New York Times columnist Ross Douthat recently published an episode of “Interesting Times” saying that Trump has “lost the country,” but Republicans will never admit it.
I will be the first to admit, polling is not the best for Trump right now, but this is a rather difficult situation to interpret.
Like Fox News columnist Howard Kurtz, I don’t think Trump has lost the country, but I think it is just a very complex issue that can still be righted.
Douthat stated, “I want to tell you a secret. One that most conservatives on the internet don’t want you to know. A year into his second presidency, Donald Trump has lost the country.”
He then discusses Trump’s disastrous approval ratings, far worse than he had during his first term.
He then stated, “But here’s the thing. It isn’t moderates and swing voters who lose out when the Trump administration becomes unpopular. It’s people on the right. People like me, and certainly people further to my right who support many of the things the Trump administration has tried to do, from securing the border to pressuring American institutions to become more ideologically diverse, to resetting and rolling back D.E.I. All of that, all of that agenda will just disappear if the Republican Party can’t win elections.”
I agree and disagree with him. My longtime readers know I was supporting DeSantis during the primary, and it was for this exact reason. It was not that I did not like Trump’s policies, I do, but his brashness was bound to create Trump fatigue 2.0, as well as put the party at risk of losing the White House after a single term again.
Trump’s current disapproval rating, according to the New York Times average, sits at 55%, with a 41% approval rating.
The most recent poll by YouGov is not promising, with Trump’s approval rating at a mere 37%. The most recent Morning Consult poll has him at 40%, and even the usual Trump-friendly Zogby Strategies poll is only at 44%.
I am sure when Trump hears the poll numbers, he will claim they are all fake news and rigged, but that is not the case. Quite frankly, I think people are getting sick and tired of hearing that line.
The good news is that it is still not too late to turn this around. If he and his administration listened to what people are complaining about, they could salvage the midterms to at least hold on to the Senate.
Kurtz sees this much the same way I do, but there are some differences. I would highly encourage you to read his op-ed in Fox News, but this is my column, so I want to give Trump my ideas for how to fix this.
Americans elected him to shut down the border, and he did that, but they clearly do not like the visuals they are seeing from ICE, so just back it down a bit. I truly believe that Homan is far better equipped for the job than Noem, so she may have to be sacrificed or moved to a different role, which would allow her to save face.
Trump has to get prices lowered, and he has to do that soon because Dems are pouncing all over this. Relatively speaking, he has done a good job in getting most prices down, but when you say you are the “only” person who can do it and it would be done on day one, you paint yourself into a corner.
Trump also has to find a way to get the war between Russia and Ukraine over before June. Again, he said he was the only person who could do it and even said he was likely to have it over before he took office. The moment he said that, he owned that war.
Finally, the nonsense on social media needs to stop. The childish nicknames, the reposting of stupid memes, etc. It is now hurting him far more than helping, and it is a big reason why people are getting Trump fatigue again. To think we have to deal with three more years of this, well, I believe it is starting to get to people. Trump has a great personality, and he owns a room when he walks into it. Save the tough-guy persona for when it truly needs to come out, and get people outside of the base to like you.
