trump-putin

Republicans are in complete panic mode over President Donald Trump’s handpicked candidate for Ohio governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign is facing the threat of total collapse.

A Republican strategist involved in national GOP spending decisions told New York magazine about the chaos inside the team.

“We’re at DEFCON 1 as of a month ago, and I think it’s only getting worse by the day.”

He told the publication that the “red flags” began earlier this year. A dramatic reversal for Ramaswamy, the biotech billionaire and failed presidential candidate who Trump endorsed in February 2025. Ohio Republicans backed him well before the primary, and it seemed like smooth sailing into Congress, as Ohio hasn't elected a Democratic governor in two decades.

However, Democrat Amy Acton is steaming ahead in several polls as Ramaswamy campaign goes from bad to worse. A Marist poll released Tuesday showed Acton leading 50% to 43% among likely voters, while the RealClearPolitics polling average had her up by about 4 points, clearing the margin of error.

The Cook Political Report has moved the contest from likely Republican to a toss-up, and Republican strategists also worry that Ramaswamy’s missteps will make GOP voters stay at home.

Per the report, some GOP insiders believe the Trump-picked candidate may have been a mistake and could cost them a coveted political position in the state. The magazine reported that many regret their choice, with some believing Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost or Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel would have been stronger candidates.

Ramaswamy’s campaign hit rock bottom after a disastrous $4 million attack ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, accusing her daughter of being a liar.

Court documents have shown that Acton’s stepfather was charged with sexually abusing the Democrat candidate when she was 12, and her mother abandoned her and remained with him until he died.

“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” Acton’s brother stated, continuing:

“After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”

The decision to feature Acton’s biological mother backfired, with critics coming from Ramaswamy’s own party as well as Democrats.

His fellow GOP candidate in Ohio, Senator Jon Husted, distanced himself from the commercial, saying, “I would not have run that ad.” Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley also criticized Ramaswamy. However, Vice President JD Vance, who was the former governor of the state, refused to condemn him, drawing backlash.

Per the report, Ramaswamy’s wealth has also worked against him as rural voters question if he can relate to the working class in the state.

With Trump’s approval rating at the worst of his political career, the endorsement may have also affected Ramaswamy negatively

Trump and Vance have returned to Ohio to boost their ally, but it is unclear whether they could persuade voters to back him.

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume put President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff on blast after he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "humanitarian" during peace talks in St. Petersburg.

When asked about how he felt about the interaction, Hume did not hold back, calling Witkoff’s comment extravagant before adding: "The guy's a war criminal, for God's sake, and he's rained down bombs on civilians without regard to human life."

Hume, speaking with host John Roberts on Wednesday's edition of America Reports, called the Putin praise "absurd," pointing to Russia's war with Ukraine and the high civilian casualty count, with millions more displaced.

Witkoff gave the compliment after Putin announced the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American who had spent more than four years in Russian custody.

"You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that, I commend you, and I thank you again," Witkoff told Putin during their meeting.

Hubbard, a retired teacher from Michigan, was detained by Russian forces in Ukraine in 2022. Russian authorities accused the then-70-year-old of being a mercenary for Ukraine. He denied the allegations, and the United States determined that he was illegally detained.

Roberts excused Witkoff’s comments as diplomatic flattery, and Hume acknowledged that possibility, while seemingly taking a dig at Trump’s diesel deal with Russia

Hume then discussed Donald Trump’s reason for putting a pause on the Russia sanctions in Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bill.

The Fox News star said the president told reporters on the South Lawn that you don’t punish people you’re trying to strike a deal with.

“When you’re trying to get a guy out of what has been locked up for four years illegally, you don’t insult the guy,” Hume said. “Maybe you flatter him.”

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis called the praise "embarrassing and outrageous," mentioning how the comment is insulting to the families of Ukrainian children killed or made homeless by the war.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn offered a rebuke, calling Putin a "stone-cold killer."

