analysis
The comforting story that Trump’s power is fading obscures the risks facing us
Published
December 2, 2025 6:30AM (EST)
President Donald Trump speaks to the press aboard Air Force One on Nov. 30, 2025. (Pete Marovich/Getty Images)
The last few weeks have not been very kind to Donald Trump and the Republican Party — and Democrats are jubilant.
It began when the party trounced the GOP in last month’s elections. The president’s approval ratings are collapsing fast, with the most recent Gallup poll showing only 36% of Americans approve of his job as president, a five point decline since the last poll was taken in October and an historic low for his second term. According to the survey, 60% disapprove. Trump is underwater on nearly every major issue, including the economy, inflation, Ukraine, the Middle East and Venezuela, as well as his mass deportation of immigrants and his threats to deploy military forces in Democratic-led cities.
The last time Trump was this unpopular was at the end of his first term, when his followers overran the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and his approval rating stood at 34%. If these current trends continue, Democrats will be on track to retake both the House and the Senate in the 2026 midterms.
The Epstein scandal continues to grow. In more bad news for Trump, congressional Republicans voted to release thousands of emails and other potentially damaging documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump, who had opposed the legislation, was forced to relent and support it. This reflects a broader trend: Congressional Republicans are increasingly breaking ranks with Trump and publicly disagreeing with, if not outright defying, him.
As Bill Kristol recently told Tim Miller on “The Bulwark” podcast, “There’s some signs of cracks. And what we’re seeing in Congress is that fear of Trump is starting to turn into a loathing of him.”
Reality-denying conspiracist and former super-MAGA loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia recently announced she is retiring from Congress. Rumor has it that other Republican politicians will follow her lead and not seek reelection because of a desire to distance themselves from Trump.
These events have led many Democrats and prominent commentators to declare that one year into his second term as president, Trump is now a lame duck. “The MAGA coalition shows signs of cracking,” Heather Cox Richardson recently wrote. “Something fundamental has shifted,” the American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner argued.
If such hopes do not come true — MAGA is not falling apart, and if he regains some semblance of control — we risk being left in a far worse place emotionally and politically than when we started.
They’re right. Something does increasingly appear to be off with Donald Trump. He resembles a prizefighter doubled over from a gut punch — staggering, grabbing the ropes, looking to the referee for help.