In “What Is Donald Trump’s Mandate? Voters want big changes from Biden’s failed policies, but many are not in Trump’s plan,” Stanley B. Greenberg, one of America’s most respected pollsters and poll analysts, writes at The American Prospect: “Democratic leaders sound understandably cautious when talking about whether President Donald Trump has a mandate, or what steps Democrats should take now. They are respecting the voters who put Trump back in office, and they recognize the elites have gotten a lot of hot-button issues wrong….We will have no clue about the Trump mandate or what Democrats should do, of course, unless we are frank about what happened with Joe Biden and what changes voters want. Major parts of the mandate will help Trump, but failure to deliver change will hurt. And other parts of Trump’s agenda insult voters in ways that will push down his already unimpressive approval ratings….Knowing what happened starts with knowing voters were more fearful of “Biden continuing as President” than “Trump winning a second term.” A 53 percent majority in a Democracy Corps survey felt that. And that majority grew to 54 percent after seeing all the Trump attacks….President Joe Biden gave an upbeat account of his progress, but he was deeply and singularly unpopular. About 60 percent disapproved of his presidency in our November election poll. And other polls have shown his approval and favorability decline further as he left office in January.”

Greenberg explains further, “Kamala Harris ran much worse with working-class voters than Biden did in 2020, but his approval in our November poll was below her vote. His support was eroding further. And how do you get a strong vote in the base when 37 percent of Blacks, 56 percent of Hispanics, and 59 percent of white millennials disapproved of Biden on Election Day?….According to Gallup, 3 in 5 Americans thought the country “lost ground” under Biden on debt, immigration, crime, the economy, “the gap between the wealthy and less well-off,” and “United States’ position in the world.”….What is so difficult for all of us to process is that Trump has a mandate to fix where Biden failed on the border, the economy, crime in cities, and certain aspects of the woke agenda. Those actions will help Trump….But voters’ disappointment with Biden also included not helping the middle class enough or addressing inequality. Trump has no mandate to exploit all energy sources and reverse Biden’s climate policies. He has no mandate to put the oligarchs in the White House. And contrary to Trump’s actions, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is very popular with the public.”

Greenberg goes on to share the results of poll questions he posed. Here is one example: “Trump’s top mandate is to secure the open border and deport undocumented immigrants in our cities. We examined many possible reasons to vote for Trump, but nothing came close to support for his commitment to “secure the border and deport illegal immigrants.” The same is true in the reasons to vote against Harris. Nothing is close to the “open border and illegal immigrants in all our cities.” These are each 10 to 20 points above the next reason cited….Over 70 percent of white working-class men, women, and union households give it as the top reason to vote for Trump—about 20 points above the next reason….Democratic leaders need to understand that this mandate is also the very top reason Hispanics voted for Trump and against Harris. They are not looking for “comprehensive immigration reform” or policies that “solve the problem.” Fully 64 percent chose that Trump would “secure the border and deport illegal immigrants,” and 54 percent rejected Harris because of the “open border and illegal immigrants in our cities….Blacks and Hispanics were angry that non-citizens were competing for housing, schools, and health services in their cities. And they were already much more likely to say that “crime and homelessness in the cities” should be a top priority….Democrats may be paying a price already. They get their most Fs from voters on “prioritizing citizens over non-citizens.” Additional issue attitudes explored in the poll and Greenberg’s analysis include: inflation; taxes; crime; abortions; tariffs; and transgender identity, and others. Read Greenberg’s entire American Prospect article right here.

From “Trump Caves On Tariffs After Getting Virtually Nothing From Canada” by Jason Easley at Politicususa: “As markets started getting shaky and outrage was growing over his tariffs, Donald Trump needed a way out. Mexico gave Trump an escape hatch by staging a little performance on the border, and Canada got the tariffs postponed by continuing to implement their already passed border plan….Trump got some Mexican troops to go to the border and parade around, and Canada is going to keep doing what it was already doing, plus a new intelligence directive and a fentanyl czar, whatever that is….Trump settled for getting nothing because he is so poorly informed that he thinks he is getting something in the deal.” Clearly, the president needs some better economic advisors. At Daily Kos, The Critical Mind saw it this way in “Promises? What promises? Trump folds as Canadian/Mexican tariffs are postponed – likely permanently”: “Trump will spin this as a victory. ‘I got what I wanted and more — much more. It was the best deal ever.’ The reality is otherwise. Both Mexico and Canada made vague promises. But there will be no real change — or money spent. Trump had seen the polls — and realized people knew his tariffs would slam their pocketbooks….Even he had to admit that his ill-considered nationalism was financially catastrophic. It would spur inflation. And the promised income to the treasury from tariffs would prove far less than the federal subsidies he would have to send to American farmers and manufacturers to keep them onside. So he caved.” However, nobody should be surprised if Trump argues that his tariffs initiative was mostly a successful negotiating tactic designed to tighten up the border and reduce fentanyl smuggling. His tariff on China is a bigger gamble, with larger potential for disaster.