republicans

Republicans are slipping further into despair as markets continue to boil and poll numbers sink into the second month of President Donald Trump’s unilateral declaration of war on Iran.

“This is no April Fool's joke. This is disaster," said CNN data analyst Harry Enten of Trump’s dark-deep poll numbers, which sank lower than his hated predecessors, Joe Biden and Jimmy Carter (both of whom were removed by voters). "All these numbers are a disaster for President Trump.”

Republican voters and Trump supporters, who have dominated the social media scene on X with rampant cheerleading since billionaire bought Twitter, now appear to be doing a different kind of shouting.

“I don’t care how much they suck for the love of God please vote Republican,” wailed one X user.

“It's heart breaking. WE NEED TO VOTE REPUBLICAN!!” said another.

Others were trying to use fear to drum up MAGA’s slumping interest as the president’s deeply unpopular war plodded on — despite Trump’s earlier claim that he would not engage in the “endless war” of past administrations.

“Unless you want to return to far left Dem policies- you’d be a fool to NOT vote Republican,” warned one example on X.

Other deeply entrenched Republicans did what they could to sell promises that look increasingly like fantasy as Trump’s policies continue to blast U.S. markets.

“Once this war is over with IRAN, the stock market is going to explode, gas prices are going to collapse, and the American economy is going to take off! Just in time for the run-up to the midterms. Poor Democrats,” insisted right-wing podcaster Bill Mitchell.

But the standard MAGA opinion on X appears to be indifference, bordering on outright hostility with Trump.

“Our MAGA neighbors have taken down their Trump sign and removed both of the Trump stickers from their truck,” admitted one X user.

“Daily Blast” podcaster Sam Stein says President Donald Trump is “hitting some important milestones”—but all of them are bad.

“His approval rating has dropped below 40 percent in at least three different sets of polling averages. What’s more, another analysis shows Trump is more unpopular with independents than any president at this point in his second term, including Richard Nixon.”

“People are tired of this mad king act,” said DB podcast guest Leah Greenberg, a co-founder of Indivisible, the group that organized the “No Kings” protests in March. “… It is the sense that American society is struggling under the weight of AI, a weak jobs market, continued inflation, while Donald Trump focuses on his own glory, his own enrichment, his own power.”

In addition to economic issues and outright concern for democracy, Greenberg said Trump and his administration “made almost no public case for war” in Iran, which made the attack a hated “surprise to people.”

“It’s very obvious to people that if we are spending a billion dollars a day for a war and for bombs that are going to destroy Iranian schoolgirls’ schools while we are cutting healthcare and costs for schools at home, those two things are connected,” said Greenberg.

Stein pointed out that Trump is underwater with noncollege white men on Fox News polls, saying “You don’t get closer to the molten core of the MAGA base than that.”

“Critically, those demographics in the Fox poll also oppose the war. He’s losing his base over the war, isn’t he?” Stein asked.

“That’s absolutely the case,” replied Greenberg. “ … there was absolutely a base of folks who thought they were voting for the anti-war candidate in 2024 when they voted for Donald Trump. You are seeing a fracturing of that set of folks. They may not necessarily be the highest information voters, but a war is certainly capable of breaking through to them.”

While many MAGA are expressing disgust with Trump and walking away, others are deep into panic over the horrendous numbers.

“Nobody cares! Nobody cares! Nobody cares!” posted one Republican supporter on X beneath a Big Data Poll revealing Republicans to have hit their lowest approval among Independents since January 2022, with ≈16 percent of Independents saying they "Previously identified as America First/MAGA, but no longer do.”

“You people who do polling live by the minute and nobody lives that way and we don't care,” the commenter continued. “Tell me about a week from the election and then maybe I'll care in the meantime go away. We've got a war to fight and we don't need doomers and gloomers demoralizing people.”

Other MAGA lieutenants continue to march forward, denying the obvious.

“President Trump is doing what he said he would do: -Secure the border -Support law enforcement -Lower taxes for hardworking families -Enforce the law Promises made, promises kept,” insisted Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on X.

Semafor writer Burgess Everett reports that Trump is being throttled by the specter of calamitous midterm elections, and he’s taking his terror to his Republican enablers in the House and Senate.

