1. United States
2. Ohio
3. Letter

Recently, Trump published a post ranking every American president, with himself in the “greatest” tier, ahead of Lincoln, ahead of Washington, and ahead of both FDR and Teddy. This week, the American people turned in their own assessment and it does not match his. The latest poll from Reuters/Ipsos registers Trump’s approval at just 33 percent, and we’re not even halfway through his term. His archenemy Joe Biden, who was a “failure” according to that tier list, never sank that low. On the cost of living, the number one issue for voters this fall, 71 percent disapprove of Trump’s performance, including four in ten Republicans. Even the base is crumbling. A UMass Amherst poll out this week found that Trump’s approval among Republicans has dropped by more than a dozen points since April of last year. Among those who voted for him in 2024, he’s down ten. And only a quarter of Americans think he’s handling the war with Iran well. There’s even more bad news for the GOP. Forty-six percent of Democrats say they’re very enthusiastic about voting in November. For Republicans, it’s 31 percent. Independents prefer Democrats in Congress by 14 points, too. And for the first time in about a decade, voters say Democrats have better ideas on the economy. Trump’s response is to call these surveys “Demoralization Operations.” The GOP doesn’t have a much better excuse. Biden again. We covered a similar deflection from DHS Secretary Mullin yesterday. Clearly the GOP is getting nostalgic for the days when complaining about the guy in office was all you had to do. But in 2026, when you’ve held all three branches of government for almost 2 full years, that strategy is pretty weak. And this is where Trump’s ego comes back to bite him. Trump loves to be the center of attention. He dominates the media and that’s by design. But when that’s the kind of president you are, it becomes harder to shift the blame. The American people know exactly who’s in the driver’s seat, and that means they know exactly who’s crashing the car.