The adjectives, signs, metrics are all there. President Trump and his economy (no longer the Biden economy) are unravelling.
Political observers and commentators are using ever tougher words to describe his volatile statements, behaviors and actions. Popping up in their analyses are words like insane, erratic, extremely unstable, bizarre, volatile, incoherent, unfit to serve as president, demented.
Beyond the pundits, his approval rating with the general public has dropped like a rock in just a half year in office. A recent University of Massachusetts Amherst poll has his approval at 38% and disapproval at 58% — a 20-point negative spread. He had a positive spread when inaugurated in January.
A recent Gallup poll put him at 37% approval, just above his all-time low at the end of his first term at 34%.
His approval on handling his two biggest campaign issues – immigration and tariffs – are below 50%. On managing the economy, the number one issue for most voters, Gallup put him at 37% in July.
The average citizen doesn’t follow economic statistics, but they can feel the trends in their lives. Jobs are harder to find here and across the country. Job growth in the last three months was a puny 106.000, down from 328,000 in the same period in 2024.
It’s astonishing how fast he and his seat-of-the-pants tariff punishments have slammed the brakes on an economy that was humming along when he took office. Many took effect this week.
Then there is inflation, which rose and then dropped sharply during Biden’s four years. Prices are inching back upward, and the tariff/taxes on importers and consumers are only just starting to kick in.
Trump statements can be chaotic. Example: he says the U.S. economy is “BOOMING!” Yet he persists in pushing the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. Booms cause inflation. Lower interest rates would make it worse. Does our president understand basic economics?
Ironically, the job growth collapse may bring about the interest rate cuts the next time the fed meets.
No one, including a vast majority of economists, really believes much of his B.S. about the benefits of tariffs, but it does cause economic widespread global uncertainty. That in turn paralyzes consumer spending and business investment. His advisors surely suggest that he tone it down, but he is a motormouth. His never-ending commentary into the wee hours nightly adds up to a blizzard of unsettling B.S.
No one knows really what’s coming next. No one, probably not even him.
He claims to have ended six wars. Pure delusion. The barbaric Russian assault on Ukraine is more vicious than ever, aimed increasingly against civilians. His bromance with Russian President Putin has gone nasty, but his support for Ukraine is still half-hearted.
His obsession with tariffs is boomeranging. He is making adversaries of countries that have been our closest allies, with countries where we enjoy a trade surplus, such as Canada, Brazil, Poland and the Netherlands.
His hatred of immigrants has become over-wrought. Yes, he has closed the southern border, and that’s all most Americans really want. They know mass deportation is unrealistic and godawful expensive They don’t want to see raids in their communities by men in boots and masks. They know we need the workers, legal or illegal.
MAGA hard-liners must know down deep by now that that Trump is making America less great. They must worry that he is a loose cannon. So they are holding onto their current jobs because they fear he is messing up the previously resilient $30 trillion economy.
On a personal level, his mind is not working right. His speeches wander into babble. He throws numbers around that make no sense. He scrambles timelines — on what happened when. He perseverates about his opponents that he sees as enemies. He mangles history.
Cultists can never admit publicly they were wrong in their votes for him, but their braggadocio has disappeared as he over-reaches on issue after issue. Many have gone mute.
The best barometer of confidence on Trump’s leadership comes from independent voters, the ones who gave him a narrow plurality last November. They have soured on him, down to a 29% Gallup approval rating.
He is becoming a historic tragic figure, a King Lear, unravelling further every day right in front of our eyes. The signs are all there. Somehow, we have to survive him.