The criticism comes as Trump faces criticism for what many believe is capitulating to Putin’s demands and turning his back on Ukraine.

During the Fox News discussion, Hume also addressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's willingness to freeze current battle lines as a potential starting point for peace talks.

Hume said the proposal now requires a response from Putin, who has rejected previous proposals to put the brakes on the fighting. He also noted that it challenges Trump, who has repeatedly blamed Zelensky for the lack of progress toward ending the war that Russia started.

Seth Meyers has expressed concern for President Donald Trump’s mental fitness after a bizarre video earlier this week showed the 80-year-old president stopping to wave and interact with no one while approaching Marine One.

On Wednesday's episode of Late Night, Meyers discussed the moment and questioned whether Trump was losing touch with reality.

"Donald Trump might no longer be able to tell the difference between what is real and what is fake," Meyers said, using the footage as an example.

Meyers played the footage showing Trump preparing to fly to Kansas for a campaign rally; the president paused, raised his hand, and appeared to acknowledge people, but the zoomed-out footage showed that no one was there.

The footage drew laughter from the audience. Meyers then joked, "When the helicopter pilot saw that, he probably wanted to call in a new flight plan," adding that the pilot would have wanted to fly him to a retirement home instead.

He then theorized that the president was waving at the construction workers at the White House Ballroom, poking fun at the stalled project.

Meyers isn’t the only one worried about the president’s cognitive abilities.

Liberal commentator Harry Sisson wrote in reaction to the clip, “This is really concerning. Yesterday, Trump stopped walking and started waving at nobody as he was boarding Marine One. The camera zooms out and shows nobody is there. His mental decline is getting worse.”

Political commentator Brian Krassenstein questioned why Trump was not getting the same treatment as Biden, suggesting the former president would receive more scrutiny.

Aside from comedians, established mental health experts have also expressed concern about Trump’s cognitive abilities.

Dr. Germaine Odenheimer, M.D., a geriatric neurologist and professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, expressed concern about his cognitive abilities and explained why she believes they have gotten much worse.

While she suspects he may have dementia, she pointed to his irrational behavior as a cause for concern.

Trump, who turned 80 in June, has repeatedly boasted about passing cognitive tests and has rejected concerns about his mental health or age-related concerns about his ability to perform his duties.

The president recently claimed the cognitive test he says he aced is difficult and doubted his MAGA fans could complete it.

His assurances about his mental fitness have done little to discourage critics who demand more transparency on his medical reports.

An infamous photo of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower shows him standing next to one of his large standing globes, which he preferred to the typical Mercator projection maps, which distort the relative size of countries. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's staff broke it.

The Washington Post revealed the shocking flub on Thursday, noting that the historic significance of the globes left previous occupants of the Pentagon office holding the artifacts with reverence. Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force when the U.S. entered World War II. He then became First Military Governor of the American-occupied zone of Germany and several years later the 34th president of the United States. The globe's significance was not lost on Hegseth, so he wanted it.

"Ordinarily, moving historical items within the building is a deliberate process overseen by trained curators," the Washington Post explained. "Instead, Hegseth’s staff dispatched its own team to relocate an Eisenhower globe. They lost control of the artifact and dropped it, sending the globe crashing onto its base and impaling the fragile shell near Antarctica, according to those familiar with the incident. The resulting gash appears to be several inches wide."

A photo of the globe now reveals not a mere scratch, but a massive hole at the base of the globe.

When it asked for information, the Army acknowledged that the globe was damaged when it was being moved. It left out the extent of the damage and why the globe was being moved. The incident happened on Feb. 3, they revealed.

Aside from the hole, “the spherical portion of the globe was detached from the metal mounting that allows it to rotate,” spokesman Christopher Surridge said in an email.

They didn't move the globe after that. Surridge refused to answer questions about the "movers" and said Hegseth's office could answer them.

Hegseth apparently still wants the artifact in his office, so the Army, which now has the globe, is consulting experts on how to transport it safely. It's unclear whether it can be or will be repaired.