“The Republican Congress is consumed by a daunting, nearly impossible task: Satisfying President Donald Trump’s desire for new federal voter ID legislation,” writes Everett.

Trump’s ever sinking poll numbers are plaguing him, and he’s acting as if the only way he can reverse impending November disaster is to exclude as many Democrats and Independent voters from the polls as possible.

But Trump’s latest ploy to block unwanted voters from the polls is the SAVE America Act, and his determination is twisting his party into pretzels as he threatens to stall all legislation unless his legislative salvation lands on his desk.

“Trump’s top priority is causing painful divisions among congressional Republicans, slowing down the bipartisan housing bill that could give him a cost-of-living victory to tout,” said Everett. Trump is also “heaping pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune” to overcome a Democrat block on the SAVE act by either killing the filibuster or forcing Democrats to hold the Senate floor for months with a ‘talking’ filibuster.

“GOP senators and aides described disarray behind the scenes this week as the party agonizes over how to take up the voter ID and citizenship bill next week while keeping Trump happy,” Everett said. “Republicans have a major math problem: Of their 53 senators, at least four are opposed to the talking filibuster, and even more oppose killing the filibuster.

Opposition is obvious in that if Republicans overhaul the filibuster Democrats will be sure to kick Republicans into the woods with the same overhaul when they take the Senate. Some centrist Republicans, or Republicans from swing states, don’t like Trump’s SAVE Act anyway — so killing the filibuster might deliver poor returns.

“[I]t is a mistake, in my judgment, to expand the bill to include any kinds of restrictions on state’s abilities to set the rules for absentee ballot,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told Semafor.

Two other Republicans, speaking anonymously for fear of angering the party’s vengeful leader, say Trump’s shortsighted crusade would backfire on Republicans. One told Semafor they worry the push to curtail mail-in voting: “would disenfranchise a lot of our elderly. A lot of Republicans use mail-in ballots.”

Another complained, essentially, that the ignorant are leading the blind on writing the thing.

“I don’t think they have all the right people in writing the bill,” said the second anonymous source. “They should have involved people that have actually worked in elections before,” this GOP senator said. “Some of the issues need to be resolved before we move forward with it. But the public’s demanding it.”

Horrified by the Democratic conquest of statewide offices in neighboring Georgia, Alabama Republicans are revamping their own division to assure their Republican governor will have majority control.

AL.com reports the Alabama Senate passed a bill Thursday that expands the state’s Public Service Commission from three positions to seven — but with the Republican state governor having the power to pick four members, giving the governor a clear majority on board decisions.

The commission monitors and approves rate increases from state power and gas companies, which hold monopolies in their representative territories. Proponents of the new law claim the expansion is all about keeping customers’ rates low.

“The people are fed up with paying high power rates,” said Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville. “We know we have inflation. We know things go up over time. And if our inflation for power was similar to our neighboring states, I don’t think we’d be talking about this today.”

The timing seems odd considering the state of Alabama currently ranked 28th lowest in power rates in 2024.

However, it makes more sense when considering that Democrats are ransacking PSC elections in the neighboring state of Georgia. Democrats delivered “a 26-point rout” in two usually low-profile races for the Georgia Public Service Commission last year after Democrats successfully seized on a crusade to lower voters’ costs — starting with utilities — as inflation booms under President Donald Trump.

Georgia’s all-Republican Public Service Commission had raised electricity rates for consumers six times in the last two years, adding an average of more than $40 per month to power bills on top of what people were already paying. This scored badly with voters dealing with similar increases in the cost of housing, groceries and other household necessities.

Politico reports Georgia resident Leila Meadows, who voted for Trump three times, “had never heard of Georgia’s Public Service Commission,” but cast her ballot for Democratic candidates Alicia Johnson and Peter Hubbard in last November’s special election after the candidates promised to halt rate increases in the state.

Votes likes this installed Democrats on Georgia’s Public Service Commission for the first time in more than 20 years. Alabama Republicans have apparently noticed, and are working to assure a majority Republican commission by giving state Gov. Kay Ivey the power to appoint four members of the new seven-member board.

An earlier version of the bill, which died under opposition, would have given the governor the power to appoint all board members, ending democratic elections for the board.