Trump's popularity still in the 40 percent region - Why is that?

As February 2017 comes to its 28th and final day, we here at A Certain Point of View checked the Gallup Daily poll to see if President Donald J. Trump's popularity ratings have changed since Friday.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Trump's job approval rating is still abysmally low. Per today's daily poll, only 42% of Americans approve of the President's performance one month into his administration.

Of course, Mr. Trump and his base will say that all negative polls are "fake" and that a vast left-wing conspiracy led by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Soros, Bernie Sanders, Elvis Presley, and the Loch Ness monster is behind every "fake news" article, critical blog post, and angry crowd of protesters.

Perhaps the President's job approval ratings would go up if Mr. Trump wasn't such a narcissist who constantly obsesses about crowd sizes at his rallies and speeches, or if he decided to tell the truth more often. And calling off his Administration's war on what conservatives derisively call "the mainstream media" would help matters a lot. (That, of course, entails telling the press actual facts, not Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer's "alternative" ones.)

But except for choosing Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as the replacement for disgraced National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and a few other token actions, Mr. Trump and his staff keep making the same mistakes.

Regarding the wave of protests and the string of leaks that have annoyed him and his loyalists since January 20, Mr. Trump blames the previous Administration and its sympathizers still in government.

Per an article on CNN, the President told the Trump-friendly Fox News Channel that former President Obama is the main "bad hombre" that dogs his every move.

A "Fox and Friends" host asks, "It turns out his organization seems to do a lot of these organizing to some of the protests that these Republicans are seeing around the country against you. Do you believe President Obama is behind it and if he is, is that a violation of the so-called unsaid presidents' code?"

Mr. Trump replied, "No, I think he is behind it. I also think it's politics. That's the way it is."

The President also told "Fox and Friends" this nugget of paranoid delusion:

 According to Fox News itself, Mr. Trump said, “I think that President Obama’s behind it because his people are certainly behind it. And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, you know, some of the leaks – which are very serious leaks, because they’re very bad in terms of national security.”

Yeah, right. Dream on, Mr. Trump. You can sell that bill of goods to your supporters. But you can't fool the rest of us. If Americans are protesting, it's because you and your alt-right fan club are trying to turn America into a nationalist, neo-isolationist, and fascist fiefdom. You want to build a wall on the Mexican border that Mexico will not pay for, no matter how often you say it will. You want to beef up a "depleted" military at a time when we have the most powerful armed forces in the world. 

According to Business Insider, the U.S. ranks No. 1 among the world's 20 top military powers: 

• Budget: $601 billion
• Active frontline personnel: 1,400,000
• Tanks: 8,848
• Total aircraft: 13,892
• Submarines: 72

Sure, we've been fighting a War on Terror since 2001 and our forces need upgrades and maybe an increase in personnel. But we don't need to increase the military budget as much as you want to do. 

Lastly, the President's popularity won't go up soon unless he stops pandering to his base, especially those who think Stephen Bannon should remain as a member of the National Security Council and that Muslims want to impose Sharia law on the United States, among other apocalyptic delusions. 

But if the past month is any indication, I won't be holding my breath till Mr. Trump changes his ways in the White House.

Sources:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx?g_source=GALLUP_DAILY&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/politics/donald-trump-barack-obama-leaks/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/02/28/trump-obama-and-former-aides-behind-protests-leaks.html?cmpid=prn_msn

http://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-worlds-20-strongest-militaries-ranked-2015-9/#2-russia-19