Decryption | Will Trump enjoy a honeymoon?

Will Donald Trump finally be able to experience the sweetness of a political honeymoon?

At the start of his first term as president, he was deprived of it. The day before his inauguration, huge crowds invaded the streets of many American cities, including Washington, to protest against his entry into the White House.

The same day he was sworn in, demonstrators expressed their anger towards him by smashing business windows in the capital.

And the first Gallup poll of his presidency had placed his popularity below 50%, a bar that he was not going to surpass once during the four years of his mandate, unlike all his predecessors since the mid-20th century.^e century.

Donald Trump’s second term could start on a different note. One thing is certain, the person concerned believes he deserved this more or less brief period where voters show indulgence towards a new leader.

“I hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most important in the history of our country,” he said Monday during his inauguration speech as 47^e president. “As our victory showed, the entire nation is quickly unifying behind our agenda. »

Obviously, Donald Trump often takes his dreams for reality, as this statement demonstrates.

Far from being the greatest electoral victory in American history, that of the Republican is one of the narrowest in history.

The 47^e President won the popular vote by a smaller margin (1.5%) than Joe Biden in 2020 (4.5%) and Hillary Clinton in 2016 (2.1%), to name just two opponents.

It is also false to say that the entire nation is unified behind its program. It is certainly true that a majority of voters (55%) are in favor of deporting all illegal immigrants present in the United States, according to an Ipsos/The New York Times published last Saturday.

It is also true that a strong majority of voters (71%) oppose the prescription of puberty blockers – particularly used by preteens who wish to change their gender – to people under 18 years old.

Unpopular key ideas

But Donald Trump himself remains an unpopular figure. According to a Marist/NPR/PBS News poll published on January 15, he received only 44% favorable opinions.

And many of his key ideas are far from winning the support of a majority of Americans, according to another poll, this one published by the Wall Street Journal on January 17.

Here are some of the results:

• No less than 57% of Americans took a dim view of Donald Trump’s promise to grant presidential pardons to people convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol. On Monday, the new president pardoned or commuted the sentences of about 1,500 insurrectionists, including the leaders of the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militias.

• More than two-thirds of Americans were opposed to using coercion or military force to acquire Greenland, while 57 percent were against using the same means to allow the United States to regain control of the Panama Canal.

• Two-thirds of Americans wanted nothing to do with the idea of ​​making Canada the 51st^e State of their country, an idea repeated many times by Donald Trump in the context of his tariff threats.

• No less than 64% of Americans were opposed to Donald Trump’s promise to end automatic citizenship for children born on American soil to illegal parents. On Monday, the president signed an executive order ordering federal agencies not to issue citizenship documents to these children for 30 days. According to its defenders, the right to land is guaranteed by the 14^e amendment to the Constitution and recognized by the Supreme Court in a ruling dating back to the end of the 19th^e century.

Consider a “Liz Truss moment”?

How will Americans react to these initiatives in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration? Several factors could influence their opinion, including the negative effect that the customs tariffs envisaged by the Republican president could have on the stock markets.

By addressing this question at the microphone of Patrick Lagacé Tuesday morning, Jean Charest, former Prime Minister of Quebec and member of the Council on Canadian-American Relations, evoked a scenario that was audacious to say the least.

He was referring to the short-lived British prime minister, whose unpopular economic measures forced her to leave her post after just 44 days.

The American economy “cannot function without illegal immigrants who work in construction, in agriculture, in services,” added Jean Charest. “It’s going to be interesting.” This is far from being Mr. Trump’s first problem. »

It goes without saying that a “Liz Truss moment” would deprive the 47^e president of a political honeymoon or would cut it short.

At the moment, the idea of ​​such a moment seems incongruous. Like the presence of fresh lettuce leaves on the plate of Donald Trump, inveterate carnivore.