Reporters raise their hands during a press briefing with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 10, 2026.
Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman admitted he dropped the ball when he failed to confront President Donald Trump’s confounding claim that his unpopularity and his high and voter disapproval has nothing to do with him.
During a Punchbowl interview Trump told Sherman that “I've had some great polls recently, real polls, but they're great polls,” in conflict with most legit polls setting the president unpopularity at historic levels.
But Trump said voters’ anger is aimed only at the Republican Party, not him.
“Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you. … I don't know, I mean, they're angry at Republicans, but they're not angry at me. They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans,” Trump added.
Sherman said he should have pushed back.
“Let me tell you, my one regret from that interview … was not pushing back there because the president's approval ratings are not good,” Sherman told MS NOW anchor Eugene Daniels, filling in for Katy Tur. “My central takeaway from that was that he believes that voters are angry at Republicans. I mean, he also said they're not angry at him, which I think is not the truth. Obviously, I think they are angry at him. And I think polls continue to bear that out.”
Sherman added, however, that even Trump acknowledged that Republicans are bearing the brunt of the anger from the voting public going into the midterms—but that’s only because Trump is not on the ticket.
Still, Sherman said Trump appears oblivious to the doom coming for him when the GOP loses the House and possibly the Senate in November.
“The midterm for a president in power when his party controls the House is historically bad … and Trump almost doesn't accept that. He says, ‘well, I've done a good job. Why should I be? You know, why would it happen to me?’ And that's his view. And I think that the winds are howling in his face. And in order to beat what is otherwise a historical trend something extraordinary would have to happen. And Republicans are effectively banking on having passed one tax cut bill. Plus, now they have a war which is tremendously unpopular.”
Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele told the MS NOW panel that Trump may as well come to terms with the fact that his dominance over Congress is over in a few months.
“It's too late because voters have now made up their minds about you. This election is baked, people,” said Steele. “I said a year ago the Senate would be in play. Why? Because I know my [Republican] team. I know my team with this leader are going to do exactly what they've done to put themselves in the position where they squander the Senate, and they have no one else to blame but one person, and that's Donald Trump. And they're not man or woman enough to do that.”
Steele then cited examples of their failings by naming the many incompetent administration leaders they approved knowing they were idiots.
“So how do you expect [Republicans] to do the principal thing?” Steele demanded. “Like, stop someone like [controversial AG nominee Todd] Blanche, along with [National Intelligence Director Jay] Clayton, along with other unqualified nominees that have come before them, that they've passed on. So, you've made the bed, baby. It's loaded with lice and ticks and all kind of vermin, and it's all yours.”
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