U.S. President Donald Trump in Dearborn, Michigan, January 13, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
President Donald Trump was dealt a bruising reality check this week, according to the Washington Post, as a new survey found striking evidence that voters are no longer being duped by his bravado, signaling a "huge shift in politics."
On Thursday, the Post published a report sharing the findings of a joint poll it conducted alongside ABC News and Ipsos, concerning the popularity of Trump's various vanity pet projects and rebranding efforts. The results, especially as they pertained to his much-discussed White House ballroom, were striking, with the report revealing that "Americans reject President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom by a 2-to-1 margin."
"Fifty-six percent of Americans oppose Trump’s decision to tear down the White House’s East Wing to make way for his planned ballroom, funded by about $400 million in private donations, while 28 percent support the project," the Post explained. "That is the same division found in an October poll. Reactions are split among partisan lines; about two-thirds of Republicans support the project, while 61 percent of independents and 87 percent of Democrats oppose it."
Aside from those concrete numbers, there was also a damning enthusiasm gap, with three times as many respondents saying that "strongly oppose" the ballroom as said they "strongly support" it. The span of time during which the poll was conducted included the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, which Trump and his allies have used as proof that the ballroom is needed for security reasons. The Post explained that this push seemed to lift Republican support for the project from 62 to 72 percent. The overall boost in support from the incident was not clear, with the total support moving from 27 to 31 points, driven almost exclusively by new conservatives and Trump supporters entering the respondent pool.
"A statistical analysis accounting for that shift in the sample’s political and demographic makeup found no significant change in opinion associated with the shooting," the Post noted.
"The ballroom is frivolous, in my opinion," a right-leaning Florida independent told the pollsters, adding that she was "100 percent backing [the preservationists] and what they’re doing," as they sue to halt the project.
Trump's other vanity projects, including his proposed 250-foot arch and plans to add his name to paper money, are also widely unpopular.
"Fifty-two percent of Americans are against the planned arch, compared with 21 percent who favor it. A slight majority of Republicans (51 percent) support the project, while most independents (57 percent) and Democrats (78 percent) oppose it," the report added. "A federal panel, packed with Trump allies, earlier this month gave preliminary approval to the project’s design. The idea of Trump’s signature on paper money is even less popular, with 68 percent of Americans opposed to the Treasury plan, while 12 percent support it. The plan provokes a negative reaction from Republicans, with 28 percent in favor and 40 percent opposed."
In a post to X, Neera Tanden, a Democratic political consultant and one-time adviser to former President Joe Biden, summed up why these results signaled a major negative shift for Trump.
"A huge shift in politics is that Trump can no longer convince people of anything," Tanden wrote. "They really see through him."