Americans ‘aren’t buying’ Trump’s spin on chaotic government funding lapse: analysis

Despite President Donald Trump having persistently placed the blame on Democrats for the ongoing and widespread chaos seen at airports nationwide, Americans “aren’t buying” the president’s claims, an analysis published Wednesday in Zeteo found.

While most of the federal government remains funded, the Department of Homeland Security has been in a funding lapse since February after Democratic lawmakers refused to allocate money toward the agency without major reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As a result, staffing shortages at airports have worsened, leading to long lines for travelers nationwide.

Trump has said that Democrats were “fully to blame” for the airport chaos, and his administration has pushed similar messages through various means, including DHS video messages broadcast at airports that label the chaos as the “Democrat shutdown,” according to Zeteo.

“Americans, thankfully, aren’t buying any of this,” wrote Zeteo reporter Andrew Perez in his analysis.

Perez went on to cite a new Reuters poll that found Trump’s approval on the economy demonstrated “the lowest rating in either of Trump’s presidential administrations,” as well as another recent poll from The Argument, which found that, as recent as last week, Americans disapproved of the president’s job performance by a margin of 58%.

“Americans increasingly appear to get that Trump is turning the country into a s---hole,” Perez wrote, making a sarcastic reference to Trump’s own past remarks about “s---hole countries.” “Let’s hope it’s not too late.”

Trump has since deployed ICE agents to airports nationwide to help address staffing shortages, though their presence has shown “no sign” of improving conditions. As recently as late Wednesday morning, Trump, again, blamed Democrats for the ongoing “airport mess,” and threatened to deploy the National Guard to airports.