Donald Trump has always made American liberals angry. Now he also makes them fearful. What some fear, in particular, is that Mr Trump’s current popularity – with the US economy growing at an annual rate of 4% – means that his Republican party will see off the Democrats’ challenge in November’s midterm congressional elections, enabling the president, among other things, to try again to dismantle Barack Obama’s affordable care reforms. Even more than that, they fear that he is on course to be re-elected for a second term in 2020.
None of this can be ruled out, especially after the experience of 2016, in which so many expert predictions were confounded. But it is not a preordained outcome. It can be stopped, and American voters have no reason to approach the elections fatalistically. Mr Trump is very popular among his own supporters – he has approval ratings around 90%. But his national approval is very low – 41% in a Gallup poll this week. Since Mr Trump is the most bigoted, misogynistic and jingoistic president in modern times, that may seem a disturbingly high rating. Though history suggests that a president with such ratings in August will see his party pummelled in November, Mr Trump has defied the Democrats in the past, and many still fear he may do so again.
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