Donald Trump's approval rating is at a new low, the media are in full feeding frenzy mode over the latest Russian collusion revelations, Republicans are squabbling among themselves over Obamacare repeal, the White House staff leaks like a sieve, and the "resistance" to "the Trump regime" is getting even more hysterical.

But all this churning, churning, churning by the media and the Democratic opposition has had near zero effect on ordinary Americans and how they view their personal financial situations.

Consider some numbers via the Washington Times:

Meanwhile, economic indicators released in the last four weeks remain positive. The Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its 23rd all-time high of 2017 last week; since the Nov. 8 election, it has reached record highs 40 times, says a close analysis by Gateway Pundit. The market is up 9 percent since Mr. Trump's inauguration, and 17 percent since the election.

There's more. A Pew Research Center poll conducted in 38 nations found that the U.S. is still considered the world's leading economy, with China in second place. Meanwhile, 60 percent of U.S. employers plan to hire permanent, full-time workers in the "second half of the year," according to a Harris Poll while a Harvard University survey found that 55 percent of voters approve of the way Mr. Trump is handling both job creation and the economy.

On Friday, Rasmussen Reports noted that "confidence in personal finances hits a four-year high," citing their own daily consumer confidence index, up five percentage points this month to 157.3.

"Immediately following the 2016 presidential election, enthusiasm about the economy started to grow and has been on the upswing for six of the last eight months. In President Obama's final year in office, economic ratings ranged from 112.7 to 122.9," the pollster noted.

It's not that people aren't paying attention to what's going on in Washington.  They just don't trust the media to give them the full story, or the true story, for that matter.  The press has lost the trust of the people – completely.  Since the media decided the day after the election to abandon all semblance of impartiality and non-partisanship, ordinary people have tuned them out.  At this point, it's impossible to see how they regain any credibility at all.

Those numbers pose an interesting "chicken and egg" question.  Has the people's confidence in Trump led to more confidence in their personal financial situations, or has confidence in their personal financial situations led to more confidence in Trump?  With the president's personal popularity in the tank, you might think it's the latter.  But the last quarter of the Obama administration saw the economy performing about as well as the first quarter of the Trump administration, and people's confidence in their personal financial situation was much lower.

Voters may not like Trump, but they approve of his policies.  Ironically, this is the exact opposite of how people viewed Obama; they liked him personally but did not support his policies. 

The numbers are important because consumer spending makes up about 70% of economic activity in the U.S., and there is a correlation between confidence in one's own financial situation and consumer spending.  That number was down last month but should pick up this month and in August as back-to-school spending picks up.

What many economists call "The Trump Effect" is still in full bloom and shows no signs of diminishing.