A woman wearing a MAGA hat at a "Latinos for Trump" event in Kissimmee, Florida on January 16, 2020 (Image: Shutterstock)
A conservative columnist has a warning for his fellow Republicans: They ignore President Donald Trump’s falling approval ratings at their own political peril.
Trump’s problem is that he has either failed to meet Americans’ needs on inflation and immigration or that he bungled his communication of his more popular policies, wrote David M. Drucker in The Dispatch.
“Policy is but one leg of the three-legged stool of political leadership,” Drucker argued. “Rhetoric also matters. So, too, does implementation, especially at the executive level. Without its full complement of limbs, this three-legged stool is prone to tip over and shatter.”
On immigration, Drucker pointed out that Trump’s approval rating is eight points underwater with roughly 44 percent approving and 52 percent disapproving of his handling of that issue.
“Although the president belatedly called the [Renee] Good and [Alex] Pretti killings tragic and has now said so more than once, he continues to step on that message by denigrating these two dead Americans and subtly suggesting the shootings, though unfortunate, were understandable, if not justified,” Drucker wrote, quoting Trump’s comments that neither Good nor Pretti was an “angel.”
“It’s this attitude that now has voters who supported the president’s immigration enforcement agenda reevaluating,” Drucker wrote, adding that in general Trump’s underwater immigration numbers indicate voters are “doing some major reevaluating.”
Although not focusing on the economy, Drucker twice acknowledged that this too is an important issue with voters. First he wrote that “aside from their frustration with inflation,” voters chose Trump over 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris because of immigration policy. Later he wrote that “Republicans can soothe themselves all they want with issue polling that shows voters would choose Trump over Biden (and Harris) on a given policy, be it immigration, the economy or anything else. It’s unlikely to matter one whit unless they get Trump and his lieutenants in the administration to make necessary adjustments to tactics and rhetoric.”
Drucker is not alone among recent Republicans to sound the warning about the president’s flagging popularity. On Thursday a Republican congressman, Rep. Jeff Hurd of Missouri, told CNN’s Manu Raju that his constituents are suffering because of Trump’s tariffs.
“I've heard clearly from small and large manufacturers as well as agricultural producers that these tariffs are hurting them,” Hurd said.
“I don’t think Congress should be in the business of dictating who should do the investigation,” Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., told the Chicago Tribune earlier this week. “There needs to be, obviously, an independent, thorough investigation that’s done with proper law enforcement and a full vetting of the facts and evidence, and then ultimately, once that’s done … a prosecutorial body will make a decision on whether there should be any charges.”
Writing for The Bulwark, conservative commentator Mona Charen had a similar observation.
“Voters are rarely able to connect policy to outcomes, but they have done so in the case of tariffs,” Charen argued. “Back in 2024, Americans were about equally divided on the question of trade, with some favoring higher tariffs and roughly similar numbers opting for lower tariffs. Experience has changed their views.”