President Donald Trump has been historically unpopular since taking office and is now even showing cracks in his core constituency.
The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin has argued Trump's popularity is only going to wane as he spars with House Democrats as special counsel Robert Mueller unveils his findings.
In a new column, Rubin counts off the people Trump has lost support from—including one that's simply "humiliating."
"Now even Nick Ayers, one of the most ambitious hired guns in the business — a man who has made millions from politics — won’t serve as his chief of staff," she writes. "Having Ayers turn him down with no Plan B may not have been the worst moment of Trump’s presidency, but it’s certainly one of the most humiliating. To be blunt, when someone of Ayers’s ilk figures out it’s not in his interest to take one of the most sought-after jobs (normally) in government, you know Trump has become toxic."
Ayers is just 36 years old and is known for his willingness to push hard for unpopular positions.
Rubin runs through the coalition that carried Trump to an electoral college victory and argues that the numbers bode very poorly for him, especially now that suburban white women are defecting in droves.
"With each staff shuffle, Trump’s staff and senior advisers get less professional and less willing to level with him," she argues, citing the loss of UN ambassador Nikki Haley and her replacement with a PR person. "The result likely will be even more missteps and episodes such as the COS search (i.e., instances of abject incompetence). As Trump 'wins' less, those who admired him for his management acumen or who merely wanted to blow up the system may drift off as well. In sum, it’s very likely that Trump’s political isolation will get worse."
Read the column here.