Experts at the U.S. Army Center of Military History were furloughed during a partial government shutdown when Hegseth's team moved the globe. The Hegseth staff decided to move it themselves, the Post's sources said.

"It is unclear why Hegseth’s team did not wait for experienced help to move the artifact during the partial government shutdown, which ended the same day the globe was damaged," the report explained.

One person familiar with the incident said that there was an “apparent lack of patience."

It has now become a running joke inside the Pentagon, with staff wasting no time gossiping and cracking jokes, with some calling it peak Hegseth, charging ahead like he was auditioning for a movie, all swagger and a little too much World War II cosplay.

President Donald Trump receives a chilling warning that he could face a lengthy prison sentence in a new analysis examining what could happen if he attempts to interfere with the midterm elections, drawing comparisons to a president who tried to seize power and is serving life in prison.

In The Nation on Thursday, Paul Loeb and South Korean activist Jungmin Choi gave an example of Yoon Suk Yeol's downfall, whose failed December 2024 martial law declaration ended in mass protests, impeachment and life in prison for insurrection.

The authors say that Yoel’s fall from grace is an example of why Americans should resist any attempt by Trump or his administration to refuse to accept the election results.

“How do you stop a would-be dictator? The first requirement is knowing that it’s possible,” they wrote.

On December 3, 2024, Yoon declared martial law, which banned political activity and sent troops into the National Assembly. However, protesters fought back by surrounding the building, and lawmakers forced their way past military forces to overturn the martial law decree.

The protesters grew to over a million in just a few days, and Yoon was impeached and removed from office.

He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison in February 2026 after he was found guilty of leading an insurrection. Yoon escaped the death penalty and has filed multiple appeals for his conviction.

The court found that Yoon attempted to obstruct lawmakers from carrying out their constitutional duties by sending armed forces to the legislature.

“It is sufficient to conclude that there was intent to obstruct or paralyze the Assembly’s functions for a considerable period,” Judge Ji Gwi-yeon said.

Loeb and Choi detail five lessons for Americans from Yoon’s failed attempt at seizing power. They include the importance of voting, public resistance, and encouraging the military to refuse illegal orders. They referenced the six US senators and House members with military and national security backgrounds who released a video last November urging the military to refuse illegal orders.

They add that the effort to safeguard an election doesn't end once ballots are cast, noting that local authorities, the courts and regular citizens may all have a part to play if an administration tries to obstruct the process.

“But massive, immediate nonviolent protest will also be essential,” the authors wrote.

They also mention that it is essential to protect voting polls, writing: “For the US midterms, most points of contestation will be local: Citizens and local governments need to protect polling places and vote-counting centers, including having police protect them from disruption.”

They write that in the US, "power gets consolidated in stages," and aside from legal challenges, protest organizations such as Indivisible and No Kings have conducted poll monitoring and Hands Off the Vote trainings.

Following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and Trump's subsequent pardons of the insurrectionists, many have feared what he may do if he doesn't hold on to power.

"Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough started Thursday morning with a rant about President Donald Trump's bizarre behavior and recalled a conversation he once had with reporter Maggie Haberman about the president's failed political calculations.

In a conversation at the top of the hour, Scarborough said he and Haberman have discussed their own speculations about the psychology behind the president's actions.

"And, you know, I remember one time asking, why? Why does he do this?" Scarborough recalled. "Like the safe thing to do — the smart thing to do would be X or Y or Z. But he always does something radically different. And her take is: he always wants to see how much he can get away with. He doesn't really care about anything else. He will just constantly push and see how much Republicans will let him get away with. How much the media will let him get away with, how much the courts will let him get away with."

Scarborough thinks that's the only explanation for taking whatever political capital he had at the start of his administration and blowing it so quickly.

He specifically cited the lead that Trump had with Hispanic voters, who supported Trump for his immigration plan to deport "the worst of the worst." The reality, of course, has been that Trump has targeted scores of people who have no criminal history and certainly no violent crime background.

