… The Trump tax is conceptually the difference between where President Trump’s approval ratings are and where a more typical Republican president’s would be given national conditions. A Vox analysis in 2016 suggested that Trump was running several points behind a generic Republican presidential nominee in that election.
As John Sides, Michael Tesler, and Lynn Vavreck demonstrate in their new book Identity Crisis, this tax has persisted during Trump’s presidency. As of the beginning of 2018, they write, “His ratings were mired around 40 percent, whereas a president presiding over similarly favorable consumer sentiment would typically be polling near 60 percent.”
What would that have meant in terms of the 2018 midterm elections? CONT.
Seth Masket, Mischiefs of Faction