These are recent ratings for Donald Trump
Second-Term Lows: Several pollsters, including Economist/YouGov, have reported that the current 37%–39% range represents a second-term low for the President. For comparison, his approval shortly after the 2025 inauguration was near 47%–50%.
Partisan Divide: The “partisan gap” remains historically wide. Republican approval is still high (roughly 73%–86%), while Democratic approval is consistently in the low single digits (2%–6%).
What amazes me, what I find concerning
is the apparent mass thinking based on political party. There is a heck of a difference between 86% and 6%.
I can’t understand how any thinking person regardless of political persuasion could approve of a person who makes a fool of them on a regular basis, while putting Americans at risk every day – economically, health wise and for global security.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Talk about partisan divide!
Regarding the US Men’s Hockey Team at the State of the Union, one idiot reporter wrote:
These champions have agency. In the afterglow of triumph, they have more agency than they ever will. They should be wary of giving it away so casually. ( BenefitJack Note: by simply attending the State of the Union at the invitation of the the President of the United States? How would a rejection of the invite have improved their agency?)
No one can take that gold medal, or how it made all of us feel, away from Team USA. For a fleeting moment, those players quieted our noisy room and made it less toxic. And they’ve already lost some of the room. It’s not because they set out to divide it. It’s just that, in America right now, proximity to power distorts the meaning of everything around it. They misread the moment. (BenefitJack Note: Would they have misread the moment by attending the State of the Union had Harris or Biden won the election?)
It would be a copout for me to blame only the environment that they must navigate, to rant about how everything is poisonously political now, to lament the impossibility of sustained joy in a culture that incubates outrage. These are all factors, but let’s not infantilize this team. These are men who thrilled a nation and rocked the world, and as adults, they need to be more savvy. (BenefitJack Note: Really, everyone who wins a F*cking Medal should be more savvy about accepting an invitation to the State of the Union?)
That goes for every prominent team in sports. It’s nice, even expected, to be feted as a winner. But who’s celebrating you – and why they’re doing it and how they’re doing it – matters more.
Trump, perhaps more than most modern presidents, understands the optics of standing next to winners. It normalizes him. It softens his cruel instincts and crude jokes, recasting them as locker-room banter. It washes his reputation and reduces the impact of polls that indicate a significant majority of Americans disapprove of his second term. In our current state, there is no such thing as incidental symbolism.
The images and associations matter. They’re almost as powerful as the accomplishment that led to them. (BenefitJack Note: Really, did you feel the same way about the others honored at the State of the Union, when it was President Biden’s turn?)
Within 48 hours, their celebration drifted into a partisan orbit, and the unity thinned. (BenefitJack Note: Only for this idiot ass.)
Shared moments are precious now. The men’s hockey team conjured some inspiration for an afternoon. That was the trophy to go with their medals. Then they dropped it. (BenefitJack Note: Only in your eyes, if you are so poisoned. I suspect that this same writer will be certain to change a few words and write the same article regarding any and every part of the 250 year celebration which Trump participates in will receive the same reception.)
(BenefitJack Note: We can all be inspired in the shared momeny of the women’s and men’s hockey team achievement. Anyone who diminishes that due to their political leanings is an idiot and an ass – one who seeks to divide Americans even further.
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