Wednesday Edition: Trump Is Mainstream

America has officially reached the acceptance stage on Donald Trump. (Pew Research Center)

The numbers: The share of Americans with “warm” feelings toward Trump are roughly 10 percentage points higher now (43%) than they were in the wake of the 2020 (34%) or 2016 (36%) elections, according to a post-election survey from Pew Research Center.

• Per CNN analyst Harry Enten, Trump’s approval rating is 17 points higher than it was in Nov. 2016, bringing him in line with other presidents.

• CBS News polling found 46% of Americans were “excited/optimistic” about Trump’s upcoming term in December of 2016, while 53% said they were “scared/concerned.”

• Fast forward to this month and those numbers have flipped: 53% are “excited/optimistic” about Trump’s second term, while just 46% say they’re “scared/concerned.”

Former President Bill Clinton begrudgingly handing it to Trump:

Bubba’s Two Cents

Democrats, media outlets, and Trump’s opponents have built their resistance strategy around portraying him as an unprecedented danger to the nation. They’ve labeled him a fascist and dictator, accused him of threatening U.S. democracy, and relentlessly tried to tie him to Project 2025. Yet, this approach seems to have backfired, with Trump now more mainstream than ever. It’s possible it says more about the people saying it than it does about Trump himself.

A new study suggests exposure to the works of diversity, equity and inclusion leaders like Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi makes people more likely to see racism where none exists. (National Review)

The study: Researchers at the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University’s Social Perception lab split participants into two groups.

• One group read DEI materials (like passages from DiAngelo or Kendi’s books), and the other read neutral content (like an essay about corn production).

• Both groups then read scenarios with no clear evidence of discrimination, such as a college rejection or a trial, and were asked if they saw bias.

A sample scenario participants were asked to respond to:

As President-elect Trump and his allies continue pushing for sweeping deregulation to free the economy from bureaucratic constraints, we zoom in on how much regulation costs the U.S. economy. (Phoenix Center)

A 2017 Phoenix Center study: One federal regulator costs the U.S. economy $11 million annually and 135 private sector jobs per year.

An American Action Forum report: New rules implemented during the Biden administration are estimated to cost the economy $1.4 trillion.

A 2023 study by UC Berkeley and USC researchers: Complying with regulations costs the American economy $289 billion a year.

Context: While campaigning Trump promised the most aggressive regulatory rollback in U.S. history, and in the past said he wants to cut regulations by 75%.

• Before Trump's first term, the Congressional Review Act was used once to overturn agency regulations.

• During his first term, Trump and Congress used it 16 times.

• In 2024, over 56 recent regulatory actions are eligible to be repealed.

The number: An average meal consisting of Thanksgiving staples costs 27% more than it did in 2019, according to a new CNBC analysis. (CNBC)

Context: Inflation has played a major role in Americans’ pessimism about the Biden economy, despite many experts citing traditional metrics showing the economy is in decent shape.

Bubba’s Two Cents

Economists and journalists can throw all the fancy indicators and metrics they want at people. But when Americans see prices have spiked considerably, of course it’s going to make them feel some type of way about the state of the economy.