20 August, 2017
The president's self-inflicted wounds since the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va., have reopened gaping divisions within the Republican Party - and within his own family and administration.
The clashes flared in Charlottesville when a white nationalist rally called to protest the planned removal from a park of a statue of Confederate army commander General Robert E. Lee was met with anti-racist counter-protesters.
Six in 10 people who approve of President Donald Trump (61%) say they can't think of anything Trump could do that would make them disapprove of his job as President, according to a Monmouth University poll released this week.
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 17, 2017 ...can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson - who's next, Washington, Jefferson?
During his working vacation, the President taking to Twitter, writing, "Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our lovely statues and monuments".
Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, told The New York Times meanwhile he believed the president's views were shared by many Americans.
"By almost two to one Americans think that President Trump dropped the ball in his handling of this crisis", Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College poll, said in a news release.
When asked how much Trump's handling of issues on race matter to them, 64 percent said a lot.
Mr Trump also appeared in danger of losing support from key Republicans he will need to advance his agenda in Congress. Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, questioned the president's "stability", and Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, declared Mr Trump's moral authority is "compromised". He just can't forget his election trouncing. He first praised Trump's response to the death of a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, who was killed when a vehicle driven by a white supremacist rallier barreled through a crowd of protesters, but called on Trump to reject the support of the white supremacists who have celebrated his presidency.
Graham responded with a statement telling the president to fix what he done. "History is watching us all". Instead after the hate-fuelled violence and disgrace of Charlottesville he finds himself more cut off from corporate America than any president in living memory.
