This story was originally published on nationaljournal.com on February 17, 2017 As a candidate, Donald Trump thoroughly enjoyed dismantling and torturing the Republican wing of the Republican Party. But now that chaos, turmoil, and ineptitude have become the watchwords for his White House—notwithstanding his assertion Thursday that it “is running like a fine-tuned machine”—the targets of his barbs were giving each other “I told you so” glances. By way of corroboration, they pointed to President Trump’s job-approval ratings. A Feb. 7-12 Pew poll of 1,503 adults put it at just 39 percent, with 56 percent expressing disapproval. Those are astonishing numbers compared to Pew’s approve-disapprove numbers at this point for Presidents Obama (64 to 17 percent), George W. Bush (53 to 21 percent), Clinton (56 to 25 percent), and George H.W. Bush (63 to 13 percent). Pew’s findings comport with Gallup’s tracking numbers for Feb. 14-16 (40 percent approval to 54 percent disapproval). Interestingly, 84 percent of Republicans and Republican leaders approve of Trump’s job performance, while 88 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents disapprove. Among independents that don’t lean
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