The Patriot Post® · Trump in the Court of Public Opinion
Last Tuesday marked the end of Donald Trump’s first full year in his second term as U.S. president. As usual, the one-year anniversary occasioned numerous print, internet, and broadcast media assessments of the new administration’s accomplishments.
It’s been a whirlwind year, with more than its share of controversy. As we might have expected, given the ultra-partisan mood of our country these days, the various first-term report cards were starkly bimodal. Trump supporters rave about the dizzying array of achievements in one short year, particularly impressive compared to Joe Biden’s four years on cruise control. Meanwhile, Trump opponents present an entirely different picture — a disaster, a complete bust, worse than we could ever have imagined.
And perhaps more notable than the widely disparate judgments regarding Trump’s first-year accomplishments is the recent blizzard of sharply negative commentary targeting Trump the man. It seems clearer by the day that Trump’s abrasive demeanor is wearing thin, even among his supporters.
My own inbox is smoking with emails from conservative readers increasingly frustrated by our president’s self-inflicted wounds. And consider as well a sampling of Trump critiques from widely-read and generally well-respected commentators just last week:
Writing for The New York Times, left-winger Thomas Friedman calls Trump’s politics “not America First, Me first,” characterizing him not just as a bad president but as a bad human being, driven by his own ego. Friedman’s NYT colleague, the once-conservative David Brooks, predicts that Trump is headed for a personal “crackup” (though it’s unclear what that is), which will cause his entire house of cards to come tumbling down.
In The Wall Street Journal, Republican strategist Karl Rove paints a less damning but equally unnerving picture of a president blissfully charting a course toward midterm disaster by failing to understand the political necessity of holding onto the independent and soft partisan supporters who put him over the top in the 2024 presidential election. And in her weekly column, Peggy Noonan rues Trump’s apparently casual disdain for America’s traditional partnership with Europe — the one that carried us (and them) to victory in two world wars.
These are just four individual columnists, each with his or her own viewpoints, writing for publications with very different political alignments. I have no idea how many of their readers’ opinions they actually influence, and one could dismiss them all as varying degrees of Never-Trump, but surely their commentary reflects the mood of a myriad of sources. Collectively, they’re telling us that support for the president we elected is waning. We’d better pay attention.
As for me, I continue to be an ardent admirer of our president, impressed daily by his boundless energy and bias for action, appreciative of his first-term achievements, and forever thankful that he defeated Joe Biden’s anointed successors in 2024.
In debate with the growing crowd of discontented Trump supporters, I often find myself asking the rhetorical question: If you are dissatisfied with Trump, and if you were somehow given the opportunity, which of his first-year actions would you choose to undo? Would you reopen the southern border? Re-migrate the illegal immigrants already deported — including the tens of thousands of violent criminals among them? Re-commence wasting America’s fortunes on “fixing” the climate? Begin again to strangle U.S. energy production? Give Hamas their hostages back? Etcetera. (It’s a very long list.)
The answer, of course, is always none of the above — though that is usually followed by the “yes, but…” qualifiers: “Yes, but Trump is mean, he’s vulgar, he’s always angry, he embarrasses our country with his crude discourse with our long-term allies, he’s an egomaniac, he doesn’t care about everyday Americans” — and more etceteras.
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were some way we could collectively appreciate and support Trump’s actions and ignore his demeanor? Pay attention to what he does, not what he says? That would be like watching a football game on TV with the sound turned off — we know the game well enough to decide for ourselves how our team is doing without having to listen to those know-it-all announcers telling us what to think.
That’s an enticing idea, but it’s not going to happen. Every American, glued to social media via smartphones, watching TV, or reading newspapers, has our own hard-wired, built-in information feed. We may consider ourselves to be independent thinkers, but those sources will influence how we vote in November — or worse, convince us to stay home.
The cacophony of Trump dissatisfaction among otherwise supportive conservative and moderate voters is taking its toll, undermining his presidency, and is well on the way to rendering impossible much that he wants to achieve.
Even without the naysayers, holding the House of Representatives will be a very heavy lift. Historically, the party that dislodges its opponent in a presidential election takes a beating in the midterm elections two years later. In 2026, the situation for Republicans is even grimmer. Trump’s sinking popularity and the current chaotic global and domestic conditions should boost Democrats’ prospects.
But just two years ago, Donald Trump engineered the political comeback of all time. He did it by harnessing his boundless energy, sound strategy, effective tactics, smart resource allocation, and, most of all, an unflagging drive to succeed. Does he have one more upset win in his playbook?
I’m no political strategist, but I can offer some obvious kindergarten-level tips for how the president can shore up support from the legions of Americans who are not crazy about his demeanor but really like what he’s doing.
Most importantly, Mr. President, please recognize that your own demeanor serves as a steady supply of fodder for the Trump haters. Stop giving it to them. For someone with your talent, it won’t be that tough. For that reason, in your daily interactions, public and private, just keep in mind a few simple rules:
Insults: They’re always bad, never helpful. Don’t go there.
Exaggeration: It’s unnecessary and usually comes back to bite you. You’ve been putting up some great and verifiable numbers — use them; they’ll work fine.
Boasting: It’s counterproductive, and real people hate it.
Vulgarity: Let the Democrats fire off the F-bombs. They think it’s cool, but it’s not.
Joe Biden: He’s gone, totally irrelevant — forget him.
The simple fact is that political criticism will never be fair and balanced. It is, by design, intended to derail his presidency, thus making room for a Democrat resurgence. The Democrats’ ongoing political strategy of Trump-is-horrible is alive and well — in my view, reprehensible, a major contributor to the partisanship tearing our country apart.
In direct contrast to the Trump-hating, I submit that Donald Trump is an American Patriot. Instead of enjoying a luxurious retirement, he has dedicated his golden years (he’s just a year younger than I am) to a backbreaking, dangerous, and often thankless job on our behalf. That doesn’t sound like the “Me First” persona Tom Friedman pitched.
So, Mr. Trump, roll out that comeback-kid upset. Do it the old-fashioned way — solid, steady, focused.