A new CNN poll released this week shows the damage done to the Republican Party, but buried in its pages are questions about President Donald Trump's stability.
The New Republic's Greg Sargent wrote in a column Thursday that many of the issues about Trump personally haven't popped up in polling data. Polls typically stick to questions about approval, disapproval and political policies rather than whether he's mentally and physically capable of handling the job. This one asked about Trump's well-being, disconnectedness, sharpness and other personal traits.
Sargent has decided to call this "Late Stage Trumpism."
"The 'personalist' aspects of Trumpian rule—the shaping of much of the government and even the physical capital of Washington, D.C., around one man’s relentless self-dealing and self-aggrandizement—have all started imploding in on themselves, in a collapsing supernova of venality and megalomania," the long-time political columnist said.
Poll after poll has shown just how bad Trump's numbers have become and that he's now starting to lose ground with his MAGA allies over the Iran war and the Jeffrey Epstein case.
The most striking numbers, Sargent noticed, include nearly three-quarters of the U.S. thinks Trump is out of touch with what most Americans face. Two-thirds of those surveyed said that he puts himself and his own personal gain over the country. Nearly two-thirds say he's gone too far in pushing his own personal business interests.
Perhaps one of the most brutal numbers: 57 percent say that Trump doesn't have the "stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president."
Meanwhile, 61 percent of Americans are annoyed with his Washington renovations that appear to be taking up most of his time and energy.
Sargent found the language in the last question to be "very benign," rather than asking about specifics like tearing down the East Wing of the White House and slapping his name on everything.
The voters also clearly see that Trump has abandoned fighting for them to instead focus on his own self-dealing and scoring major profits in the White House either on the taxpayers' dime or through international deals and pumping up stocks that he owns an interest in.
“We have seen massive collapses of support for presidents—like Richard Nixon in the midst of Watergate and Lyndon Johnson as the Vietnam War overshadowed his domestic agenda,” said Corey Brettschneider, an expert and podcaster on presidential power, when speaking with Sargent. “What’s different here is the widespread recognition of Trump’s unprecedented corruption, narcissism, and putting of personal greed over the public interest.”
Trump is also now stepping in as other departments handle small issues like disaster funding. Trump is intentionally blocking aid to blue states.
Meanwhile, the president was so furious about his embarrassing failure with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool that he demanded Olympian David Hearn be thrown in jail for a decade. Unfortunately, a key witness appears to have undermined the Justice Department's whole case by saying the damage was already there when Hearn stuck his hand in to feel the coating.
Trump tried to tie the U.S.'s 250th celebration to himself, and "almost nobody came," said Sargent.
He explained, "None of this is to minimize the damage that Trump is doing on many critical fronts."
Even when it comes to the Iran war, Trump can't manage to fix what he broke.
Political theorist Alan Elrod told Sargent not to over-interpret the Trump decline as a decline of Trumpism.
"It’s a crucial distinction to keep in mind," warned Sargent. "And no one should see any of this as a sign that the midterms or the 2028 presidential race will be easy. Nonetheless, if Trumpism as a personalist project is sunsetting, it’s an important, noteworthy development in itself."
