Is This When Trump Became a Lame Duck?

"When Ingraham asked about negative voter sentiment about the economy, Trump dismissed the concerns: "More than anything else, it's a con job by the Democrats"; "I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we've ever had"; and so on. The president is correct that falling energy prices will bring down prices in other sectors, but one of the many sterling lessons of the Biden presidency is that telling people their feelings and perceptions are invalid or irrelevant ain't a political winner."

"Ingraham expressed skepticism at Trump's proposals to increase student visas for China from 350,000 to 600,000, and the president insisted it was necessary for floating the American higher ed sector. "Historically black colleges and universities would all be out of business," Trump said. "You would have a system of colleges and universities, would go down the tubes." He went on to compare the American relationship with China favorably to that with France."

Republicans experienced unexpectedly large losses in the off-year elections, with policy moves like adjusting food stamp payments potentially contributing to voter dissatisfaction. The results are not catastrophic and underlying secular trends remain encouraging, leaving room for retrenchment and course-correction before the midterms. President Trump’s interview with Laura Ingraham featured him dismissing negative voter sentiment as a Democratic “con job,” calling polls fake, and insisting the economy is the greatest ever. He proposed increasing Chinese student visas dramatically, warned that historically black colleges would fail without foreign students, compared China favorably to France, and made controversial H-1B comments.

Read at The American Conservative