Trump's approval ratings are the highest they'll ever be. And they suck.

[geek tragedy]

Congress hasn't taken one difficult vote, he's still in the honeymoon phase of his presidency, and the economy is only going to get worse under him. He hasn't had a single setback yet, no event beyond his control to test him.

There are a lot of people still holding out hope for this profane beast. Just wait until things go sideways, and then all the bad stuff that they know in the back of their minds is true will start becoming harder to deny.

[MFM008]

1. I saw someone say tonight

It was because of him the dow hit 20,000.
Forget about the previous 8 years.

[geek tragedy]

2. I'm sure that same person will blame him when it goes south nt

[appal_jack]

6. Well that will be Obama's fault...

I hope this is not necessary, but of course I am stating above.

But, in all seriousness, I fear Reichstag-fire-type events. Without veering too far into conspiracy theories for this century, remember how unpopular Dubya was prior to 9/11? That Pearl Harbor-type event (desired by PNAC, hmm...) sure helped that buffoon, allowing marionette-string holder Cheney to do as he wished.

-app

[GeoWilliam750]

5. What about the far, far more important bond market?

The 30 year bond yield has risen by nearly a percentage point, knocking about 15% off the price of the 30 year bond over the last four months. As real estate - and pretty much every other asset - is ultimately based off of this rate, the housing market should be taking a hit.

Simple arithmetic. If you can borrow at 2.2%, you can pay a lot more for a house than if you have to borrow at 3.2%.

THIS is what people should be focusing on. He has effectively reduced the value of much of the US by truly vast sum.

He has spent his life in real estate. He KNOWS how this works.

[GeoWilliam750]

7. A bit more - again, Bonds are the big story.

From Wikipedia...

"On January 26, 2016, debt held by the public was $13.62 trillion or about 75% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[5][6][7][8] Intragovernmental holdings stood at $5.34 trillion, giving a combined total gross national debt of $18.96 trillion or about 104% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[7]"

In theory, a one percentage point increase in interest rates will, over time add $130-190bn to the annual deficit. However, this will take some time to come through the system, as the interest rate the government is paying will only change at the time of the bonds' maturity.

However, as shown on page 17 of the attached/linked Treasury report, the maturities are bunched heavily at the short end of the Treasury curve, meaning that the impact will be sooner - although at the shorter end of the curve (less than two years), rates have only risen by 0.25%-0.5%. Thus, over the next four years - at this rate - he will have added somewhere between $30bn and $100bn to the budget deficit from higher interest rates alone.

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/feddebt/feddebt_ann2016.pdf

Finally, much of what we are seeing with the stronger equity market may well be due to an asset class shift from investors fleeing the bond market. Therefore, what initially appears to be a vote of confidence, is actually a rather loud and shocking indictment of Trump.

[manicraven]

3. He's already mucking things up...plays kissy face with Putin while insulting an ally

with threats about paying for an unnecessary wall, etc... He's such a fool!

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. It's one of the very few "bright spots" of this Trump nightmare.

[midwestminority]

8. RIP

RIP affordable health care and affordable housing. Look for a lot more homeless and dying due to lack of the aforementioned. I keep saying it out loud but HOW THE HECK did we not show up in DROVES to make sure this guy didnt make it into office? HRC was the answer after we couldnt get the real great America under Bernie!

[Stonepounder]

9. He may not be suffering here at home,

but his international prestige took a monster hit toady when the President of Mexico rejected Trumps 'negotiating' gambit (If Mexico isn't willing to discuss paying for the wall, maybe they should cancel the meeting next week.) and cancelled his trip. And did it publicly. And Trump had absolutely no response to his failed negotiation. And this from the self-proclaimed 'best negotiator'. Which shows the whole world that Trump doesn't have a freaking clue how to negotiate with heads of sovereign foreign nations.