Trump is mad at the press again. I know Trump is always mad at the press, and this time it is for writing about him tanking in the polls. Trump's poll rating is just 39 percent after the first 100 days. That is the lowest rating after the first 100 days in my lifetime, and I have seen 14 different administrations in my lifetime.   I started with Eisenhower, the 34^th president, and now to Trump at 47. Trump's reaction to these polls is very predictable, he is calling for an investigation into these polls, claiming “voter fraud”. On Truth Social, he wrote. “They are negative criminals who apologize to their subscribers and readers after I win the elections big. Much bigger than their polls showed, I would win, loose a lot of credibility, and then go on cheating and lying for the next cycle, only worse.” Trump also wrote. “Great pollster John McLaughlin, one of the most highly respected in the industry, has just stated that the failing New York Times poll, and the ABC/Washington Post poll, about a person named DONALD J. Trump, ME, are FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS”.

That great pollster John McLaughlin, that Trump talks about, of course, is his pollster. McLaughlin states, “When President Trump received 50 percent of the popular vote, but the New York Times includes only 37 percent of his voters in their poll and ABC/Washington Post has only 34 percent of Trump supporters, it seems that they are deliberately biasing their poll against President Trump”.  I looked at that statement and I had to laugh. Trump may have gotten just under 50 percent of the popular vote, but only less than 65 percent of the eligible voting public voted. The percentage of Trump supporters is represented quite accurately in these polls; if not, it may be a little overrepresented. Trump did not win by a landslide. Only about 32 percent of the eligible voters voted for Trump. It tells me that just under 4 out of 10 voters stayed at home. These polls are not asking the voters how they feel about what Trump is doing. It is about how the nation feels about what Trump is doing, which will include many people who didn’t vote at all.  Too many people will look at what McLaughlin is saying and think that the press is out to make Trump look bad. The thing is, he has to spin the numbers to try and make polls that are probably very truthful and make them look like a lie. It is the spinning of the numbers that, in my opinion, is the lie.

Let's look at some of the other numbers. 73 percent say the economy is in bad shape, 53 percent said that it has gotten worse since Trump took office, and 41 percent said their finances have worsened. 62 percent said prices that Trump promised to curb are rising. 71 percent think his tariffs are a negative factor in price inflation. Only 31 percent said they believe our economy will come out of this stronger, as Trump says it will. That was the number one issue according to the voters before the last election, and Trump, after guaranteeing he would bring down prices starting on day one, has done very little, if anything, to bring down anything. I think that, like me, many fear that we are only seeing the beginning of the damage the tariffs are going to have.

One thing the Trump administration has accomplished, in my opinion, is uniting the world against us. Our northern neighbor and probably the best neighbor a country could have just had an election. That election spoke volumes about what Canada thinks of America now and the distrust in the American government. This is just the beginning, I fear. Trump has succeeded in making the Chinese look like the good guys. China is now importing 90 percent less oil from the United States and is now importing Canadian oil in record amounts. Tariffs sometimes create opportunities for other countries. For example, China is buying less beef from the United States and more from Australia. China is the world's largest consumer of pork, and it is turning to countries like Spain and Brazil to supply more and import less from the United States. Is it our arrogance that makes us think that we are the only ones in the world who can supply these goods? Are we creating opportunities for other countries to enter into trade agreements that exclude the United States?  As Trump abandons free trade, many countries, including the European Union, look to do more deals with everyone besides the United States.

Trump does not fare well when it comes to the rule of law. 62 percent have said that they don’t think that Trump and his administration respect the rule of the law. 65 percent said the Trump administration is trying to avoid complying with federal court orders, and 64 percent have stated that he is going too far in trying to expand presidential powers. Trump is almost daily attacking our Judges, especially those who rule against them. He had one Wisconsin Judge arrested and is threatening to arrest more. The courts have ordered the return of a legal immigrant who was sent to the concentration camp in El Salvador, and so far, has failed to comply. He has also written in his first 100 days almost as many executive orders as Biden had during his entire presidency. Trump has shown he is not a man who wants to work within the framework of the Constitution and would rather rule by executive decree like a dictator. It is plain and simple; we are not the democracy under Trump that was envisioned by our founding fathers.

At best, I would sum up Trump's first hundred days as a disaster that hasn’t hit bottom yet. At every turn, he has failed our country in environmental issues and trade, to even in healthcare and food safety. His cuts to key research will make us not a leader in any type of scientific research at all. Trump, in his first 100 days, has turned the United States into no longer the leader of the free world but a country that is slowly isolating itself from the rest of the world. In his first 100 days, he has turned his back on our friends and neighbors and, by doing so, has weakened our standing in the world.