"He and Stephen Miller single-handedly dismantled that extraordinary advantage and completely turned it the other direction," said Scarborough.

Jonathan Lemire said that Trump never thinks long-term. For him it's about "changing the chyron at the bottom of the television."

"It's about pushing boundaries to gain advantage, to gain attention, to gain wealth or to gain power," said Lemire.

He went on to call out Trump's "greatest political comeback in U.S. history after what he did during the pandemic to his approval and support in 2024.

Lemire said that Trump "blew all that political capital" by "blowing it in Iran" after falling in love with the power he saw from the military in Venezuela and then he's "blown it with the hardline deportation."

So, as Republicans look to the White House to save him, Lemire said nothing has worked, and there's nothing that can be done.

"His rally appearances have done more harm than good, it would appear. And now you're seeing every poll on every issue he and his party are underwater on every issue including ones that used to be strengths," Lemire added.

Scarborough noted that that's going on in the background while Trump ends up at rallies saying "the most bizarre things." While in South Carolina overnight, Trump rambled about how handsome Darline Graham's husband was. This came after Trump rambled about Sen. Jon Husted's posterior in Ohio.

"It's constant," Scarborough said, noting that the Republican base keeps wondering why Trump is talking so much about another man's behind. "That's not really why we're here."

"At the same time, they're talking about James Talarico not being manly enough?" Scarborough said. "Please. I'm telling you, these Republicans, a lot of them, man, they literally — they should, after they all lose, they should go do a world tour of 'Guys and Dolls' and just see how that goes. They'd be absolutely fabulous."

President Donald Trump's Jeffrey Epstein controversy is a problem that doesn’t seem to go away for Republican candidates, with Democrats spending tens of millions of dollars to keep his connections to powerful figures in the political spotlight.

According to The Washington Post, which cited AdImpact data, Democrats have spent $53 million on campaign ads mentioning Epstein in competitive races, while Republicans spent a tiny fraction of that with $3 million.

The attacks have gone after Republican lawmakers who initially resisted legislation on releasing the Epstein files, along with the candidates who accepted money from donors with Epstein links.

Some Republicans are going out of their way to distance themselves from the scandal.

Iowa Republican Ashley Hinson, who is running for the Senate, released an ad invoking her family to deny links to the deceased sex predator.

Hinson addressed the ad this week after Democrats spent $8.5 million on ads exposing that she accepted money from Epstein-linked donors.

With the Epstein Files being a hot-button issue for Republicans, any association could be damning for GOP candidates.

In Ohio, Democrats spent $5.2 million targeting Republican Sen. Jon Husted over contributions from people associated with Epstein, including billionaire Les Wexner, who was heavily scrutinized for hiring Epstein as his financial manager.

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas has also been haunted by the ghost of Epstein as Democrats spend big to remind voters that he initially opposed releasing the files. He previously described it as a "political stunt.”

It appears the Democrats' strategy is having an effect, as protesters have shown up to GOP campaign events.

The Post reported that Epstein protesters have crashed Trump events in Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as Vice President JD Vance's appearance in North Carolina.

Democratic groups have also taken the issue on the road with exhibits showing the documents in battleground states.

The Epstein scandal was the first incident in which Trump clashed with his own supporters during his second term. The president spent months resisting demands to release the records, despite calls for disclosure from his party and supporters. He was eventually pressured into signing off on the release, and Congress overwhelmingly approved it.

Republicans have fought back, pointing the finger right back at Democrats and accusing them of exploiting the scandal to ensure voters stay at home. Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan went on the defensive, pointing to his vote to release the files while accusing Democratic opponent Mary Peltola of accepting money from Epstein associates.

Trump has lost supporters who stuck by him through thick and thin over Epstein. CNN profiled a MAGA superfan who traveled across the country to support him, turning her back over his resistance to releasing the files.

Dr. John Paul Garrison, a clinical and forensic psychologist specializing in body language cues, noted a recent moment of confusion by President Donald Trump and found it problematic.

