MS NOW host Joe Scarborough on Friday warned President Donald Trump that his political “shock opera” strategy no longer seems to work, citing a dramatic swing in recent polling as a sign his “stupid actions” after retaking the White House have had dire consequences.
“A 51-point swing,” Scarborough said. “I’ve never heard of that in American politics before.”
The “Morning Joe” host was specifically pointing to a YouGov/Economist poll showing 46% of U.S. adults feel Trump is doing a worse job than former President Joe Biden, and that his +9 net approval rating among 18- to 29-year-olds from the start of his second term has plummeted to -42.
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Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski had just been discussing the Trump administration’s chaotic immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota, which Brzezinski was seemingly suggesting was central to Trump’s disastrous approval ratings.
“Oh no, no, no, this is just overall,” Scarborough interjected.
“These polls where a year into the president’s term voters are saying Joe Biden was better, and there’s a spate of them out this week,” he noted, quoting from an Axios report: “Young voters have cratered: The YouGov/Economist poll found Donald Trump -42 net approval among 18- to 29-year-olds.”
The stunned MS NOW host went on to reiterate that this is a whopping 51-point swing in one year, marveling out loud about Trump’s seeming indifference to addressing these numbers — and adding that if he had been “actually listening to anybody, maybe you could trim the cells a bit here and there.”
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“But every day it’s another act in a shock opera, which, I don’t know,” said Scarborough.
He added, “Maybe there’s this belief, I know there’s always been the belief, ‘Shock people, own the libs and gain your power from their overreacting,’ but we’re not — we understand this. And it’s not ‘owning the libs,’ as I’ve said before, if you’re hitting your forehead with a ball peen hammer.”
The YouGov/Economist survey was conducted Feb. 6-9 among 1,730 U.S. adults and found that only 40% believe Trump is doing a better job than Biden — and that only 28% of 18- to 29-year-olds polled feel that way.