Trump’s Wall Hits the Popular Vote

“Problems start from the top, and they have to get solved from the top, and the President’s the leader, and he’s got to get everybody in a room, and he’s got to lead. And he doesn’t do that, he doesn’t like doing that, that’s not his strength. And that’s why you have this horrible situation going on in Washington. It’s a very, very bad thing and it’s very embarrassing worldwide.”

- Donald Trump

As inconvenient as it is for Donald Trump’s fans to admit, their candidate lost the Popular Vote in the 2016, election. In fact, Hillary Clinton’s 2,864,974 vote win was “the largest popular vote margin of any losing presidential candidate in U.S. history”. Unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and the disadvantageous statehoods of New York and California do not change the fact that Trump became President even though the majority of Americans voted against him.

As Trump stumbles through his Presidency, his approval ratings have reflected this lack of support and have never risen above the 50% mark. While other presidents have seen their ratings change as the news cycled, Trump’s have shown less variance than any of his modern predecessors. Trump has secured his base and they will stand behind him without fail. However, he has done little to expand this base. Even when he has reached beyond the core beliefs of his fans, his political ineptitude has prevented his administration from capitalizing. For example, a bipartisan victory on criminal justice reform was buried in a week that began with the suggestion by a judge that his former National Security Advisor was a traitor and ended with a partial shutdown of the government.

For the first two years of his presidency, there was little consequence for Trump catering exclusively to his base as he had the protection of his own party in the legislature. This was especially true in the House where Representatives ran interference against investigations instead of performing their Constitutional obligation to put a check on the executive branch. However, the GOP’s loss of 40 seats and control…