As the Trump Administration’s coronavirus response has proceeded, the public clearly favors him over the entity perhaps most antagonistic toward him.

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Imagine if the coronavirus pandemic had hit us in 2009, or any year between 2009 and 2017. 

The economic repercussions, and the federal policy response, would’ve been far worse. 

A pandemic of this magnitude is a tragedy and societally difficult under any circumstance. 

That said, America entered this emergency with the strongest economy in recorded history.  For the first time ever, the number of reported jobs available exceeded the number of unemployed Americans - by approximately one million, in fact.  Stock markets had risen to unprecedented heights, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average approaching 30,000. 

On that note, remember the book “Dow 36,000,” and the ridicule directed at it for its apparent outlandishness?  Well, we were approaching that number just three years into Trump’s presidency. 

Although leftists and Trump antagonists allege that the market ascent merely continued Barack Obama’s legacy, that’s simply false.  Stock markets had actually stalled for the final years of Obama’s tenure during the most anemic economic “recovery” in recorded U.S. history.  As 2014 ended on December 31, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 17,823.07.  Two years later, the last day before Trump was elected, the Dow had hardly budged at 18,259.60. 

One year after Trump’s election, however, the Dow had rocketed up over 5,000 points to 23,563.36 – ten times the increase in just one year that we’d experienced in Obama’s final two years.  By New Year’s Eve two years later, the Dow had jumped another 5,000 points to 28,538.44. 

All of that is a credit to President Trump’s reversal of the Obama economic agenda, toward a more free-market, lower-tax, deregulatory orientation. 

Today, as we endure the sudden worldwide coronavirus pandemic and plot a recovery course going forward, Trump’s agenda also provides a preferable elixir to the one offered by those who seek a return to the Obama approach. 

And in that regard, this week provided remarkably encouraging news in terms of the American public’s assessment of President Trump’s coronavirus response and his recovery agenda moving forward. 

According to a new Gallup survey, Americans approve of Trump’s coronavirus response by a whopping 22% margin – 60% to 38%.  Other surveys reflect a similar upswing, which stands in sharp contrast with his rating between March 2 and March 14, which fluctuated between 4% negative and 11% negative – a 33% turnaround in just over one week. 

Meanwhile, one institution stands alone in the Gallup survey with a decidedly negative public approval rating.  That would be the news media, with a -11% deficit – 55% disapproval against 44% approval.  As the Trump Administration’s coronavirus response has proceeded, the public clearly favors him over the entity perhaps most antagonistic toward him. 

And returning to markets for a moment, they declined sharply in recent days when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D – California) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D – New York) stubbornly blocked relief legislation negotiated on a bipartisan basis between the Trump Administration and Congressional leaders, insisting that their bouillabaisse of left-wing special interest handouts be included in the bill.  But tellingly, markets rebounded with the highest Dow Jones point gain in history after Pelosi and Schumer read the proverbial writing on the wall and relented. 

Although the coronavirus pandemic has upended millions of lives across America and triggered enormous uncertainty, the fact is that we’re fortunate to have entered it with the strongest economy in history.  That can also help propel us toward a return to health faster than we might have amid the drawn-out, higher-tax, heavy-regulatory malaise of the Obama years. 

A broader survey of American history is also instructive. 

In October 1987, the Dow dropped by its largest one-day percentage in history – 22.6%.  Not only did we not enter a depression or even recession, however, but President Reagan’s economic miracle continued into the next decade.  That’s precisely because we stayed on course with a lower-tax, less-regulatory economic agenda. 

In contrast, the Obama Administration responded to the 2008-09 recession by raising taxes and increasing regulation over every facet of our economy, from healthcare to telecommunications to labor/employer relations.  And as a result, we endured what was objectively the most subdued cyclical economic recovery in recorded history. 

The same was true of the Great Depression, when Franklin Roosevelt’s vast governmental intervention perpetuated the nation’s misery instead of ending it. 

Those lessons remain applicable today, as demonstrated by the Trump economic ascent after nearly a decade of Obama malaise. 

The coronavirus pandemic was a bolt out of the blue, but as the pubic seems to recognize, maintaining a lower-tax, less-regulatory approach after temporary intervention to bridge the gap offers the wisest course going forward. 

The American public appears to get it:  Let’s follow the 1987 example, not the 1933 or 2009 examples.