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Trump’s presidency is crumbling. The GOP will as well.



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. |

In Case You Were Surprised


Trumpelstilskin sent J.D. Vance to the Middle East in an attempt to end the war in Iran. The talks did not go well. Please note that in the Obama era there was a deal struck where Iran was allowed to maintain a Nuclear sector geared to energy within the country and released Billions of dollars that was rightfully Iran’s funds. All of this in a (partially successful?) easing the tension in that area. “Trumpel” blew that deal up without researching the details. It is true that Iran has proxy groups who have been at odds with Israel for a lot of years and with the easing of the tensions during the Obama years, there was a possibility of peace or truce among the countries in the region. Since the advent of “Trumpel” and his childish ego we are now supporting and participating the unjust war waged by Israel (almost on a whim) on Palestinians due to an attack by HAMAS (an Iranian proxy?). Gaza is destroyed leaving the thousands of displaced Palestinians fleeing to other countries (not Israel) for safety. Trumpel and his compadre “BIBI” have devastated GAZA while speculating and outwardly offering a rebuilding of Gaza with no input from the Palestinians and other world leaders.

Now the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that are displaced are in the same position as the Jews from 1939 through World War II, “Displaced” with no place to go. The Israeli right-wing settlers are busily confiscating as much of Gaza as they can get and taking whatever land Palestinians have through violence.

Bottom line here is that Trumpel began this attack on Iran (possibly at BIBI’s request) without consulting Congress or our European allies is now finding himself (and us, the voters) involved in another unwinnable, undeclared war. Trumpel has blasted our Allies for not joining in, because they took a hands-off position because they see no real objective or end in this action. Unless we (voters) make changes in the midterms we may be at war for a long-time while the cost of the War causes inflation at scale along with the ill-considered Tariffs!

As a side note: Iran fought back (which apparently surprised and angered “Trumpel”) has shown it is not just a small country unable to defend its self: example, taking control of the Strait of Hormuz and the attacks on its neighbors. Sending J.D. Vance with Jared Kushner and Amb. Wycoff to ease the tension and create terms of disengagement when they collectively “could not turn a knob to open a door”.