Another Sector Begins to Fold Rather Than Incur Trump's Wrath
Donald Trump has already gotten media companies, law firms, universities and newspapers to grovel at his feet. Now he's opened a new front in the grovel wars. The Gallup Organization will measure presidential approval no longer—even though it is exceptionally good at this work and there is substantial market demand for its product.
The Mechanism
What's the problem? Gallup measured Donald Trump's approval at 47% last February and 37% in December. Trump did not like these numbers. So how could Gallup avoid presidential wrath while maintaining even a shred of credibility (which fudging data would not preserve)?
Stop taking approval polls altogether.
Problem solved.
A spokesman for Gallup explained: "This change is part of a broader, ongoing effort to align all of Gallup's public work with its mission."
The Contradiction
This statement contains a remarkable inversion. George Gallup built his organization's reputation—and its mission—on measuring public sentiment, particularly on political issues. Gallup polls defined what serious polling looked like. For nearly a century, "What does Gallup say?" meant something specific: an honest measurement of how Americans actually felt.
That was the mission.
Now Gallup has decided its mission is something else. Something that allows them to avoid publishing numbers that displease the President.
The Pattern
This is how institutional capture works. It doesn't require explicit orders or obvious coercion. It requires only that institutions understand the cost of truthfulness and make a rational calculation that conformity is cheaper.
Gallup chose to abandon their foundational purpose not because they were forced to, but because they decided that the absence of presidential wrath was worth more than the presence of their own integrity.
They chose packaging colors over democracy.
They chose commercial safety over civic responsibility.
They chose to survive.
The Golden Quisling Award recognizes institutions that betray their core purpose to avoid Trump's displeasure. Gallup qualifies.
When historians ask how American institutions collapsed during this period, they'll find records like this one. They'll see that we documented it in real time. They'll see that Gallup had a choice, made it consciously, and that we were here to mark the moment.
Gallup will likely tell themselves this change is temporary, tactical, a pragmatic adjustment to current conditions.
It's not. This is how institutions die—not with a bang, but with a memo about "alignment with mission."
Gallup's mission is now whatever keeps the President happy.
Everything else was just the packaging.
No comments:
Post a Comment