U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with reporters, as he departs for travel to Pennsylvania from the South Lawn at the White House in Washington, D.C. U.S., July 15, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
In right-wing media outlets, President Donald Trump is often depicted as someone who won the 2024 election by a "landslide," still enjoys widespread popularity, and is mainly opposed by the "far left."
But the 2024 election was quite close: Trump defeated Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by roughly 1.5 percent in the national popular vote — which is nowhere close to a landslide. And opposition to Trump's second presidency comes from different areas of the political spectrum. Scathing critics of Trump range from self-described "democratic socialist" Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) to centrist Sen. Amy Klobbuchar (D-Minnesota) to right-wing Never Trump conservatives like attorney George Conway, retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, The Bulwark's Mona Charen (a former Nancy Reagan speechwriter) and veteran Washington Post columnist George Will.
Almost six months into Trump's second presidency, new CNN polling data shows how widespread opposition to him is at this point.
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According to CNN, only 21 percent of Americans "strongly approve" of Trump now.
On X, Journalist Aaron Blake, now with CNN and formerly of the Washington Post, observes, "Trump's 'approve strongly' number is lower than at any point in his first or second terms, per new CNN poll."
Trump's overall approval rating in June, according to CNN's Poll of Polls, was only 42 percent. The Poll of Polls combines data from a range of June polls, including those conducted by NPR/PBS News/Marist College, Gallup, and Reuters/Ipsos.
CNN showed several months of polling data, demonstrating that the "honeymoon phase" Trump enjoyed earlier in this second presidency is long gone.
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But writer Michael Liss cautions Trump's opponents against becoming overconfident.
Liss, from his Syncopated Politics account on X, cautioned, "The cows may be coming home....or not. It's a mistake to write him off, and the voters have permitted him to veer in any direction without accountability. No politician in our memory has been granted this carte blanche before."
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