President Trump basked in the applause of the crowd at his rally Thursday night in Indiana. After nodding along with chants of “U-S-A,” he began his speech by celebrating the news of the day: the release of three men who had been held prisoner by North Korea.
“At 2 a.m., early this morning,” he said, quickly interrupted by cheers as people quickly saw where he was going, “At 2 o’clock in the morning/ I had the incredible honor of greeting three brave Americans who had been held in North Korea and we welcomed them back home the proper way.” More cheering.
Trump would be forgiven for thinking at that moment that the crowd surrounding him captured to at least some extent the reaction of the American people: that the release of those prisoners would be one of those sorts of things that would finally get Americans to love him. …
Recent history, though, suggests that any boost in his popularity from the prisoner release would probably be small — and fleeting. CONT.
Philip Bump, Washington Post