…I continue to update on the stock market and Rasmussen polls. And why do I do this? Consider recent headlines like these:
- Trump’s job approval rating stands at 39%, the lowest for any president at this stage since 1945–ABC News.
- Trump facing ‘broad-based and deep’ collapse among voters who sealed his 2024 win.
- Trump made historic gains with minority voters in 2024. They are already pulling back in 2025–CNN.
Like astronauts in orbit, Trump’s approval ratings are in perpetual free fall, yet never actually get any lower to the ground. From Rassmussen today,
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of President Trump’s job performance. forty-six percent (46%) disapprove.
In this poll, Trump’s approval stands at the highest level recorded since mid-March. In the RCP poll of polls, Trump’s position has steadily improved over the past two weeks.
The stock market was up today, bigly. From CNBC,
The S&P 500 popped 3.26% to end at 5,844.19, bringing its gain since its April intraday low at the height of tariff pessimism to more than 20%. The benchmark has cut its year-to-date losses to just 0.6%.
To emphasize: the market surged in the last few minutes of trading to close at almost its high level for the day. The S&P is at the highest level seen since March 3.
It’s also higher than the level seen since January 10, before Trump began his second term. For whatever reason, some want to attribute the market’s gain from January 10 to January 20 to outgoing President Biden. The market is above the level it stood on Election Day 2024.
As I understand the logic being applied, outgoing lame-duck barely ambulatory President Biden engineered a 5 percent stock market rally from Election Day 2024 to February 19, one month into Trump’s second term.
To quote the late great Tom Petty,
I’m free falling
Yeah, I’m free falling
