Graphics by Bill Marsh

By any measure , 2018 was another Year of Trump. From his efforts to remake the American economy to his go-it-alone trade war to his curious pro-Putin foreign policy to the at least 17 investigations underway into his various activities, President Trump dominated the news as few of his predecessors have done. But by the end of his second year, the prospects that he would achieve his economic goals were in grave doubt as growth slowed and the stock market swooned.

A 40-Seat Rebuke of an Unpopular President

Since Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump’s approval rating, according to the monthly Gallup poll, has averaged 39 percent (a record low for a new president). Voters emphatically registered their disappointment in the midterm elections. As statistical analyses of past midterm elections have shown, the approval rating of the president is more closely correlated to midterm success than the state of the economy is.