It’s been a month since Donald Trump was inaugurated and it feels like a year. When they said they were going to hit with “shock and awe” they meant it and when Trump said he was going to be a dictator on day one, he actually told the truth for once. It’s been one of the most fearful, distressing political events in most of our lifetimes and it’s felt like it was getting worse every day.
As a result of his many escapes from accountability for his crimes and a Supreme Court that gave him a green light to commit more with impunity, Trump believes that he is invincible, even recently quoting a (possibly apocryphal) line from Napoleon Bonaparte: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” He’s carrying on about “manifest destiny” and dreaming aloud about expanding American territory and starting wars with neighbors. He is convinced that he can bully everyone into submission, whether it’s a political opponent, an ally or a foreign adversary. He has even called himself a king.
Over the course of this past month it has appeared that he’s not wrong. The Republican Congress has completely abandoned any pretense of integrity and independence. He’s sending migrants to Guantanamo and flobbing off others on foreign countries to suffer who-knows-what fate. His followers have physically threatened those few who showed any inkling that they might oppose him and his executioner, Elon Musk, who has been charged with the destruction of the federal workforce. In record time he has managed to storm through the government like an Abrams tank, crushing everything in his path leaving anyone who survives stunned and disoriented.
Overseas, Trump has turned the world order upside down, making it clear that the U.S. is no longer a dependable ally and that any involvement by the U.S. is dependent on whether or not Trump is personally feted and celebrated like a Roman emperor (in addition to being offered “deals” to his liking.) The whole world looks on aghast at his imperial ambitions and the plain bizarreness of plans such as his proposal for the U.S. to “own” the Gaza strip after it is ethnically cleansed of all the Palestinians whom he insists just want a nice condo in a desert someplace.
I have to spend my days poring over every news story because that’s my job but I understand if people are choosing to limit their exposure to this carnage so that they can keep their sanity. But I confess that I’ve been worried that too many Americans have been averting their gaze in order to maintain some sense of emotional equilibrium and perhaps were failing to fully understand the seriousness of our current moment. The last couple of days have given me reason to hope otherwise.
Trump has been telling his followers that he now has a 71 percent approval rating:
That’s a complete fantasy. While it’s true that his approval numbers have been higher in this first month than they were the first time, he still has the lowest numbers of any president at this point in his term except one — himself. In fact the latest rash of polls this week show that his numbers in the high 40s are rapidly declining. A new Reuters Ipsos poll has him at 44%, down from 47% in January. The Washington Post poll has him at 43% and Quinnipiac University, CNN and Gallup all range from 44 to 47%. In other words he’s pretty much back to where he’s always been.
But these polls are finding massive discontent over his policies. In the Reuters poll the wrong track number rose to 53% from 43% percent in just one month and his economic approval number is now at 39%. Only 41% are in favor of Trump’s tariffs with 53% against.
How about the DOGE cuts? You might have assumed from the commentary that Americans don’t care about foreign aid so putting USAID in the “woodchipper,” as Musk described it, wouldn’t be particularly unpopular. Not so. In the Post poll, 59% oppose Musk’s scheme to 38% who approve. In the CNN poll it was 53-28. The Post also reports that the mass firings of federal workers is opposed 58% to 39% as well.
And while 51% in the Post poll say they support mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, it’s not that simple. According to the Post:
Americans strongly oppose deporting undocumented immigrants who aren’t criminals (57-39), who arrived as children (70-26) and who have U.S. citizen children (66-30).
Quinnipiac reports that only 38% of voters think the system of checks and balances is working well while 54% do not. And they find that 55% think Elon Musk has too much power while 36% think it’s just fine.
CNN reports that 62% feel Trump hasn’t gone far enough in trying to reduce the cost of living and that includes 47% of Republicans. And from their opinions on the tariffs it’s pretty clear they understand that he’s only going to make things worse.
These polls numbers indicate that people are paying attention and they understand what’s going on. Trump may be fantasizing about a 71% approval rating and there’s no telling him otherwise. But other elected Republicans are apparently starting to panic. After all, they have to face the voters in two years. Politico reported that while they are all being very good boys and girls in public, in private they are freaking out:
[M]any are feeling helpless to counter the meat-ax approach that has been embraced so far, with lawmakers especially concerned about the dismissal of military veterans working in federal agencies as well as USDA employees handling the growing bird flu outbreak affecting poultry and dairy farms.
They are being inundated with phone calls and the town halls are starting to look like they’re about to get a taste of some of their own tea party medicine. Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter Greg Bluestein reported on a Thursday night meeting with Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., in which an overflow crowd of very angry, very Republican constituents denounced Trump as a tyrant and a king.
The town hall crowd peppers Rep. Rich McCormick with boos and catcalls as he struggles to answer a pointed question from a resident who says she’s a descendant of Patrick Henry who pressed him on whether Trump was moving toward “tyranny.” #gapol https://t.co/gicXVC7AFJ pic.twitter.com/BkSIaxtgQb
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) February 21, 2025
Some California Republicans were greeted with some very angry protesters in Los Angeles on Thursday as well:
We haven’t yet seen the mass street protests we saw in 2017 or in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, but they are springing up organically all over the country. People are showing up at Tesla showrooms to protest Musk and closing down streets to oppose the deportations. Federal workers who are being treated despicably by the DOGE operation are rallying in Washington and elsewhere. High school kids are walking out of classes and boycotts are being organized to oppose corporate America folding to Donald Trump’s crusade against DEI.
So far, most Republicans are sticking with Trump. The opposition consists of Democrats and a surprisingly large majority of Independents and it’s growing rapidly. This could matter when it comes to whether the judiciary actually stands up for the Constitution (yes they do pay attention to public opinion) which remains the best hope to slow down Trump and Musk.
Meanwhile, the Republican party still has a job to do, which is pass a budget. Public opinion has a strong effect on how the congress is going to deal with that and those GOP House members in marginal districts (and possibly even in some presumably safe districts if that town hall in Georgia is any indication) are going to be squeezed from both sides giving the Democrats some real leverage.
It took a while to shake off the despondency and depression many of us felt after Trump was restored and then deputized a weird billionaire to wreck the government. But the opposition is awake and clear-eyed about what they are doing to our country and they aren’t going to take it lying down. It won’t be a one-sided battle after all.
Salon
