Here is my unsolicited advice for Donald Trump.
You have historically awful approval numbers right now and they are not from fake polls. But your Presidency need not be a total failure from the beginning. if you want to improve your standing with the American people and begin a path toward a successful Presidency, let me make five suggestions.
One: Get rid of your Twitter account. It doesn’t help you get around the “dishonest media.” It’s just a way to settle scores and it reduces you further and further in the public’s estimation. Getting rid of Twitter will let you vent in more private or controlled ways.
Two: Make a clean and hard break with Russia. Nobody knows the extent of your relationship with Mother Russia. But the suspicions of you as a Russian mole are strong enough that you need to crack down against Putin and treat the Russian Federation as a dishonest rival power. It will never be a partner in the fight against ISIS or anything else.
Three: Focus like a laser on trade. It’s the one real mandate you have, since it gave you three Rust Belt states. But don’t try and take credit for every plant that doesn’t leave. People aren’t stupid. They know when jobs are really leaving or staying. And it’s the big numbers of manufacturing jobs that matter.
Four: Take a strong stance on the ACA in favor of a replacement that, as you said, offers health insurance to everybody. You’ll win serious allies if you fight the repeal-and-die caucus in Congress. If you want to establish Medicare for all and call it TrumpDeluxeCare, go right ahead. You’ll be a hero.
Five: Denounce the alt-right bigots who gravitated to your campaign. Let America know that they have no place in your Administration.
These five things are all in your control. If you make a good faith effort here, you can start to build some good will with the people who didn’t vote for you, and recover the support from people who reluctantly voted for you. A lot of people will never support you. But many are willing to give you a chance If you fail to do these things (there are a few others but these seem to be the most doable), you will have missed an opportunity to advance a change agenda and will be judged a miserable failure. It’s your choice.