Trump’s polling numbers are up this week and are near the high point so far for his second term in office, which is not to argue that his popularity is soaring, far from it. 

At this point in his presidency, he is less popular than Joe Biden, polling lower than Barack Obama and polling significantly lower than George W. Bush. The only recent president with lower polling success at this point in his term in office was Donald Trump in 2017.

But, in consideration of the volatility of this administration, the blatant disregard for the laws of the land and the Constitution, the chaos caused by the TACO trade wars, the attack on the press and our universities, and the brutality of Trump’s immigration efforts, it is remarkable that his popularity is not significantly lower. 

There are lessons to be learned in understanding how “The Administration of One” is still not seen as the most divisive, destructive White House in our long history.

The answer reveals the genius of Donald Trump in rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic in such attention-gaining ways that obfuscate the fact that the ship is indeed sinking.

While his tariff initiative is collapsing in the courts from executive overreach, and his peace efforts in Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Hamas are seemingly going nowhere, and his One Big, Beautiful Budget is becoming a threat to our financial stability, Trump remains, to a great degree, immune from the criticisms he so earnestly deserves.

It is his method that is the change in the presidency that cannot be overlooked or minimized for its impact upon future presidents. Trump has taken the presidency into the 21st century by recognizing that daily presidential announcements, attacks and false claims keep him, not his conflated and disjointed policies, in the news.

Consider just this most recent week, one filled with judicial setbacks, Elon Musk attacks on his budget, and the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) financial mockery of his tariff wars. While all of these would be devastatingly bad news, Trump simply fills the market with various forms of flotsam.

In just this week, Trump’s debris tosses in the media include the following:

•Revoking emergency abortion protections for women in hospitals in any state regardless of state restrictions.

•Ending crucial global vaccination programs, even for polio.

• Attacking Harvard for antisemitism while Trump embraces various white supremacy groups.

• Placing Trump’s political appointees in charge of vetting scientific research reports.

• Demanding that food stamp recipients provide their personal information to receive food.

There is more, as it was a busy week for tossing flotsam from the White House into the mainstream media. But the point is, this president drives the news cycle every day, tossing out both frivolous ideas, like Canada as the 51st state, juxtaposed with personal attacks on Bruce Springsteen, while dropping gobsmackingly cruel policies among the more meaningless drivel spit out of his rhetoric.

It is an overflow of the absurd, a 21st-century device designed for the short-attention-spanned Americans who gulp down news with about the same intensity as chewing a French Fry. Ultimately, Trump has changed the American presidency from one focused on traditional leadership to one where leadership is more about being the chief gossip monger.

In essence, being in the news becomes the news, and Trump has turned the presidency into a pie-throwing, paintballing form of entertainment while mocking the nation’s real needs.

America needs healthcare reform, a national energy plan, and fair taxation. Trump offers that he hates Taylor Swift because she voted for Kamala Harris.

Jim Crawford is a retired educator and political enthusiast living here in the Tri-State.