In recent months more than one friend has said to me “Don’t you think Trump is doing great?” On each occasion my friend seemed perplexed when I say “No, he is not doing great.” 

When I get into the reasons — management style, rhetoric, policies and the constant self massaging of an outsized and out of control ego — my friends are further perplexed. Talk about Trump’s numbers in the polls invariably leads to a counterpunch that the polls are always wrong or that a specific poll is rigged to make Trump look bad.

So for all my MAGA friends who think things are going great, let’s put some facts on the record. This is not about one poll from an organization that leans left. This is about multiple polls from multiple respected outlets. 

This is undoubtedly where American public opinion is, and MAGA and the White House needs to accept it and change accordingly. Failure to do so will effectively end the Trump administration with Democratic majorities in the Congress issuing subpoenas on a daily basis.

The current state of the Democratic Party is the best thing Republicans have going for us as we approach the 2026 midterm election. High-ranking elected Democratic officials seem incapable of coherently and concisely explaining what their party stands for. Vehement opposition to everything Trump says or does is not a winning message. 

In a normal political environment, Republicans would be staring at a disastrous showing. Lucky for them 2026, as of now, does not look like it is going to be a normal political environment. I would caution my fellow Republicans that placing our electoral destiny in the hands of our opponents and hoping they continue to screw up is not a strategy with which any of us should be comfortable.

The president’s overall approval in the polls is consistently underwater, meaning his disapproval exceeds his approval. That would not be terribly concerning until you dig into the specifics as to why that is. 

Many polls ask if respondents approve or disapprove on the economy, inflation, tariffs, immigration, deportations, crime control, national guard in cities. On all of those specific policy issues Trump is underwater, on most questions significantly, meaning a majority disapprove.

I am not talking about one poll here where the pro and anti-Trump split is close. The polls are close to unanimous on the lack of popularity of Trump administration policies. 

Outside of border control, for which Trump deserves great credit and liberals still do not understand was a major factor in their 2024 defeat, Trump’s actions and policies do not receive majority support. In fact, they are not close to earning majority support.

In the September Washington Post poll, 70 percent of respondents said tariffs are increasing the prices they pay for basic necessities. Seventy percent! Also in that same poll, by a margin of 59 percent to 40 percent, respondents disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy. That 70 percent is referring to the tariffs which are the basis of the Trump administration’s economic plan for America. 

Hello: Is anyone in the White House awake?

Part of Trump’s problem is that when he talks about the economy, he talks about how tariffs will be great for American consumers. What he sees as positive voters overwhelmingly see as a negative. Trump’s overall lack of attention to the economy, inflation and consumer sentiment is a huge negative for the administration.

The administration’s political success depends a lot more on the price of coffee and ground beef than it does on Jimmy Kimmel’s latest stupid comment. The Trump administration requires a significant mid-course correction.

The president’s predisposition is to take things to the extreme. When he does that with his rhetoric, Americans can laugh it off. When he does that with policy it is more difficult to write it off.

President Trump sees himself as an agent of change who wants to change America into his likeness. Americans are not buying the president’s vision of what he wants the future to have in store for them.

Constitutional conservatives are sounding alarm bells about the administration’s effort to suppress criticism. The White House and its MAGA supporters need to cut back on their goals, and especially their tactics, and soon.

As President Reagan used to say “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20 percent traitor.”

Trump needs to quickly recalibrate his desires down from 100 percent to 80 percent. If he fails to do so, MAGA will fade into political history alongside the Square Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier and a Thousand Points of Light, none of which left America with anything resembling an identifiable political constituency.

Kevin Igoe is the former deputy chief of staff of the Republican National Committee and former executive director of Maryland Republican Party. He served as chief of staff of the Maryland Department of Budget and Management and was a Reagan White House appointee.

, 2025-10-09 13:30:00, , TheHill.com Just In, %%https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/cropped-favicon-512px-1.png?w=32, https://thehill.com/homenews/feed/, Kevin Igoe, opinion contributor