State of the Union Poster by Chip ProserNone of those new polls that came out yesterday looked good for Trump-- nor for his congressional enablers. In fact, the CNN poll found that nearly 7 in 10 voters say the federal government is doing a bad job of governing, including 43% who say it’s the worst job of governing in their lifetimes. 19% of Americans think Trump's government is doing a good job. That appeared to clash drastically with Trump's interview with Margaret Brennan on Face The Nation Sunday when he bragged-- lying-- that he's created the best economy in history and that he's headed to a 2020 reelection victory. "The only thing I've done," he stated, falsely, "is created, maybe, the best economy we've had in the history of our country." Tell it to the voters who responded to the new Monmouth poll. Among them, just 37% think Trump should be re-elected-- as opposed to 57% who want to vote for someone else.He also spent a lot of time talking about his vanity wall, which the new Gallup poll shows is opposed by 60% of voters, up from 57% opposing it 6 months ago. Despite the efforts of the Republican Party 61% of voters oppose deporting all illegal immigrants back to their home country. In fact "the vast majority of Americans (81%) favor allowing immigrants living illegally in the U.S. "the chance to become U.S. citizens if they meet certain requirements over a period of time."Preparing for a night of lies (his State of the Union address this evening), Trump is freaking out over the massive White House leak that shows he's a lazy sack of crap who does nothing all day but sit around watching TV, eating junk food and gossiping with his friends on the phone. Mike Allen wrote that "White House insiders said the leak sowed chaos. Cliff Sims, the former White House official who wrote the dishy Team of Vipers, told me: 'There are leaks, and then there are leaks. If most are involuntary manslaughter, this was premeditated murder. People inside are genuinely scared.'" One of the NY Times' Trump specialists, Maggie Haberman took to Twitter:Trump's instinct for self-preservation, though, isn't just to go on the attack against Democrats-- he went full-on against Pelosi, who is now more popular than he is among the American public-- but to have his political team squelch any attempts within the GOP to mount a primary against him. Yesterday's Monmouth poll shows that 43% of Republican primary voters want a primary next year. Zeke Miller and Stephen Peoples reported for the Associated Press that Trump is worried and "has launched a state-by-state effort to prevent an intraparty fight that could spill over into the general-election campaign... including taking steps to change state party rules, crowd out potential rivals and quell any early signs of opposition that could embarrass the" disgusting, hated slob that virtually anyone who isn't an anti-democracy fascist wishes would die tonight as he speaks.
It is an acknowledgment that Trump, who effectively hijacked the Republican Party in 2016, hasn’t completely cemented his grip on the GOP and, in any event, is not likely to coast to the 2020 GOP nomination without some form of opposition. While any primary challenge would almost certainly be unsuccessful, Trump aides are looking to prevent a repeat of the convention discord that highlighted the electoral weaknesses of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter in their failed re-election campaigns.To defend against that prospect, Trump’s campaign has deployed what it calls an unprecedented effort to monitor and influence local party operations. It has used endorsements, lobbying and rule changes to increase the likelihood that only loyal Trump activists make it to the Republican nominating convention in August 2020.Bill Stepien, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, calls it all a “process of ensuring that the national convention is a television commercial for the president for an audience of 300 million and not an internal fight.”One early success for Trump’s campaign was in Massachusetts, where Trump backer and former state Rep. Jim Lyons last month defeated the candidate backed by Massachusetts Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, a Trump critic, to serve as the state party chairman.“We have a constant focus on tracking everything regarding this process,” Stepien said. “Who’s running, what their level of support for the president is and what their vote counts are.”The campaign’s work extends beyond state party leadership races, which are taking place in many key states in the coming weeks. Trump’s team plans to organize at county and state caucuses and conventions over the next 18 months to elevate pro-Trump leaders and potential delegates. Ahead of the convention, it aims to have complete control of the convention agenda, rules and platform-- and to identify any potential trouble-makers well in advance....[T]he efforts to protect Trump simply highlight his vulnerability, said an adviser to one potential Republican opponent.“They’re not talented, but they’re not idiotic. They rightfully understand that he could be badly damaged or lose in a nomination battle. They’re doing too much. It looks weak,” said John Weaver, a senior adviser to former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, one of the few high-profile Republicans seriously contemplating a primary challenge.Trump’s campaign is closely monitoring the intentions of Kasich and other potential primary challengers, and aides said they expect someone to mount a campaign for the nomination. But they insist their efforts are not borne out of fear that Trump is vulnerable.Primary challenges against incumbent presidents have never been successful in the modern era. And Trump’s poll numbers among Republican voters have proven to be resilient. Still, his aides said they are taking lessons from one-term leaders who lost their re-elections after embarrassing nominating fights.Those in the past who challenged a president both distracted the incumbent from the November campaign and offered a voice to intraparty discontent, seeding weaknesses that were exploited by a general-election rival.
