Donald Trump is losing it. He is losing more court cases (e.g., Letitia James, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, California national guard deployment), losing the aura of invincibility; losing the power to convince members of Congress they should fear him more than the voters and to convince voters not to believe their own life experience (“affordability is a hoax!”); and losing the strength to bend state legislatures to his will. Most vividly, he has lost control over himself. The result is a presidency and a MAGA movement in free fall.
In the Senate, he lost 4 Republicans on the vote to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. While the Senate mounted a feeble attempt to provide a transparently useless alternative (healthcare spending accounts), no Democrat went along, even Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) bought it, and Republicans utterly failed to convince anyone outside the MAGA cult that they have a serious solution to the healthcare crisis they created. Voters will hold them singularly responsible for pricing millions out of healthcare insurance. (The House is so chaotic it is not clear what, if any, measure will come to the floor.)
Over in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson is also in a tailspin. His members are in revolt (regularly resorting to discharge petitions, a previously unimaginable challenge to leadership). They are more eager to distance themselves from the sinking Trump-Johnson ship. We saw stark evidence of precisely that when Republicans joined in a discharge petition and then a lopsided vote to override Trump’s union busting executive order purporting to strip thousands of government workers’ bargaining rights. A discharge petition on healthcare may come this week.
Trump’s most humiliating defeat to date came in deep red Indiana, where Trump had huffed and puffed and threatened lawmakers unless they passed a re-re-redistricting plan. When they refused, the headlines were harsh. From Daily Beast: “Trump Power Grab Foiled in Humiliating Republican Revolt.” From the Washington Post: “Trump’s redistricting effort fails in Indiana as GOP lawmakers deliver rare rebuke.” And these: “Indiana Republicans defy Trump and reject his House redistricting push in the state” (Associated Press), “The State That Handed Trump His Biggest Defeat Yet,” (Atlantic), and “Indiana Redistricting Plan Rejected in Rebuke to Trump” (Wall Street Journal).
Aside from Texas, therefore, Trump does not appear able to carry out more re-redistricting power grabs. (Missouri’s plan likely will be reversed by a ballot measure.) Worse, his bullying spurred Democrats to create more seats in California and perhaps in Illinois, Virginia, and Maryland. Moreover, with MAGA’s collapse in support among Hispanics, some of those 5 new “Republican seats” in Texas may well wind up in Democratic hands. His 2026 midterm strategy is worse than a wash: It backfired, and even in states where no redistricting battle raged, it galvanized Democrats.
That might not have been his biggest blunder. Trump’s insistence that Americans do not really have an affordability crisis has gone over like a lead balloon. He no doubt provided clips for many 2026 Democratic ads with a cringeworthy speech in Pennsylvania, garnering headlines like “Trump lashes out during Pennsylvania rally, hurls hate speech and racist insults.” Quite apart from the crazed digressions and unhinged rants, he tried to skate by on lies about prices and “spent most of the time mocking the term ‘affordability’ and insisting that Americans were doing better than they had ever done before,” as the New York Times reported.
Recycling his austerity hectoring did not help his cause. He babbled: “You can give up certain products, you can give up pencils because under the China policy, you know, every child can get 37 pencils. They only need one or two.” The guy who has flocked the Oval Office in gold, wants a Versailles-style ballroom and used his office to lard up on crypto insisted: “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice, but you don’t need 37 dolls.” Austerity for thee, but not for me, much?
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s cavalier attitude and contempt for voters’ lived experience and receipts have freaked out smarter Republicans. At least former president Joe Biden acknowledged people’s pain as the economy recovered; Trump will not do even that—that would suggest he has failed. Judging from the 2025 election results, his strategy will flop.
From all this, a picture of a decrepit, flailing, desperate man-child emerges. The latest AP-NORC poll, which shows his overall approval rating at a dismal 36%, is nothing short of disastrous for Trump and MAGA Republicans who have tied themselves to him. “Only 31% of U.S. adults now approve of how Trump is handling the economy…That is down from 40% in March and marks the lowest economic approval he’s registered in an AP-NORC poll in his first or second term.” His approval has also sunk on critical issues such as managing the federal government, where he “has not seen an approval bump even after congressional Democrats effectively capitulated to end a record-long government shutdown last month.”
Moreover, Trump’s strengths have become liabilities. “Just a few months ago, 53% of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of crime, but that’s fallen to 43% in the new poll. There’s been a similar decline on immigration, from 49% approval in March to 38% now.”
Despite his bravado, Trump’s more frequent and extreme temper tantrums reveal he is also losing his ability to ignore criticism, control himself, and manage pressure. He blew up at the New York Times for covering his declining physical condition. He went on a wild Truth Social barrage after his miserable Pennsylvania speech, and went nuts over his bad polls. He routinely lashes out at female reporters who have the temerity to ask basic questions. (The White House staff might want to lock up the ketchup bottles.)
Trump is in a dangerous downward spiral. As Americans come to terms with his chaotic reign, they increasingly recoil at (and protest) his cruelty, incompetence, and recklessness. That leads to electoral defeats, which prompt Republicans to see their own political survival at risk. They are emboldened to revolt, revealing him to be a paper tiger. His base then perceives him as weaker. Naturally, his own volcanic narcissism then explodes.
Matters are likely to get worse. The release of graphic images from the Epstein files will prey on his psyche, frighten his lackeys, and send more Republicans racing for the exits. And even the Supreme Court appears poised to throw out his tariff scheme, while signs of dismal growth and rising unemployment will surely prompt him to rail against “phony” data (from his own bureaucracy?!). He therefore will be even more motivated to distract voters with a war or more crazed domestic gambits.
The legacy media’s refusal to recognize Trump’s mental and emotional unraveling cannot conceal a stark reality: Trump has lost it. That might spell misfortune for MAGA Republicans, but it also poses new dangers to our democracy and security.
One of the reasons Nixon chose Agnew for VP was “impeachment insurance”, figuring the thought of making the corrupt, incompetent Agnew president would ensure that Nixon would never be removed from office. When Nixon was facing impeachment, the powers to be made sure to first force Agnew to resign, and replaced him with the steady and decent Gerald Ford. We need to do the same with JD Vance, before Trump is forced from office. Because Vance is completely unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to become president. I’m not sure who on the Republican side might be acceptable - Kinzinger? Murkowski? Liz Cheney? In any case, given Trump’s dissolution, we’ll be faced with these issues sooner than later.
Yes! Every word. And brilliant as usual.