Donald Trump’s agitated and chaotic day illustrates well why most Americans disapprove of the president and consider that they are ignoring the topics that really worry them-and also because his most faithful supporters will never abandon him
Trump’s incessant attacks on the national spirit have all made it a little insensitive to his shocking political style. But even for him, Wednesday was a reckless course, in which he barely addressed the concerns of the voters who reappointed him to the White House.
Trump fed more speculation about a possible resignation of Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell after a meeting on Tuesday where, according to CNN, he questioned legislators about what he should do.
Powell removing would be the most blatant attempt of a modern president to interfere with the role of the Fed in defining interest rates and could push the global economy into the abyss. It could also represent the riskiest power maneuver of Trump’s wide mandate by destroying one of the US -supporting assumptions as the most powerful economy in the world: that presidents do not imitate dictators of developing countries by manipulating the rules for political gain.
Trump would later ensure that it would be “highly unlikely” to fire Powell after the markets reacted with apprehension. But given its volatile nature and the evident desire to take revenge on a guardian who refused to give in to his autocratic impulses, few will fully believe in these guarantees.
However, in an extraordinary explosion in the Social Truth, Trump attacked some of the most prominent figures of the Maga movement, calling them “weak” for criticizing their government’s refusal to publicize files about the late condemned sexual aggressor Jeffrey Epstein. This defensive attitude of Trump has rekindled the controversy that has been boiling for over a week – and should feed more suspicious that it has something to hide, as well as the Democratic appeals for greater transparency.
In trying to dispel a conspiracy theory, Trump eventually created another, accusing the democrats of being behind the controversy – although Epstein was accused of sex trafficking by Trump’s own Justice Department in his first term. “Their new fraud is what we’ll call Jeffrey Epstein Farce Farce Farce, and my former supporters have fallen into this ‘nonsense’,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s volatility is too risky
These two episodes – which are far from the most restless of most voters – illustrate well the exceptional and often dangerous traits of Trump’s unique presidency.
Trump seeks a Fed president who ignores prudence and aggressively reduces interest rates for rapid growth. As with his obsession with customs tariffs, which also violates economic orthodoxy, Trump longs for implementing a risky theory that many experts anticipate that would lead to disaster.
This behavior gets closer to the whims of a king than the performance of a president who respects democratic norms. After all, Powell is praised by many economists for getting the impossible: to control the worst inflationary crisis in 40 years without provoking a recession or a sharp climb of unemployment. But unlike Powell, that Trump himself appointed in his first term, the president acts on intuitions. If you make a mistake and cause contagion in financial markets, savings and the support of millions of people will be at risk.
The Epstein case is extraordinary in its own way, as Trump, the greatest propagator of conspiracy theories in modern politics, is now trapped in a storm of innuendo and falsehoods it has helped to create. It is paying the price of having fueled extreme distrust about the government within its movement – a strategy that explored to build a personal power base based on voter resentment. His failure to wage the narrative around Epstein is a warning about what happens to a democracy when the facts and the truth are despised and the legitimacy of government is destroyed because a substantial part of society doubt all that is told.
President’s dramatizations overshadow some political victories
Often, the Trumpian noise obscured more significant victories for the president, including his growing offensive to dismantle the federal government – one of the central goals of his campaign. The White House continued on Wednesday to celebrate a decision of the Supreme Court that will allow to advance with the dismantling of the Department of Education through mass disqualification.
Taking down this agency has been a difficult priority to realize for Republicans since Ronald Reagan. Trump has also advanced on another longtime goal that other republican presidents failed to achieve: the bill that removes federal financing from public broadcasters is closer to being voted.
In the White House, Trump also signed the Halt Fentanyl Act, approved by Congress with bipartisan majorities. The measure reinforces the penalties for traffickers, although critics warn that it can counterproductively lead to the incarceration of toxicode dependents.
The president chaired a ceremony where family members of Americans were present who died tragically after consuming the drug. Trump’s compassion explains why he is so cherished by his support base.
Fentanil’s scourge has a special impact on the rural areas of Republican states, which have paid a high price at the opiate epidemic. Trump recognized the suffering these drugs cause to many American families, putting the theme at the center of their campaigns – probably more than any other politician.
Fentanyl trafficking through the southern border intersects with another popular Trump flags with his electorate-a rigid immigration policy. His attention to public opinion in this area has helped to unify and expand the working class coalition that elected him twice to the presidency.
These voters feel they have a president who listens to them.
A new CNN poll clarifies Trump’s stormy presidency
Trump’s frantic day helps explain some of the conclusions of a new CNN/SSRs poll, released Wednesday.
His willingness to take great risks with the economy, the obsession with secondary cases such as Epstein’s and the habit of acting on behalf of a country’s minority limit their numbers in polls. According to the inquiry, Trump’s approval remains unchanged from spring in 42%. But less than a year of elections, which will partly decide for the cost of essential goods and housing, only 37% of respondents consider that Trump is concentrated on the right subjects – a six -point drop in charge of March.
Neither Frenasim Maga around Epstein, nor the dramatization of Powell, are in the priorities of voters in 2024.
More worrying for Trump is the fact that it is at a disadvantage in most issues that most concerned the electorate. Usually this would be a sign of a presidency in serious difficulties. Presidents in the second term that reach this low level of approval often face difficult years until the White House exit.
Trump is, however, a unique case. Their approval numbers remain in a usual interval all the time in the presidency. His willingness to bring his powers to the limit – and sometimes beyond the law and the Constitution – and the submissive republican majorities in Congress make it depends less on public support than conventional presidents.
Still, it seems to continue to do precisely the opposite of what most voters want. His biggest internal victory-the newly approved “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, which includes much of his internal agenda for the second term-is rejected by 61% of Americans. Among the independent, Trump’s approval is a 32%anmemic.
These numbers may cause seizure among vulnerable republican legislators who compete in decisive electoral circles in next year’s interchangeary elections. And contextualize the new effort of Texas Governor Greg Abbott to demand the redesign of the state’s electoral map in an attempt to reinforce the republican party’s hypotheses to maintain the fragile majority in the House of Representatives.
The poll also adds nuances to the current turbulence in the Maga world over Epstein, which began when Attorney General Pamela Bondi suggested that new information reinforced the allegations that the accused of sex trafficking was murdered in prison and that authorities had a list of famous clients. Last week, however, his Justice Department released a memorandum stating that there was no incriminating evidence about any customer list and that Epstein committed suicide.
Despite the fury between the media stars of the Maga Movement, CNN/SSRS poll reveals that Trump’s support among Republicans remains solid in 88%.
Still, a fall even if limited in the enthusiasm of Trump’s most radical members could harm Republicans in renar disputes at next year’s interchals. And the Maga Podcasters, interested in monetizing the activist’s fury, will continue to feed the flames of Epstein’s controversy.
But it remains evident that Trump maintains massive support among tens of millions of base republicans across the country.
