In the first inning of his presidency, Donald Trump is down, with a 43 percent approval rating as of Feb. 21. On Bold TV last week, Carrie Sheffield and Clay Aiken were joined by Jeremy Binckes, cover editor of Salon.com, and Oz Sultan, former Trump Campaign Policy Surrogate, to discuss whether or not Trump can unify the country. As you can see from our poll, our audience members seemed to have their minds made up.
Tomorrow @carriesheffield @clayaiken @jbinckes and @ozsultan will discuss if/how @realDonaldTrump can unite the country. Can he?#BoldTV
— Bold (@BoldGlobalMedia) February 16, 2017
Oz said that looking at Trump’s presidency in six month breaks, a term that comes to mind is an eight-inning presidency. “He’s in the first inning, he’s down, I think he can get back up, but I think it’s going to take him getting a couple runs in, getting a couple of wins so that people see that he can actually do this,” Oz said.
Information is being shared on social media in real time at a rate almost faster than what publications can keep up with, causing shift in polls in a matter of hours. Trump’s strategy throughout all of this all is to inflate the amount of support he has, Clay said.
Jeremy jumped in: “[Trump] over-inflates his positives and blames someone else for his negatives.”
It seems to be having some effect among undecided voters who seem to believe the President, Clay said. “Most politicians once they get into office try to moderate a little bit and reach out. He’s continued to govern by motivating his base.” This is particularly noteworthy as Trump continues campaigning for new election, which began day one of his presidency.
“You’re looking at a president unlike any president we’ve had before,” Oz said. “We have a businessman president. What he’s dealing with is understanding the shifts of moving from fixing a company to fixing a bureaucracy and getting policies in place, which are very different from starting corporate initiatives. And he’s learning how this works.”
Watch the clip here or on our YouTube page:
