Opinion by Rex Huppke, USA TODAY • 5h • 5 min read
There has always been one thing, and one thing only, that President Donald Trump is good at: lying. He has conned and audaciously dissembled his way into a fortune and into two terms as president, always leaving chaos in his wake.
Well, it appears the tornadic chaos of the moment – war with Iran, high gas and food prices, a president with a Caesar complex – has finally overwhelmed Trump’s lies, rendering him impotent against collapsing poll numbers and setting the Republican Party up for disaster in the coming midterm elections.
A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released April 21 showed only 30% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, something that was once his strong suit. That’s down from only 38% approving in March.
In the same poll, a whopping 72% of Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction, and the president’s overall approval rating is a dismal 33%.
Many Americans feel betrayed by Trump’s lies and unmet promises
In a story about its poll, the AP quoted Kathryn Bright, a 60-year-old retired U.S. Air Force captain who supported Trump in the last election: “I feel disgusted with myself, I feel betrayed, like he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
Ouch. Accurate, but still ouch.
A new Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll found: “Trump’s net approval on prices/inflation has fallen to -46, the worst rating on any issue we have ever recorded.”
That poll also found that voters prefer Democrats over Republicans by a 7-point margin.
Trump’s poll numbers are circling the drain
Trump has turned Americans against his deportation policies, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll released April 22 showing 52% of Americans less likely to support a candidate who embraces Trump’s mass deportation plans. Only 42% said they’re more likely to support a candidate who is in line with the president’s draconian approach to immigration.
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With approval ratings in the mid-30s, Trump is well into the dreadful range of George W. Bush during his second term, another president who got the United States embroiled in a war in the Middle East.
But what stands out in this particular moment is the failure of Trump’s usually reliable ability to convince a large swath of America that up is down or that bad is good.
Lying worked so well for Trump. Now it’s failing him.
He keeps telling us that the war in Iran is going swimmingly, that we have dominated the enemy, that he is in complete control and that everything will be over soon. But none of that is true, and Iranian leaders appear to be playing him like a fiddle, leveraging their control over the Strait of Hormuz to spike gas prices here at home and outmaneuver Trump in ceasefire talks.
He keeps telling Americans that things have never been better, like in this April 17 social media post: “The U.S.A. is the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World right now. Just a short time ago, under Sleepy Joe Biden, IT WAS DEAD, LAUGHED AT ALL OVER THE WORLD!!! But not anymore ‒ Nobody’s laughing!!!”
He’s right that nobody’s laughing, but that’s certainly not because we’re the “HOTTEST” country in the world. Americans are struggling. Trump hasn’t brought down food prices as he promised, and his unnecessary and wildly unpopular attack on Iran has pushed gas prices through the roof.
Even our once-strong allies in Canada have turned on us, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney saying recently, “Many of our former strengths, based on our close ties to America, have become weaknesses. Weaknesses that we must correct.”
Tucker Carlson is latest of Trump’s supporters to flee like rats.
Meanwhile, a quick stroll through the president’s Truth Social page shows he’s primarily focused on posting self-aggrandizing artificial intelligence slop, worrying about his precious White House ballroom project and insisting everything is perfect.
Trump is now seeing high-profile departures from his clown car of avid right-wing supporters. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the thing you would get if the word “disingenuous” took human form, recently said he regrets supporting Trump: “We’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be. And I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people.”
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has bailed, as have Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene saw the light before most and hopped off the Trump Train, her opportunistic finger sensing which way the political winds would blow.
As more Americans turn on Trump, Republicans face likely midterm doomThere’s a point when even the most deluded among us, those Trump pulled so effectively into his vast web of lies and false promises, cannot reconcile their reality with the president’s fiction. I think we’ve reached that point, which explains why Trump has recently seemed more unhinged than usual. The magic trick isn’t working. He’s flailing.
That spells almost certain doom for Republicans in November’s midterm elections. GOP candidates now face a choice of either siding with a broadly disliked president who has suckered the American people, or running from that president and being torched by his ire and the hate and threats that will invariably come from the dwindling-in-number-but-still-loud MAGA loyalists.
You’ll pardon me if I don’t feel bad for the Republicans. They invited a liar extraordinaire into their parlor and let him sell them the politics of cruelty, dishonesty and scams.
But when the lying stops working, it all crumbles. And it’s looking increasingly likely the GOP will be well and deservedly crumbled come November.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump’s presidency is crumbling. The GOP will as well. |
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