Polling about the ongoing federal shutdown has been all over the place, with public opinion constantly swinging back and forth.
This week, however, Newsweek published a poll showing that Donald Trump’s net approval rating has stayed steady, revealing that even though people are upset, the president himself is not taking the hit.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asked Trump for a meeting about resolving the impasse, but the president seems disinclined to take him up on the offer, saying that the Democrats have already lost.
From most polls that I have seen, blame for the shutdown is fairly evenly distributed, and the party held responsible for the situation fluctuates on an almost daily basis.
Until we see that flip with an overwhelming majority, in my eyes, the best way to gauge the situation is via Trump’s own approval rating, but that is holding steady.
In the latest Newsweek polling, Trump’s approval rating is right at 45%, so he is clearly not taking the hit that Democrats were hoping he would when this all started.
Perhaps that is why Democrats are making such a big deal about the ballroom renovation off the East Wing of the White House.
This week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) put the continuing resolution (CR) fon the floor or the 12th time, and Schumer blocked it again.
Trump has, for the most part, stayed out of negotiations, yet Schumer continues to put pressure on the president to meet.
That, to me, was a sign that Schumer was starting to crack, but it did not matter because Trump rejected the idea of any meeting with the Senate leader and/or House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries until the shutdown was over.
When asked about the proposal, Trump responded, "I would like to meet with both of them, but I said one little caveat, I will only meet if they let the country open.”
Trump seems to be reading this situation much in the same way as I am.
The president insisted, “They’re not negotiating,” and I think he is right. They are making demands. They want it all, and there is no way Trump is going to give it to them.
Trump explained, "What they're doing is saying they lost the negotiation. And when we got the great ‘big beautiful [bill]’ done, they lost the negotiation. Now they're saying, ‘Well, we want to get some of the things we lost.’ But the problem is the things they lost are very bad for our country."
Generally speaking, I don’t support a government shutdown, largely because of the dangerous optics, but until polling says otherwise, I would hold firm to get the Democrats to cave. The people of this country are not foolish, and eventually they realize the truth. For now, I believe the GOP holds the edge, and they should remain firm to get the Democrats to cave.
