'Falling apart': Analyst highlights unexpected hurdle that's 'hamstrung' Trump

President Donald Trump's second presidency got off to a fast start, but a columnist said it's "falling apart" as it nears his 100th day in office.

The president greatly exaggerated his mandate and governed accordingly, but his approval rating has drooped underwater in multiple polls and he's already more unpopular at this point than any other president besides himself, and his major policies are even less popular, according to the Washington Post's Aaron Blake.

"That suggests his image is largely buoyed by loyalists who might not like what they’re seeing but still say they support him — for now," Blake wrote.

It's too early to say Trump's second presidency is a failure, Blake wrote, but Americans have been strongly opposed his most controversial policies – with six in 10 expressing disapproval for his tariffs and Elon Musk's sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, and even stronger disapproval of his administration's disregard for a court order to facilitate the return of a man wrongly deported to El Salvador.

"But perhaps most troubling for the administration, practically speaking, is what’s happening in the courts," Blake wrote. "While those take a while to act, their actions have increasingly hamstrung what Trump is attempting. And despite the administration repeatedly blaming 'leftist' judges, the ones standing in Trump’s way include a fast-growing and remarkable number of Republicans appointees."

Blake added that Trump apparently didn't see that hurdle coming.

The Trump-engineered Supreme Court has ruled against him in deportations cases, and other Republican-appointed judges have strongly condemned his administration's actions in those cases and others, and his nominees to various roles – such as defense secretary Pete Hegseth – have dragged him down with scandals of their own.

"In sum: It’s all an increasing mess," Blake wrote. "Trump might try to muddle through — including by pressing forward on tariffs and risking a constitutional crisis by challenging the courts to actually make him abide by their orders. Trump has clearly demonstrated he feels more untethered in his second term, and congressional Republicans have shown very little appetite for standing in his way."

"Political gravity is taking a heavy toll," the columnist added. "It took a little less than 100 days."