One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump's 14-day-old presidency is speed. The 45th president of the United States was fond of saying on the campaign trail that most politicians did too little and that he would be a man of action if he got into the White House. It was
The Trump administration is very proud of how fast it's moving
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Dig into the numbers and the explanation for the discrepancy is clear: Polarization and partisanship. (Yes, if you're paying attention, that's the explanation for almost everything in politics.) In 2009, less than half of Republicans (45 percent) said Obama was moving too fast. In the 2017 Gallup poll 73 percent of Democrats say Trump is moving too fast.
Some (most?) of Democrats' discontent may be rooted in the sorts of actions Trump is taking (the travel ban, moving to repeal Obamacare) as opposed to how quickly he is moving.
By the same token, the overwhelming Republican support for Trump's early pace is rooted in broad support for the moves he is making: More than 8 in 10 Republicans support Trump's temporary suspension of all visitors from seven predominantly Muslim countries and back his efforts to build a wall along the southern border.
The Gallup numbers reflect what is obvious to anyone paying attention to these first few week of the Trump presidency: He has quickly moved to implement a number of promises he made on the campaign trail, a strategy that has cheered Republicans and convinced Democrats that he represents a fundamental threat to their vision for America.
It's hard to imagine these Gallup numbers will give President Trump much pause. He quite clearly believes he was elected to blow up the conventional power system in Washington and has systematically sought out ways to do so since coming into the White House. I can't see him stopping now - polls, for once, be damned.