Why do people not like policies that have never been popular?

Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen have long been among the most prominent proponents of the idea that being “objective” means adopting right-wing ideas as proven facts. As Jedd Legum observes, the self-parody with continue until morale improves:

Journalists at many mainstream media publications insist that their coverage is objective and unbiased. This isn’t true.

Two of the biggest purveyors of this lie are Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, the co-founders of Axios. The Axios audience “Bill of Rights” promises that “all employees are asked to refrain from taking/advocating for public positions on political topics.” The document also pledges that Axios will “never have an opinion section.” Axios seeks to garner trust by positioning itself as neutral on all political topics.

VandeHei has promoted this view repeatedly in his public commentary. In a December 2024 speech, VandeHei advocated for a “clinical” approach to journalism, one that is detached from any ideology. In a May 2024 CNN interview, VandeHei said that the best way for reporters to restore trust is to keep their opinions to themselves and “stop popping off in ways that make people distrust the work that you do.”

John Harris, who started Politico with Allen and VandHei, wrote that the pair “cleave to a scientific ideal of journalistic detachment, the way a surgeon cannot tolerate even the slightest bacteria on his instruments.”

So, how did Allen and VandeHei cover the first six months of Trump’s presidency? “President Trump, in terms of raw accomplishments, crushed his first six months in historic ways,” the pair wrote in a piece published last Wednesday. Allen and VandeHei listed Trump’s “wins”: “Massive tax cuts. Record-low border crossings. Surging tariff revenue. Stunning air strikes in Iran. Modest inflation.” They describe the last six months as “the very best chapter of his presidency.”

But Allen and VandeHei are puzzled that, despite all this success, Trump’s approval ratings are very low. They offer this explanation: Americans “seem tired of all the winning.” Ultimately, they blame Trump’s unpopularity on the fickleness of voters who can’t figure out what they want. “[V]oters demand change,” Allen and VandeHei argue, “then flinch when it arrives too fast or too hard.”

Is there any reason to believe that this was the change voters were demanding? (Citing both “massive tax cuts” and “surging tariff revenue” as both being wins gives away the show immediately, as well as revealing the income bracket of the authors.) As Legum says, they refuse to even consider these obvious objections before concluding that people are TIRED OF ALL THE WINNING:

1. Trump’s signature legislation will reduce income for the poorest 40% of Americans while providing a windfall to the top 0.1%.

2. Trump pardoned over 1500 people convicted or awaiting trial for their role in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of assaulting police officers, using deadly weapons, and destroying government property.

3. Trump has decimated funding for cancer research.

4. Trump deployed the military against Americans protesting his immigration crackdown.

5. Trump flew dozens of people from America to a prison in El Salvador that is notorious for torture and human rights abuses.

And this doesn’t even mention the savage cuts to Medicaid, which are exceptionally unpopular.

It is true on some level that nothing Trump has done is unpredictable, and that’s why VandeHei and Allen like it. But it’s also true that Trump disavowed Project 2025 because of its unpopularity and the media agreed to drop it, and then has proceeded to execute almost every detail. He promised to protect Medicaid and didn’t. People should have expected the ratcheting up of the deportation of ordinary workers, but a lot of marginal voters didn’t. At any rate, there’s no mystery here — Trump has enacted a very unpopular agenda and people don’t like it, notwithstanding the fact that VandeHei and Allen do.

I’m not sure the INNOVATION PARTY is going to get off the ground either.