A video of Trump went viral this week after he appeared to salute his Marine One helicopter. Typically, when Trump boards Marine One, two Marines stand on either side of the stairs. Presidents typically salute them in return. Trump returned the salute, but no one was standing there saluting in the first place.

"So, if you notice in the background, there is a construction worker back there. He is not positioned where President Trump is going to be looking in a minute, but I do want to acknowledge that there is somebody back there," the doctor said. "And down at the bottom of the hill there, it appears that those might be police or something similar. Some sort of law enforcement appears to be at the bottom of the hill."

Trump appears to wave at the law enforcement, then looks up and off into the distance. However, the camera pans out, there's no one else around.

"Now, Reuters has said that he was waving at construction workers. They have a photograph that is captioned that. So, it is possible maybe that there's some back there. I can't see them when the camera pulls back," he acknowledges.

"So, to do it twice is peculiar behavior," the doctor noted. "Obviously, it's more peculiar if absolutely nobody's there, but it would be surprising if he waved at them and then did it again shortly afterward. So, as the camera pulls back, we can clearly see that there doesn't appear to be anybody else unaccounted for in the frame."

He said that this is something that is known to happen with people who have a neurodegenerative disease and people who have dementia.

"They misinterpret their environment around them. Sometimes they see things that aren't there. But something like this could happen from neurodegenerative problems," Garrison explained. "It's also impossible that this is socially inappropriate behavior because somebody was way far away and couldn't even see him. Maybe he thought that they could. There could be misunderstandings about how the world around him is functioning."

He said it's something he intends to keep an eye on.

Then there was an incident in Dalton, Georgia. In the video, Trump leaves the stage as his Village People song plays. The limousine known as "The Beast" is parked and the doors are open, ready for him. He appears to walk past it and toward an open field. Secret Service agents scramble, ushering him toward the car.

"This is the type of behavior you would expect for someone who is dealing with dementiadementia, who's dealing with Alzheimer's type dementia or vascular dementia potentially," Garrison explained. "There's a wide variety of different issues that could contribute to this kind of behavior. But this type of wandering off, the lack of social awareness, all of those do seem like they are related to some form of neurological decline."

Finally, Garrison talks about the clash Trump had with Independent reporter Andrew Feinberg. The agitation was evident, he noted and as people grow more advanced in dementia they tend to struggle regulating their emotions.

"He doesn't know how to control these strong feelings he's having," Garrison said.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper managed to maintain his composure Wednesday night as newsroom editors served up an excruciating supercut of President Donald Trump professing his fawning love of the male physique.

“Erstwhile Manhattanite and derriere aficionado, President Donald J. Trump, whose approval rating, according to a new CNN poll, is currently at a bouncy 32 percent, thanks to all his political junk in the trunk, is once again making sure voters know that, as far as he's concerned, Ohio junior senator Jon Husted is an unmitigated smoke show,” said Cooper, who then set unloaded his first clip.

“I'm studying his body. I've never studied the body of a man before. It's not my thing. Nothing wrong with it, of course. Nothing. I always preceded by saying ‘nothing wrong.’ But it's never been my thing, to be honest with you. But I looked at his --- and then I looked at his legs, and I said, his --- is like. It's like a pile of muscle.”

“Just to be clear, that was last night in North Carolina where the president's chosen senate candidate is so far behind — so to speak — that the Senate GOP’s campaign arm has canceled most, if not all, remaining spending there,” said Cooper. “ … The man-in-chief says his fixation with Ohio’s second highest ranking senatorial caboose is just a one-off, that it's ‘never been my thing.’”

“But the beauty of the male form is not exactly forbidden fruit for him,” added Cooper, opening the floodgates to a rash of Trump-love.

“I never did that with a man before. I examined his --- ,” Trump said of Jon Husted. “And then I looked at his shoulders. I looked at his feet.”

