ANALYSIS: What a year, what a presidency

— -- As someone who has been around this town forever and covered politics for decades, I am constantly asked about the Trump presidency: “Has there ever been anything like this?”

The answer is no. No to everything. There’s never been a president who endlessly litigated the last election, which he won, by the way. There’s never been a president who had lower approval ratings this early in his term -- 37 percent, according to the most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll. Never has a president called our justice system a “joke” and “a laughingstock.” Never has a president left so many state department positions unfilled, at a time when crises are erupting around the globe. And never, of course, has a president set policy on Twitter.

All of the chaos surrounding the constantly churning White House is clearly taking its toll. There is much in the ABC News/Washington Post poll that would send most presidents scrambling to try to set things straight. Majorities say Trump’s not delivering on his major campaign promises, that he’s not honest and trustworthy, that he’s not a strong leader, that he hasn’t brought needed change and that he doesn’t have the right personality or temperament to be president.

As he makes the rounds in Asia with North Korea foremost on the agenda, a shocking two-thirds of those polled don’t trust Trump to act responsibly in handling that situation.

But instead of trying to fix what’s wrong, the president rails against the media, the Democrats, and the Clintons while proclaiming that he has done more in the time he’s been in office “than any president in history.”

He probably believes that. That’s the part that’s scary. Trump seems to think that because he’s in charge this must be “the best of all possible worlds.”

Last week when Fox News Channel host Laura Ingraham asked the president about the number of vacancies in the State Department, he replied, "I’m the only one that matters because when it comes to it, that’s what policy is going to be.”

Some Trump voters now seem to understand that the election was all about him, that he is “the one that matters,” not them. In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll of “Trump counties,” only 32 percent say the country is better off than when their candidate was elected and a majority sees no clear agenda coming out of the White House.

So now what? Where do we go from here? Democrats think this head-scratching year works for them, and that by making the next election all about Trump they can win. But that’s not what the polls show.

Among those likeliest to vote next year: people who turned out in the last midterm and say they are certain to do so again. Those voters also end up tied over which party best represents their values.

And even fewer voters overall -- 27 percent -- trust Democrats in Congress to make the right decisions for the country, compared to a pitiful -- but still higher -- 34 percent who say the same for Trump.

So no, there’s never been anything like this. The Trump presidency has the country concerned and confused. But there’s no currently acceptable alternative waiting in the wings.

Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News. Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of ABC News.