Trump goes 'from bad to worse' as voters think he’s full of it: strategist

President Donald Trump arrives to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. Alex Brandon/Pool via REUTERS

President Donald Trump may be attempting to claim total victory in Iran, but according to a new analysis from a political strategist, the conflict has seen his presidency go "from bad to worse" as voters become increasingly convinced that he is full of it.

Brad Bannon is a national-level strategist for the Democrats and operates the Bannon Communications firm. On Wednesday, he wrote an analysis of Trump's current standing with voters for The Hill, as his war with Iran continues to drag on, with conflicting claims about the endgame for the conflict and where things stand at any given moment. Trump's approval, Bannon argued, was already "in intensive care for months" prior to the start of this unpopular war, but now, it is "on life support."

"His overall performance score comes in at net negative 23 percent, which puts him as deep underwater as the Great Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean," Bannon wrote, later adding, "Iran is a big problem for the president. You don’t need a meteorologist to know which way the wind is blowing. Americans oppose the war by a 2-to-1 margin. While Republicans still support the conflict, opposition to his misguided military misadventure is high in every demographic public subgroup."

Bannon further stressed that Trump is suffering from an ever-widening credibility gap with voters, as more and more of them come to suspect that "he hasn’t provided accurate information about the progress of the war," and does not know what he is talking about in any given speech.

This deepening discontent among voters will only spiral further for Trump if he goes ahead with the heavily rumored plan to deploy military forces on the ground in Iran. The prospect of boots on the ground in the Middle East, Bannon explained, is supported by "only one out of every six" voters, per recent surveys.

"There are two reasons why the situation has gone from bad to worse for Trump," Bannon continued. "He failed to demonstrate at the onset that Iran was a serious threat to U.S. national security and the assault weaponized existing public concerns about his failure to reduce inflationary prices."

Elaborating further, Bannon wrote: "First, Trump’s attack against Iran is a war of choice not a conflict of necessity... Without a dramatic [occasion for war], he needed to make a compelling case about the need for war. The Donald failed and now he’s paying for his decision to go to war without galvanizing the public... Second, the attack against Iran has driven increases in oil prices which in turn have accelerated public concerns about inflation. Americans were struggling to make ends meet even before Trump started the war. Now the struggle for hard-working families to feed their children is even more acute. The conflict led to a big increase in gas prices by a dollar nationally since Feb. 28, according to AAA."

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