody approving, because then approval becomes cheap, and I’ve never been cheap,” Trump said. “Thirty-two percent is very exclusive, like a tremendous club with beautiful doors that most people cannot enter because frankly they are not qualified.” Republican officials agreed that each departing supporter makes those remaining more valuable, much as a nearly empty restaurant becomes more desirable once customers conclude the food is too sophisticated to survive. Under the party’s revised arithmetic, 32 percent approval is equivalent to a landslide because it excludes respondents who disapprove, remain undecided or continue insisting that numbers should mean things.

An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll also found Democrats leading Republicans by 12 points among registered voters, with 45 percent describing their congressional choice primarily as a vote against Trump. GOP analysts said this gave the president a decisive 21-point advantage over the 24 percent voting primarily for him, provided opposition is counted as an especially passionate form of loyalty. Republican candidates have reinforced that advantage by quietly replacing explicit Trump branding with phrases such as “proven conservative” and “independent leadership,” a maneuver party officials described as unwavering devotion expressed through strategic disappearance. Advisers now expect Trump to raise his approval even lower before Election Day, ideally reaching the coveted zero-percent ceiling at which every remaining American becomes an undecided Republican.

* None of the quotes in this article were spoken by an actual person. More info.