As support for President Donald Trump continues to collapse, the question remains as to whether he can regain control or instead plummet in a devastating crash, according to Salon's senior politics writer Chauncey DeVega.
"Trump’s softening support is amplified by growing rumors about his health and reports on his reduced public schedule. Even the mainstream media noticed that he repeatedly appeared to fall asleep during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting," DeVega notes.
"While he sends out numerous social media posts in the middle of the night, he seems increasingly disconnected from real-world events by daylight," he writes.
Recent murmurs of Trump's failing health and a mysterious MRI scan also contribute to the disconnect, DeVega says.
"Any appearance of physical weakness or frailty in a man who is nearly 80 years old, threatens to undermine his carefully constructed persona as a vital and dynamic political strongman," DeVega adds.
But no matter how much "rage-bait" Trump posts, it's not taking away from his inability to convince Americans that his policies are popular.
"But none of Trump’s attention-seeking behavior changes the fact that across a range of polls, his policies — including on his supposed signature issues, such as immigration and the economy — are broadly and increasingly unpopular," DeVega says.
"This includes a historic first: Trump now has a net negative approval rating across all the major polls aggregated by the New York Times, and has the second-lowest poll numbers for any president since World War II," he adds.
Democrats now lead Republicans by 14 points in polls asking who Americans will vote for in the 2026 midterms.
"That historically large gap suggests that Democrats are well-positioned to win a House majority, and perhaps even the Senate," DeVega says.
Trump, however, doesn't care about the approval of the American people, DeVega writes.
"But at the end of the day, Trump rules only for Republican base voters, especially his most faithful MAGA followers — and most important of all, to advance his own corrupt interests," he says.
And among those followers, DeVega says, Trump is "still winning: His popularity among Republican voters is 88 percent, a net loss of just six points since his inauguration in January."
But again, DeVega writes, that's not really winning when "key parts of Trump’s winning 2024 coalition are not happy."
Male Latino voters are turning away from the president due to his immigration policies and young voters are doing the same due to a "worsening job market," DeVega explains.
"In the wake of the longest-ever government shutdown, a poll from AP-NORC shows Trump losing significant support among Republicans because of his catastrophic and incompetent management," DeVega says.
"Among other issues, the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, incoherent tariff policies, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the increasingly controversial attacks on alleged Venezuelan 'narcoterrorists' and the ongoing Middle East crisis are dragging down Trump’s support among Republicans, as well as voters in general," he adds.
That said, CNN political analyst Harry Enten still maintains that Republican voters are "rock solid for Trump."
"MAGA is a personality cult and pseudo-populist movement constructed around a single individual. His followers’ relationship with him is intense and highly emotional. As social psychologists and other experts have explored, MAGA believers are psychologically adhered to their leader and to their movement as a community and identity," DeVega explains.
Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat explains the dynamic, saying, "For hard-core MAGA, the realization that all is not as it seemed will be frightening, and the knowledge will be initially dismissed. Throughout 2026 we can look forward to redoubled efforts by pro-government propaganda outlets such as Fox to cast defectors and doubters in a negative light."
DeVega says this makes things murky when it comes to MAGA and its undying support for an historically unpopular president.
"Trump is crashing in the polls; that is not an illusion. His most loyal followers will never abandon him, but it’s unclear whether they can boost him back to political dominance," DeVega says.
