In mid-December, Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office and told Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, live on television, that he would take full responsibility for a government shutdown and would not blame them for it. Of course, literally no one was surprised when he proceeded to do just the opposite, in typical all-caps, shrieking-banshee fashion, because 1) he’s a pathological liar, and 2) shutdowns are unpopular, particularly the sort that drag on longer than any other time in U.S. history. Even Trump, dumb as he is, is aware that it’s preferable not to be known as the cause of human shit piling up in national parks; some 800,000 federal workers being furloughed or forced to work without pay; airport delays and terminal closures; potential salmonella and E. coli outbreaks; and hits to economic growth. Unfortunately for Trump, most Americans do blame him, probably because he alone engineered the shutdown over a pointless, expensive wall, even after being offered a variety of scenarios to keep the government open.

According to a Washington Post-ABC poll released Sunday, 53 percent of respondents said Trump and Republicans are mainly at fault for the shutdown, while 29 percent blamed congressional Democrats. Trump didn’t fare much better in a CNN poll published Monday, which found that 55 percent of people blamed him for the shutdown and only 32 percent pinned things on Democrats. Meanwhile, as the Post reports, things are only getting worse:

The CNN poll shows his approval/disapproval (37/57 percent) has worsened since last month, going from a net -13 to a net -20. Even more worrisome, “The increase in disapproval for the president comes primarily among whites without college degrees, 45 percent of whom approve and 47 percent disapprove, marking the first time his approval rating with this group has been underwater in CNN polling since February 2018.”

Even the traditionally conservative-friendly Rasmussen Reports found that 55 percent of likely voters disapprove of the president’s performance, with just 32 percent saying they “strongly approve” of the job he’s doing. Still, Trump has never been one to let reality get him down, or even penetrate the outer layer of his brain. Last month, he claimed on Twitter that were it not for “the phony Russia Witch Hunt . . . my approval rating would be at 75%.”

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