Absent a post-9/11 rally around the flag type effect, I think it'll be a long time before any president will be very popular. The teams kind of hate each other now. So a popular president means have a 55%ish approval rating over an extended period.
Donald Trump campaigned on racism and nice things. Too many people say "this is what he promised!!!" but he's only delivering on the racism, not the nice things. I thought there was a mild possibility he'd deliver on a couple of nice things, like maybe some infrastructure spending and not being obsessed with cutting SocialSecurityAndMedicare quite as much as most people in DC are, but those weren't the only nice things he promised.
Lots of people prattle on about "populism" and while there is really no similarity between left wing and right wing populism, there a "populism" which could be popular in a mostly white very racist country. Racism+nice things. What left wing and right wing "populists" are interested aren't the same, but the truth is someone who could deliver both would probably be...reasonably popular.
Mr. Deals could be Mr. 55% if he'd just delivered on the nice things. That isn't entirely good, and not a trade-off I would make, but now all we have is the racism.
