Trump faces reckoning over 'epic destruction' of his presidency: analyst

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts while speaking to members of the media on board Air Force One en route to the U.S., October 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

An analyst said the destruction of President Donald Trump’s presidency is hard to put into words, but predicted he faces a political reckoning after the midterms that could expose the damage of his second term.

Political risk consultant Phillip van Niekerk didn’t mince words in his assessment of Trump’s presidency, writing in the Daily Maverick that he “failed miserably,” citing the disastrous Iran war, his tariffs bringing prices up instead of down and his campaign promise to end the Ukraine-Russia war.

“It is hard to fully capture the epic destruction he has wrought. He has picked fights with allies like Canada and Denmark while being led into two wars by Bibi Netanyahu and sucking up to Vladimir Putin, whom his envoy, Steve Witkoff, last week described as a “humanitarian.”

He quoted Enoch Powell, who went on to reflect on his downfall, saying that all political careers end in failure. To that end, he sees Trump's midterm campaign tour in Republican states that were once safe as part of his failure.

Van Niekerk sarcastically gave the president credit for successfully enriching himself by adding up to the tune of $2 billion to his net worth since taking office and enriching his family and allies in the process.

He also wrote that the president successfully cut taxes for the wealthy and stemmed the flow of immigrants from the southern border but criticized his methods, describing ICE as ”a Gestapo-like force of masked men hunting brown people.”

The analyst describes the midterm elections as a referendum on Trump's presidency, pointing to his decision to campaign and tell voters to vote as if he were on the ballot.

He questions the president's decision, given his record-low approval ratings and a core part of his 2024 coalition turning against him.

Citing Nate Silver’s forecast, which gives Democrats more than a 90% chance of winning the House of Representatives and about a 75 percent chance of taking the Senate, those numbers have given Democrats hope of winning control of both chambers.

However, Van Niekerk acknowledged that the Senate remains far less certain than the House, with only a third of GOP seats up for grabs this year.

He described former President Obama's return to the campaign trail as history coming full circle. Van Niekerk goes back to Obama's White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April 2011, where he mocked Trump and the idea of turning the White House into the gold-inspired look of his hotels and casinos.

He notes how Obama returned to that theme 15 years later, coming full circle, mocking his focus on renovations and the zinger, “He’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.”

The analyst predicted that “a succession struggle for the leadership of the MAGA movement” is already happening, with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among those already laying the groundwork for Trump’s eventual departure.

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