How messed up are Trump Supporters?

[Angrboda]

As Trump slides in a new poll, reality begins piercing the bubble

President Trump has steadfastly hewed to a simple M.O., which is to always claim he is winning, no matter how overwhelming the evidence grows to the contrary. Trump just raged at Democrats for failing to fund his wall, while simultaneously boasting that he has already secured the border and that the wall is indeed on track to getting built.

Last week, Trump buffoonishly claimed that the news implicating him in his former lawyer’s felony “totally clears the president.”

But, while such outward displays of brash confidence may snooker his more gullible MAGA-hat-wearing supporters, the evidence is everywhere that a very different reality has begun to pierce the bubble. Meanwhile, new data shows that outside this bubble, majorities of the American people fully grasp that reality, and have done so for a long time now.

A new CNN poll finds that Trump’s approval rating is mired at 39 percent, and it shows that even as ongoing investigations involving Trump and his orbit are bearing fruit, the American people continue to support the probe and believe it is turning up evidence of wrongdoing. The highlights:

• Only 29 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the Russia investigation, down from 33 percent last month, while the percentage disapproving has risen to 57 percent.
  
• 50 percent say special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe is very or somewhat likely to implicate Trump personally in wrongdoing, vs. 43 percent who say it won’t.
  
• A plurality of 44 percent say Trump did something unethical by concealing his effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow while campaigning for president, while another 26 percent say he did something unwise, and an abysmal 23 percent say he did nothing wrong. That last one, by the way, is Trump’s position.
  
• 59 percent say Russian interference in the election is a serious matter that should be investigated, vs. only 35 percent who say it’s about discrediting Trump’s presidency — i.e., that it’s what Trump calls a “witch hunt.”
  
• 54 percent say the things Trump has said about the investigation are completely or mostly false, vs. only 36 percent who say they’re true.
  

It’s true that approval of Mueller’s handling of the investigation is at 43 percent, also a drop, but Mueller is still in positive territory, and he’s far higher than Trump. The bottom line is that large percentages of Americans — far more than the opposite — say the investigation is pursuing legitimate and important matters; that Trump has been lying about the investigation; that it is already revealing wrongdoing on Trump’s part; and that it will likely reveal still more of the same.

This becomes all the more remarkable given the sheer volume of lies and disinformation Trump has offered on these matters. Trump has falsely claimed dozens of times that Mueller’s team is biased due to conflicts of interest, and he has falsely and preposterously asserted dozens of other times in various ways that it’s the Democrats who are the real colluders with Russia.