Trump’s week from hell

Trump had to intervene and override War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision to livestream the public execution of the Fort Hood shooter after a huge public backlash. A poll released just hours before Trump walked this back showed 80% opposed airing the execution live to just 18% who supported it.

Republican lawmakers revolted over an apparent decision to throttle Starlink access for Ukraine. The embattled country uses the Elon Musk-developed technology to protect itself from deadly Russian attacks. Trump’s on-again, off-again rifts with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have unsettled Republicans on Capitol Hill. “I’m not a big fan of Zelensky,” Trump said this week.

Musk appeared to blame Trump for the Ukrainians’ loss of Starshield access earlier this week while denying he was personally responsible. Trump later said neither he nor Musk made that decision.

None of this is quite as bad as Trump’s various low points from his first term: the pandemic and the related economic downturn, two impeachments, Robert Mueller’s lengthy Trump-Russia investigation, the 2020 election loss, and the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, to name a few.

But the latest troubles come as Trump and Vice President JD Vance are out on the campaign trail, often in deep-red areas, trying to salvage Republican congressional majorities ahead of the midterm elections.

A Fox News poll released this week showed Trump with a 36% job approval rating, an all-time low in that survey across his two nonconsecutive terms. Sixty-four percent disapprove of how he is doing his job overall, rising to 77% on inflation, 70% on the economy, and 69% on tariffs. Trump’s foreign policy polls at 64% disapproval.

The RealClearPolitics polling average finds Trump with a 38.7% approval rating to 59.4% disapproval, continuing a trend of remaining stuck below 40% mere weeks before the elections.

Much of the public has lost confidence in Trump’s economic stewardship, long one of his strong suits, and corruption was named a top issue for voters in the Fox poll.

While Trump’s second term has generally been more stable on the personnel front than his first, a few cracks have emerged as his political standing declines. Former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt left her job to spend more time with her young children, opening the door to the hiring of her ill-fated replacement. Zacharia held only one briefing, with emphasis on “brief,” which received negative reviews. She also faced questions about her legal credentials, having described herself as a lawyer and having worked in counsel jobs without ever passing the bar exam.

Trump needs a wartime consigliere in his top comms job as he faces a more difficult political environment and the possibility of Democrats taking control of one or both houses of Congress. He publicly expressed concern that the negativity may be too much for his new press secretary, who by most accounts is still highly regarded on a personal level within Trumpworld.

At the same time, the press secretary job gets harder as the president’s position becomes more difficult to defend.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has been more successful than any of her predecessors under Trump at keeping the peace within an often fractious MAGA universe. There has been speculation about her job security, though Trump has said there is “zero chance” of her being replaced anytime soon.

Trump is a political survivor who weathered all his aforementioned crises from his first term, plus extensive legal woes during the four years he was out of office. He nevertheless mounted perhaps the greatest electoral comeback in history, winning the popular vote and sweeping the battleground states after many thought his political career was over.

Losing control of Congress while being constitutionally ineligible to seek reelection would present a different challenge for Trump than any he has faced before. He will have to try to ward off lame-duck status while retaining control of the Republican Party and influencing the race to succeed him in 2028.

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In the meantime, Trump is working overtime to make sure he can avoid this scenario by at least mitigating the GOP’s midterm losses.

Trump has endured a lot in his decade atop national politics. More weeks like this one will continue to put him to the test.