Trump’s legacy may trigger the 'political collapse' of the GOP: report
The Guardian reports President Donald Trump is struggling to remain conscious at public events while opinion polls suggest Americans are turning against their president and Republicans make for the exits ahead of bleak congressional mid-terms next November.
“… [T]his is a guy whose legacy may well be the political collapse of Republicans in this era,” said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “Put another way, rather than asking who is going to be the inheritor of the Trump mantle and the so-called MAGA movement, we may be talking in a year or so about which candidates can escape the odious distinction of having been connected with Trump.”
Trump “hit the ground running” after his 2024 win, said the Guardian. “On his first day in office he pardoned nearly everyone involved in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol and launched a radical expansion of executive power, a systematic retribution campaign against perceived adversaries, and a sweeping overhaul of domestic and foreign policy.”
But a government-wide restructuring under DOGE led to mass federal layoffs and the dismantling of popular agencies such as USAID before DOGE flamed out. And Trump’s immigration crackdown is failing at the polls, despite it being one of his higher polling issues.
Meanwhile, Brown University political scientist Wendy Schiller said Trump’s tariffs are “the greatest self-inflicted wound that the president has brought on himself and Republicans.”
“In this administration they are so much broader and more sweeping and it’s showing in supply chains, in consumer purchasing, in pricing, in every corner of people’s lives. Whether it’s a supermarket or it’s holiday gifting or whatever it is, they’re feeling it.”
Additionally, the American people are pushing back against Trump’s numerous infringements on free speech, with nearly 500 lawsuits filed in federal court over the course of his administration’s first 11 months. And the administration is losing in courts with judges appointed by Republicans and even President Trump himself.
“For months Trump appeared unassailable as the opposition Democratic party struggled to find its feet and protests appeared muted compared with his first term,” the Guardian reports, but Democrats then “appeared to regain their mojo.”
“Like Joe Biden before them, Republicans’ insistence that the economy is strong does not tally with many people’s daily experience at the supermarket,” the Guardian reports. “The president’s efforts to dismiss affordability as a ‘con job’, ‘hoax’ and ‘scam’ by the Democrats have rung hollow as he plans a $400 million ballroom at the White House.”
And then there’s the “long shadow” of the Epstein files, which increasingly implicate Trump through his association with a convicted sex trafficker, while also making him look out of touch. Last month, a Gallup poll showed Trump’s job approval rating down to 36 percent, the lowest of his second term, and disapproval up to 60 percent.
“The omens for November 2026 are grim,” said the Guardian. “History shows the party that holds the White House always tends to suffer losses in midterm elections. Democrats appear galvanized and determined to curb Trump’s power. Some Republicans are already deserting what they may fear is a sinking ship.”
Patrick Gaspard, a former assistant to Barack Obama and director of the White House office of political affairs, tells the Guardian that “Trump has run out of runway on Joe Biden,” having been given the allowance to blame Biden for the first few months of his presidency.
“But now, by a margin of two to one, voters hold Trump rather than Biden responsible for the outcomes in the economy and that’s got to be pretty scary for [House speaker] Mike Johnson and company,” said Gaspard.
Read the full Guardian report at this link.