President Trump's popularity still below 45% mark....Sessions in hot water over pre-election meetings with Russians

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Well, we're 41 days into President Donald J. Trump's four-year term, but his popularity is not improving despite the best efforts of his minders to make him look like he is accomplishing important things in Washington - and his Florida digs at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach county.

Despite Tuesday night's Presidential address before Congress in which Mr. Trump at least acted a bit more....presidential, his approval ratings are still below 45%.

According to a Gallup poll published today, only 43% of Americans approve of the way that President Trump is doing his job. That's a 1% improvement over the last Gallup poll we mentioned here, but not by much.

Why?

First, the 45th President of the United States has a big problem with truthfulness - he lacks honesty. In his first address before both houses of Congress, Mr. Trump gave his listeners a bravura performance that, as the Washington Post noted,  was full of "numerous inaccuracies."

Remember his election promise to "drain the swamp" in Washington, D.C. by a five-year-long ban on lobbying by members of all the branches of government? This is what Mr. Trump said on Tuesday:

 “We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a five-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials — and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government.”

Sounds nice, doesn't it? But, according to the Post, that wasn't what Mr. Trump had pledged to do.

Per Post reporters Glenn Kessler and Michelle Ye Hee Lee:

Trump did sign an order that he said would result in a lifetime ban on administration officials lobbying for foreign governments. But his five-year ban on lobbying is less than advertised. Trump originally promised to extend the ban to congressional officials, but he did not. Moreover, the five-year ban applies only to lobbying one’s former agency — not becoming a lobbyist. Trump actually weakened some of the language from similar bans under Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and reduced the level of transparency.

He also keeps on taking credit for economic progress that he had nothing to do with. In his speech, Mr. Trump said:

“Since my election, Ford, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, Sprint, SoftBank, Lockheed, Intel, Walmart and many others have announced that they will invest billions of dollars in the United States and will create tens of thousands of new American jobs.”

Again, this sounds absolutely fantastic. But as the Post points out, all of these corporate decisions were made before Trump's election in November.

For instance, let's look at what the Ford Motor Company did, and why. According to the Post:

 Ford’s decision to abandon its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expand its Michigan plant has more to do with the company’s long-term goal — particularly its plans to invest in electric vehicles — than with the administration. Ford chief executive Mark Fields said about the company’s decision to abandon plans to open a factory in Mexico: “The reason that we are not building the new plant, the primary reason, is just demand has gone down for small cars.”
Photo by: CNN
As if that wasn't enough, there are new allegations that Mr. Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions met with Russian diplomats before the Presidential elections - then lied about it at his confirmation hearings.

 According to a report by CNN:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions met twice last year with the top Russian diplomat in Washington whose interactions with President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn led to Flynn's firing, according to the Justice Department.
Sessions did not mention either meeting during his confirmation hearings when he said he knew of no contacts between Trump surrogates and Russians. A Justice official said Sessions didn't mislead senators during his confirmation.

Even Republican members are calling for Sessions to recuse himself from any case involving a connection between the Russians and Trump's election. There's also talk of an investigation on the matter of Session's alleged lack of candor at his confirmation hearing. Per CNN:

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN Sessions "should further clarify his testimony." Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California, said "we need a clear-eyed view of what the Russians actually did so that all Americans can have faith in our institutions."

 Sources:

 http://www.gallup.com/poll/201617/gallup-daily-trump-job-approval.aspx

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/02/28/fact-checking-president-trumps-address-to-congress/?utm_term=.0c52167d5807

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/28/executive-order-ethics-commitments-executive-branch-appointees

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/11/18/trumps-claim-taking-credit-for-ford-keeping-the-lincoln-plant-in-kentucky/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.1e119caeb5b5

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/01/politics/jeff-sessions-russian-ambassador-meetings/

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