Trump's catastrophic week exposes how out of touch he is with reality

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts after delivering remarks at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, U.S., May 22, 2026. REUTERS Kylie Cooper

Life finally man-handled President Donald Trump like it typically abuses Democratic presidents: with pushback and disappointment. But don’t expect to see this brand of ego acknowledge it, says Washington Post writer Luke Broadwater.

“By pretty much any estimation, President Trump has had a very bad week,” said Broadwater. “New poll numbers show his approval rating has hit a second-term low. He is weighing whether to restart a bombing campaign in an unpopular war against Iran. Gas prices are high and inching higher heading into Memorial Day weekend. And his grip over Republican lawmakers is beginning to slip after he proposed a pair of deeply unpopular spending items, prompting an unusual revolt from the Senate.”

Normally when confronted with so intense a backlash ahead of precarious midterm elections, politicians pivot — maybe even display some humility — while redirecting their priorities to more popular policies.

“But Mr. Trump has decided to double down, presenting himself as politically all-powerful even in the face of indications that he is not,” said Broadwater.

Trump has proven invincible after winning re-election despite being under multiple criminal indictments. He has managed to twist the nonpolitical DOJ into his personal team of lawyers to prosecute his enemies and he has successfully targeted members of his own party for daring to oppose his policies, acknowledge his Jan. attempted coup or push for the release of the Epstein files — which for some reason Trump really wants to keep under wraps.

And Trump has doubled down on his despised $1.8 billion slush fund to reward, said Broadwater, moaning that he could have simply used the taxpayer money to enrich himself. And he has sent his former personal lawyer and now acting attorney general Todd Blanche to ply Congressional Republicans to approve the fund. But what Blanche got was a verbal trouncing for daring to broach the topic.

“The meeting went so poorly for Mr. Blanche that party leaders scrapped planned votes on another of Mr. Trump’s top priorities: a $72 billion immigration crackdown measure lawmakers had planned to muscle through before Memorial Day,” said Broadwater.

“There’s a boiling point here,” said George Washington University political science professor Sarah Binder, driven primarily by Trump’s habit of doubles down instead of showing any sign of self-awareness or awareness in temperature changes around him. His dogged pursuit of other taxpayer-draining projects like his ballroom and the Trump Arch, while Americans struggle with his self-caused inflation and high gas prices, are other examples.

And Binder says it does not appear to matter to him that he is jeopardizing the very Republican enablers that make his invincibility possible.

“He’s focused on the arch. I think he’s focused on his own personal legacy. He’s focused on vengeance,” said Binder. “He doesn’t have a legislative agenda, so does he really need a Republican Senate?”

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