Summary
A Fox News host, Jessica Tarlov, highlighted Trump’s declining approval ratings, citing a new Quinnipiac poll showing 53% of voters disapprove of his second-term performance.
Trump is “underwater on everything” including economy, federal workforce management, Ukraine-Russia policy, and trade relations with Mexico and Canada.
The polling slide comes amid stock market tumbles, federal worker layoffs, and trade tensions.
Tarlov noted that Republican members of Congress are facing hostile town halls where constituents are challenging them on federal workforce cuts, including at the VA. Some Republicans have dismissed these angry constituents as “paid actors.”
Approval ratings only impact elections
Yes and no. It’s really hard to boast about your “mandate” when a large and still increasing portion of the population publicly hates your guts and thinks you’re doing a shit job. It’s not enough by itself to meaningfully hurt him, but it does make him look bad and undermine his leadership. It is bad for his image, and image is an important component of power.
It’s also bad for his ego and could potentially lead him to behave even more erratically in ways that are ultimately self-destructive. Narcissists famously don’t do well in the face of being perceived negatively. The worse his ratings get, the more humiliating it will be for him. It is important to hurt their morale at every opportunity, even if it’s not nearly enough to stop them on its own. Demoralized, defensive MAGA will always be a weaker foe than energized, popular MAGA.
Idk I’ve always noticed he doesn’t give AF about reality. He just lies and if called out he just doubles down on his lies until he breaks the electorate and he gets elected again.
I used the same strategy to hide that I was smoking weed to my parents.
He’s a narcissist. Trust me, he cares. Yes, he will lie. He will lie to the world and to himself. Because he literally CANNOT cope. But that isn’t going to serve him. The more he lies to the world, the more deranged he will look, and the more he lies to himself, the more he will crash out mentally and self-destruct.
This. The narcissistic crisis of a man his age is all consuming. He doesn’t care about the external as long as he can play a game with it that he can use to maintain his internal. Anybody who knows this game can play him.
Until suddenly they impact everything.