ECONOMY/POLLS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “There’s an old political cliche that goes like this: Presidents get too much credit when the economy is going well — and too much blame when it’s going poorly. That cliche begets this political reality: When the economy is good and/or people believe the economy is good, a president is usually popular. And when the economy is weak (or perceived to be weak), a president is almost always struggling in the polls. Which is why Donald Trump’s current situation is super weird. All current polling suggests that people not only feel good about the economy but give Trump credit for its success. In an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll released last week, 50% of Americans approved of the job Trump was doing with the economy while only 34% disapproved. Those numbers on the economy were far better than how people said Trump was handling immigration (41% approve/51% disapprove) or the US relationship with Russia (26% approve/51% disapprove). And yet, in that same NBC-WSJ poll, just 45% approved of Trump’s performance as President overall while 52% disapproved. That disconnect isn’t a fluke. In the Real Clear Politics aggregate of polls, 50.4% approve of Trump’s handling of the economy while 42.3% disapprove. The RCP average of Trump’s overall job performance produces this: 43.3% approve, 52.9% disapprove.”
–Chris Cillizza, “Donald Trump’s very weird polling problem,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 31, 2018 1:39 pm