“This guy walks through the door. I said, ‘look at this beautiful guy,’” Trump also said of GOP Congressional candidate Ed Gallrein.

“I actually think Mike Collins is a good-looking man,” Trump said of the Georgia Republican candidate.

“Rick Jackson’s a very handsome, distinguished, beautiful looking guy,” Trump said of the Georgia gubernatorial candidate

“Oh, he's a good looking guy,” Trump said of Georgia Sen. Greg Dolezal. “You're not allowed to say that about women or men anymore. It's the end of your political career. But he is a good-looking guy.”

“I wished Tim didn't look that good,” Trump gushed of Montana Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy. “You know, he's a very handsome guy. I don't like handsome guys.”

“I started examining his body. I watched up and down,” said Trump again of Sen. Husted. “I looked at his ---. Is he central casting, by the way?”

“… You can't miss a big, strong, handsome Oklahoma stud,” Trump said of that state’s handsome legion of men.

“I'm looking at the legs. He's this beautiful guy. He's got legs like tree trunks,” Trump also said of New York Giants Quarterback Jaxson Dart.

“He's a handsome guy, by the way,” Trump said of Kansas City Chiefs Harrison Butker. “It's usually not my thing, but he is a good-looking sucker.”

“Arnold palmer was all man,” Trump cooed of the American golf legend. “When he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘oh my God. That's unbelievable.’”

At the end of it all, Cooper barely blinked.

“I'm not sure if the sound you're hearing is Arnold Palmer rolling over in his grave … or of Sen. Husted giving back his key to the locker room at Trump Doral,” said Cooper. “What I do know is that there's nothing at all unusual — and certainly nothing gay — about a president who dances daily to YMCA and who publicly pines for a reprise of Betty Buckley in ‘Cats.’”

But Trump is getting away with flirty comments that would have tanked a Democratic leader like President Barack Obama, according critics. This accompanies his recent flare up in profanity in recent speeches, which some critics link to mental deterioration.

“With less than two weeks left to go, there's no telling where this might end up — maybe with the president bouncing his own gold meme coin off the rock-hard rear end of another ally in political jeopardy,” added Cooper, who is gay. “When you're a man's man, you can do and say it all.”

- YouTube youtu.be

The News Observer reports President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick were quick to announce a new manufacturing plant in North Carolina that would provide raw materials for semiconductors — perhaps too quick.

The Observer reports Sibelco, the mineral company that Lutnick said was behind the new plant, hasn’t confirmed any details of the federal officials’ announcement.

Trump is eager to sell his policies to South Carolina voters because Republicans are fighting for their political lives in a state the party was expecting to dominate without effort. But, aside from ‘closing the border,’ there are relatively few Trump policies that are resonating with Americans.

With his talking points running thin, Trump and Lutnick were quick to announce the groundbreaking of a factory to bolster a global hub for mining in Western North Carolina, which the Observer said produces 70 percent to 90 percent of the world’s high purity quartz — a key raw material in semiconductor and solar panel manufacturing.

However, a Sibelco spokesperson told The News & Observer that the company is only “aware of recent public comments regarding a potential project involving the company in North Carolina.”

“At this time, we are awaiting the official communication from the U.S. Government and are therefore not in a position to comment or provide information beyond what has been publicly announced through official channels,” the spokesperson said. “Should further information be announced, Sibelco will share relevant details through its communications channels.”

The setback comes as the president’s standing continues to plummet among working Americans. Trump promised when he ran for reelection in 2024 that he would revitalize American jobs, particularly in traditionally masculine industries like manufacturing. Yet according to a report by a business journalist, that's just not what's happening.

"The White House promised a manufacturing renaissance,” wrote Fortune business editor Nick Lichtenberg. “Instead, the factory floor keeps shrinking."

The journalist added that "the blue-collar job market has been slowing for more than a year, with jobs in manufacturing and construction racking up roughly 150,000 net losses on an annual basis as of March… During Trump's first year back in the White House, the manufacturing sector alone shed 108,000 jobs — even as the administration touted an incoming 'manufacturing boom.'"

