The peak of Donald Trump’s presidency, so far and perhaps forever, happened before he became the president.  It was the deal he struck with Carrier, the Indiana air-conditioning company, to keep a factory open and jobs in the United States.  No moment was so triumphantly Trumpian; nothing has gone as well for him since. 

Was the Carrier deal sound economic policy, a sober and restrained use of the presidency’s powers?  Not precisely.  But it featured Trump following through on his most basic campaign promise: the pledge, delivered in rallies across the country’s stagnant reaches, that he would focus on good-paying jobs for people both parties seemed to have forgotten. 

It was the message that helped win him the Midwest, and with it the Electoral College.  It was the message that Steve Bannon spent the transition boasting would lead to a realignment that would shock conservative ideologues as much as liberals.  And it’s a message that’s basically disappeared — and with it, the president’s brief uptick in popularity — during Trump’s stumbling, staggering, infighting first few weeks in office.