I heard that the Trump approval ratings had been improving. I thought this might just be a Fox News thing, but I trust Gallup and these survey folks say this is the case. The findings that led to the impeachment, the obviousness of all of the other character flaws, the anti-Obama rationale for deprecating the advances in health insurance, the increase in the National Debt to fund a trillion or more increase in tax forgiveness for large corporations, the horrendous treatment of desperate people trying to come to this country, etc. do not allow me a way to rationalize this trend.
In the area of research that attempts to understand this type of personal decision making, this type of thing is described as a function of personal identify. We all bend facts to our own models of the world. The gap Gallup documents between Democratic and Republican support for Trump is now at an all-time high. This is what the role of identity can do. When issues become associated with a political party – climate change makes a good example – the facts play a much diminished role. If you identify as a Republican and climate change has become associated as a democratic thing, you find yourself questioning the scientists or ignoring efforts to address climate change. Educated people should know better, but they find themselves falling in line nonetheless.
I see no other way to account for the way people can find value in Trump. There is so much that must be ignored or explained away. This is how identity politics works.