While campaigning in 2024, Trump also pledged to eliminate the entire national debt in just one term. He also claimed he’d do it without cutting “one penny” from Social Security or Medicare. Instead, he suggested that he would eliminate the debt through growth, crypto, and tariffs.But according to Atlantic columnist David Frum, not only were Trump’s “absurd” plans little more than “fantasies,” but the bill has come due with potentially disastrous consequences.

Instead, Frum said Trump’s tax cuts reduced government revenues by $4.5 trillion over the next decade, and his cuts to food stamps and Medicaid reduced spending by just $1.1 trillion. Meanwhile, Trump’s budget plans generated $3.4 trillion in direct costs over the decade ahead — and this grows to $4.1 trillion because of the rising costs of debt service in the Trump era.

President Donald Trump has added $2 trillion to America's budget deficit in 2026, swelling the ballooning debt to $40 trillion. Even as economists continue to express alarm about the daunting math, a top economist argued on Wednesday that the deeper issue is in fact Trump himself.

People do not trust him because of things like him running up the deficit, and that impacts the economy.

"How they evaluate the job the government is doing on economic policy," Dr. Justin Wolfers, a non-resident senior fellow at Brookings and the Peterson Institute and a University of Michigan professor of economics and public policy, wrote on Wednesday regarding American voters. "You can see why this might matter: If policy is good, you might be optimistic about your economic future. If it’s bad, you’re likely more pessimistic."

Wolfers described a phenomenon which he dubbed "America’s confidence in our economic managers. To turn it into a single number, take the share of people who say the government is doing a poor job and subtract the share who say it’s doing a good job. When that number rises, it means Americans are handing down a harsher verdict."

He added, "In late 2024, the verdict stood at +14. That means 14 percentage points more Americans thought the government was doing a poor job than a good one. By May 2026, it had hit +66."

Wolfers observed "that’s the highest reading in the history of the question (by a lot). The previous record was +52 and it was set during the 2011 debt ceiling crisis. At that point, Congress was flirting with the idea of not paying the nation’s bills. We’re now 14 points worse than we were then."

After sorting through volumes of data about Americans' perceptions of the economy, Wolfers pointed out that while "textbooks teach monetary policy and fiscal policy, which means taxes, spending, interest rates: the levers government pulls to shape economic life," analysts need to remember that "there’s another part of the story. That part is whether people think the folks pulling levers know what they’re doing."

He concluded, "So the next time someone points a camera at me and asks why Americans are so gloomy when the numbers look fine, here’s my answer. They’re not misreading the economy. They’re reading the people running it. And their verdict today is the harshest on record."

Speaking to AlterNet in September, Wolfers elaborated on how Trump's corruption is specifically hurting ordinary people economically.

"If Trump gets a billion dollars richer in a country with 340 million people, even if he took it directly out of the treasury, that's $3 per person," Wolfers told AlterNet. "That's not very much. That's simply the claim that one man's profits are small relative to an enormous economy. But still, actually, I think the problems are far deeper than that. So the basic idea of a market economy is that you and I compete with each other. If I can bring goods to market at a lower price than you, then people will buy them from me rather than you. If I can create higher-quality goods than you, people will buy from me rather than you. The problem with the Trump family corruption — and not all of it's the legal definition of corruption, by the way; some of it meets the standard English-language definition, if not a legal definition — is what you do is you change the nexus of competition."

He added, "If the best way for me to get ahead is to go to the White House bearing gifts, and then they pass a rule and they ban you from competing against me, then that means the basic dynamics of competition and markets delivering good outcomes for regular folks just gets broken. That in turn means that if I'm the CEO of a company, I spend less time trying to create products at lower prices, trying to outcompete, or less time creating new or better products. And I spend more time and energy at Mar-a-Lago trying to win over the favor of the president. That means bad products will win."

He described this as "crony capitalism."