In the year after President Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States, the high-office has had numerous controversies and oddities.
Trump’s current approval rating is 40 percent, the highest rating for Trump seen since May, according to a Feb. 4 Gallup poll. The average rating for his total term is 38 percent, the lowest average approval rating for any president since presidential approval ratings first started being tracked in 1945, according to Gallup’s webpage.
“I liked that he was going to be putting America first,” said freshman psychology major Chase Changet. “And I would not have felt good voting for Hillary [Clinton].”
Ian Pearson, NIU College Democrats president, said he noticed in the last presidental election cycle there was a disconnect between fellow Democrats and their support for Hillary Clinton.
“In the last election cycle, there was a lot of frustration with establishment politics,” Pearson said. “I’ve noticed even within fellow Democrats, there’s a mood within the party to express more progressive candidates. I understand the discontent in voting for Hillary.”
Changet said he anticipated Trump to be different from former President Barack Obama by limiting the United States’ intervention in other countries.
“I expected Trump to get us away from putting everyone else first and worry about ourselves second,” Changet said. “What Obama was doing was helping other nations before he was going to do what was best for America.”
Pearson said Trump is committed to his ‘America First’ plans that focus on pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, and the Iran Nuclear deal has left other leaders, such as Angela Merkel, larger roles in the world economy.
“A lot of his ideas are radical, and there are some things he says that I don’t agree with, but I see what he wants to do,” Changet said. “Right now, he is under an absolute microscope, and nobody is letting him have any sort of freedom.”
While approval ratings have improved slightly within the past few weeks, Trump’s State of the Union address featured half-truths, such as his claim of creating new jobs, according to a Jan. 30 Politifact article.
“Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone,” Trump said. “After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.”
Wages did rise during the first three quarters of Trump’s presidency, but the drop in fourth quarter wages erased the gains of the previous three quarters, according to the Politifact article. Changet said he is still optimistic.
“As far as a public speaker, he is awful,” Changet said. “I like his resolve, and the DOW Jones has still gone up six points over the last quarter. The tax cut has been phenomenal, and I’ve really enjoyed Donald Trump as president.”