The Tide is Turning Against Trump
Trump’s approach to politics is to demand unwavering loyalty from all members of the Republican Party. Anyone who steps out of line is publicly berated and painted as a target for his followers to harass. If they don’t fall back in line, Trump supports a primary candidate who is more loyal, more submissive.
That strategy is played out.
Trump attempted to push one of his most loyal members to remove her name from the discharge petition for a vote on releasing the Epstein files. Lauren Boebert ran her campaign on being faithful to Trump and being a trusted vote for his agenda in Congress, but this time, she wouldn’t budge.
Now that the threshold has been reached and the vote is scheduled, dozens, possibly even a hundred, additional Republicans will vote to release the files. They fear the public backlash of voting no more than they fear Trump’s outrage from voting yes.
The tide has changed. Instead of being the coattails Republicans ride on, Trump has become the anchor that drags them down. His public attacks are no longer damaging to a campaign. They are a benefit.
Look no further than Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Marjorie Taylor Greene hasn’t changed. She isn’t suddenly enlightened about the struggles that working-class Americans face. Conspiracies, lies, bigotry, and Christian Nationalism are still core to her platform. But she understands that the fake culture war no longer works when your party controls the entire federal government. The people who voted for you expect you to deliver on the grand promises that were made.
Trump never intended to deliver on those promises; instead, he sought to enrich himself and use his power to avoid accountability. Republican voters are realizing this. Trump’s approval rating has sunk to new lows. Two-thirds of the country disapproves of his job performance on the economy, the most critical issue for voters.
The most recent election saw not only Democratic wins across the country, but also Trump’s strongholds shifting to the left.
When your party is in power and life is getting worse, and there is no plan to make it better, the best strategy becomes complaining about the party leadership. It is a way of continuing to play the role of an outsider even while in the majority. Slowly, bit by bit, congressional Republicans are following this path.
Trump is trying to regain ground. He is reducing his tariffs on coffee, bananas, beef, and cocoa as high prices have reduced consumer sentiment to match the record low seen during the peak of post-pandemic high inflation.
Trump had to beg China to buy American soybeans after his trade war led Xi Jinping to halt purchases entirely, one of several tariff-related factors that have caused farm bankruptcies to spike since last year. This comes after Trump faced criticism for bailing out Argentina with $40 billion, only to see Argentina turn around and sell its soybeans to China. Not very “America First”.
There is backlash over Trump’s stance on H-1B visas. The job market is cold. Layoffs are high, and hiring is slow. Trump claims that the country needs to import talent because America lacks it, a message that is not the most presidential. Instead of creating job training programs to help Americans shift from industries that are in decline to jobs that are in demand, Trump is gutting the Department of Education and attempting to force colleges to become part of his culture war.
In an act of desperation, Trump continues to dangle tariff rebate checks in front of the public. But when it comes time to deliver, it never happens. Trump promised $2,000 for every working and middle-class American. That would cost over twice the revenue tariffs brought in this year. The deficit was $1.8 trillion. There is no money to send to millions of Americans, only more debt to lay at their doorstep.
Trump has failed. The damage he has caused to our nation will take years, possibly even a decade, to repair. The GOP, which shamelessly enabled Trump, is being dragged down with him.
For many who warned of what Trump would do to this country and the Republican Party, there will inevitably be a moment of schadenfreude. But now isn’t the time to gloat; it is an opportunity to show Trump voters that we do not have to be enemies.
Our problems don’t stem from hard-working Americans trying to get by, but from the billionaires, large corporations, and special interest groups that have hijacked our democracy to serve the extreme wealth of a select few at the expense of everyone else.
The worse life gets, the greater the opportunity for positive change. Let’s not waste it. It is time to get America back on the right track.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker
The Fragile US Economy
The US economy has barely managed to chug along in 2025, but lying beneath the surface is a single thread holding it all together. If that string snaps, the economy goes down with it.
Everything you wrote makes perfect sense (as always). But I'll believe the "100" Republicans when I see it. I'm expecting maybe an additional couple of defectors. Maybe even one of the originals to change their vote when it comes before the full House. We'll see. I've been operating under the theory that Trump will never pay for his crimes, which includes murder. Even convicted it hasn't mattered. So, again, I'll believe it when I see it.