Tamara Keith and Carrie Dann on Trump's approval rating hitting a record low

[0:00] A new poll puts President Trump's approval rating at a record low. [0:03] Meantime, the president is escalating his feud with Ukraine's president. [0:06] Our Politics Monday team is here to discuss that and more. [0:10] We've got Tamara Keith of NPR and Carrie Dan of The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. [0:14] Amy Walter is away this evening. It's great to see you both. [0:16] Good to be here. [0:17] So let's start with this latest new national poll. [0:19] You've got the Washington Post, ABC News, Ipsos poll. [0:24] It's putting President Trump's approval rating at just 33%, the lowest of either term. [0:28] And Democrats have an eight-point advantage heading into November. [0:32] So, Tam, how much of a liability is that for Republicans on the ballot? [0:37] I know you have some new reporting. [0:38] Yeah, so back in September, President Trump held a dinner in the Rose Garden [0:43] with about 30 Republicans in competitive races. [0:49] And at that dinner, he promised he was going to go to all of their districts. [0:53] He was going to go to 35 competitive districts and help those members by just showing up. [1:00] Well, my analysis of his travel since that time is that he's gone to a fewer than a third [1:06] of those districts. [1:07] And instead, he's gone to a lot of very red states and very red districts. [1:12] Part of that is because he's a liability in swing races. [1:17] And part of that is that he loves the warm embrace of a rally in a place where they actually [1:21] love him. [1:22] He claims he's going to say thank you. [1:24] But part of it is just that the map has shifted so that areas that we weren't even really talking [1:29] about a few months ago are now considered competitive races. [1:33] And, Carrie, where are you watching most closely to gauge where this election is headed [1:37] and if all of this polling is actually true or accurate? [1:42] One of the numbers I found the most fascinating in that Washington Post poll was among Republicans. [1:47] And the way the Post broke it down was MAGA-affiliated Republicans and then Republicans who say, [1:52] I affiliate as a Republican, but I'm not really into the MAGA movement. [1:55] Among MAGA Republicans, Donald Trump's approval rating is 94 percent. [1:58] Like, basically all of those people are huge fans of the president. [2:02] But among that other group of Republicans who are not into the MAGA movement, he's barely breaking even. [2:08] Almost half of those voters disapprove of him. [2:10] And to your point, I think one of the trickiest things that Republicans are trying to do is to [2:14] tell those people, disaffected Republicans, hey, you've got to hold your nose and show up in [2:19] November and vote for a candidate, even if you're not crazy about the president, without [2:23] deactivating that 94 percent approval rating among MAGA people, which is, I think, why he's going to [2:28] these very red areas to juice every single one of those voters that he possibly can, while also [2:33] quietly singling to other Republicans in the state. [2:36] Hey, you might not love the president right now, but you need to show up for your team. [2:39] And, Tam, Democrats appear to have momentum, even in states, as Liz just reported, states [2:43] like Ohio that have shifted toward Republicans in recent elections. [2:47] How do you interpret that? [2:48] Yeah, Ohio is a fascinating state. [2:51] It is, according to Ad Impact data, the most expensive state in that Senate race among all [2:58] of the Senate races starting September 1st through Election Day. [3:02] Just truckloads of money are being dumped on that state. [3:06] What is fascinating about it is you really have, in some ways, two incumbents and then [3:11] also two non-incumbents at the same time, because John Husted didn't win the seat. [3:17] He was appointed. [3:18] And a lot of people still think Sherrod Brown is a senator from Ohio. [3:22] Well, let's shift our focus in the time that remains to Ukraine, because President Trump [3:27] is escalating his confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. [3:31] There's this dispute over access to important satellite communications that are used for the [3:36] military there. [3:37] The president has blamed Ukraine for rising gas prices in this country. [3:43] What's driving the president's increasingly hostile posture toward Ukraine and its leader? [3:47] Well, I think you just identified that he's trying to draw a line between Ukraine and high [3:51] gas prices. [3:52] I think it may be a little bit late to do that credibly with voters. [3:55] I think voters have drawn a very bright line between the Iran conflict and the high gas [3:59] prices. [4:00] He may be trying to deflect that by talking about this other conflict. [4:04] But I looked back. [4:05] You mentioned Ad Impact. [4:06] I looked at the ad spending around the issue of Ukraine and Russia this cycle. [4:09] Two million dollars for Iran and gas prices were at, like, 80 million dollars. [4:13] So, clearly, the politics of this are not that voters really care about this issue. [4:19] I think what he is trying to do is tie it to gas prices and tie the high gas prices to [4:24] Joe Biden instead of the decisions that his administration has made. [4:26] How do you see it, based on your reporting? [4:28] Well, voters very clearly tie it to the Iran war. [4:33] Like, they draw that direct line. [4:37] The president, certainly, you know, I've covered him for years, he has often been looking for [4:45] reasons to escalate or to fight with Zelensky. [4:50] This isn't really new. [4:51] This is certainly a new front in this. [4:56] But he's often been feuding with Zelensky. [5:00] And so, this is a moment where he is just throwing a lot of spaghetti against a lot of walls. [5:06] In this case, doing a deal or announcing that Russia will sell diesel to the United States. [5:15] No one is expecting this to actually bring down diesel prices. [5:17] But it speaks to the fact that the president is trying to show that he's working on this [5:20] thing that is actually a very big problem for a lot of people. [5:24] We've got one more topic, and we've got a minute left. [5:26] I'm going to see if I can fit this in. [5:27] But here we go. [5:28] He's turning his attention to this public golf course in our own backyard here in Washington, [5:32] D.C. [5:33] His administration wants to overhaul this historic East Potomac course. [5:36] It sparked a legal fight, as we reported earlier in the program. [5:40] Is the real story here less about a golf course and more about who gets to decide what happens [5:44] to a public land? [5:45] I think it's cumulatively. [5:46] I'm not sure voters outside of D.C. necessarily know very much about this issue. [5:50] But I do think it speaks to the idea that he, in many of these cases, whether it's the [5:54] Kennedy Center Ballroom or the East Wing of the White House or this golf course, has [5:58] blazed through benchmarks or guardrails against the things that he's trying to do. [6:04] That's, I think, a metaphor for a lot of things people feel about the president. [6:07] I don't know if it's a huge issue that resonates. [6:09] But cumulatively, he's also choosing to spend his time on this. [6:11] Yeah. [6:12] I mean, I think that we have seen in polls for months and literally a text from one of [6:16] the swing voters I check in with all the time earlier today saying, why is the president [6:21] focused on a golf course? [6:22] Why is he focused on beautification projects when people are literally choosing between [6:27] paying their heating bill and their grocery bill? [6:29] Two terrific journalists and broadcast professionals. [6:32] We did it. [6:33] Everything carried in. [6:34] Thanks again. [6:35] You're welcome. [6:36] Thanks.