President-elect Donald Trump is already creating news with a flurry of cabinet nominees and appointments just two weeks since his stunning victory over Hillary Clinton. The polls are showing a surge in his positives and popularity two months before he takes the office of the presidency.
The real estate mogul has been working round the clock with 18 hour days to solidify his transition team led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Three days after the election, the former transition director, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, mysteriously was replaced in his duties.
Most accounts are that Trump was angry over the slow pace of Christie’s transition plans and his not taking the fall in the Bridgegate scandal blocking the George Washington Bridge as a vendetta against the local mayor who did not support him. According to reports, Trump threw a fit when he saw Christie’s chief of staff and another staffer leaving the courtroom trial guilty with a possible 20-year terms in federal prison.
He bristled that a mother of small children took the fall in what Trump viewed as Christie’s obvious involvement at the top. That scored well in his polling numbers along with his refusal to take the salary of a president. The billionaire real estate mogul said he would give it to charity.
In an obvious fact of the public’s anger with the biased mainstream press, he gained more points for his frequent shunning of the press, all leading to the people of the United States showing him the utmost in confidence.
In fact, a new Pew Research Center survey shows that of Trump supporters, 96 percent feel ‘hopeful,’ and 74 percent ‘proud’ of their presidential selection. And even 58 percent of Clinton voters said they are ‘willing to give Trump a chance and see how he governs as president.
What a stunning difference the political environment in Washington has changed in 14 short days. In a Morning Consult-Politico survey, his favorable-unfavorable numbers are 46 percent to 46 percent. That is incredible when you consider before the election his favorable rating was 37 percent and unfavorable 61 percent.
It appears Trump’s anti-establishment; outsider brand of politics being promised on the campaign trail is now catching on with the non-believers in Trump. He is providing the image of strong leadership with his taking control persona so early after November 8th.
Meanwhile, losing candidate Hillary Clinton is in virtual seclusion, appearing publicly only once since the election, looking disheveled, ill, and a bit strung out. She along with her husband Bill realize this is end of the Clinton dynasty in Washington politics and may cause many Clinton Foundation donors to look elsewhere to gain political favors.