President Donald Trump takes questions from members of the media during a bilateral lunch meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Cabinet Room, Friday, November 7, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
Italian-English digital newspaper La Voce di New York argues that with President Donald Trump's approval sinking and the historic shutdown still lingering, he is not only "tone-deaf" and in denial about the reality of things, but is in a crisis of his own making.
Christiano Palladino writes that "after the Republican rout in the November 4 election, President Donald Trump quickly named the culprits: Democrats, the federal shutdown, and the “biased media.” What he left out, however, was perhaps the most obvious suspect — himself."
And while the White House tried to blow off the Democratic sweep as a reflection of "an unfair media climate," the government shutdown, Palladino writes, compounds the damage, "taking a direct toll on millions of Americans and on Trump’s already faltering political standing."
Trump's flip-flopping message is also a problem, Palladino says, as he switches "between populist rhetoric and self-inflicted contradictions."
"He casts himself as a champion of working people while refusing to fund food assistance programs (SNAP). He blames Democrats for paralyzing the country, even though Republicans still control both chambers of Congress. And ahead of Thanksgiving, he claims inflation is 'under control' — even as prices for coffee, beef and rent continue to climb," he notes.
The optics of Trump's posh Palm Beach parties don't help either, Palladino says, in reference to the Halloween party he threw at Mar-a-Lago.
"Images of Trump’s Florida weekends, White House renovations, and a Great Gatsby-themed gala at Mar-a-Lago have only reinforced the picture of a president detached from the crisis he helped create," Palladino says.
Recent polls from early to mid-November indicate that Trump's approval ratings have dropped and reached new lows for his second term. Famed polling expert Nate Silver described his approval rating as being "in a free fall" since late October.
Democratic pollster Will Jordan wrote on X that the shutdown “is no longer a political story but a personal problem for nearly one-third of Americans.”
As much as those around Trump try to deny his responsibility for any of this, Palladino reports that "some staffers concede that in the early weeks of the shutdown, Trump himself was largely disengaged, offering little leadership and a muddled message," and his attempts to reclaim the narrative have largely failed.
"He has urged Senate Republicans to eliminate the filibuster and renewed his calls to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, proposing to redirect federal funds 'directly to the people' instead of 'money-sucking insurance companies,'" Palladino says, and yet, his strategy appears "stuck."
“He’s frustrated, he wants the shutdown to end,” one adviser said, “but he’s not going to surrender to the Democrats.”
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