Donald Trump’s already shaky second term just got brand-new data proving what everyone outside his inner circle has known for months: most of the country thinks he’s flopping hard. A fresh CNN/SSRS poll shows a whopping 58 percent of adults call his return to the presidency a “failure”, and his overall approval is sitting around 39 percent — underwater across every major policy area.
Let that sink in. The guy who ran on “winning” has “failure” attached to his presidency in the minds of the majority of American adults.
The poll isn’t just a random Twitter talking point. It cuts across issues Trump once owned in the public imagination:
Only about39 percentapprove of his handling ofthe economy* — even though economic anxiety is front-page news everywhere.
A solid 55 percent say the economy has worsened on his watch.
Immigration and tariffs — bread-and-butter Trump territory — have also flipped to net disapproval.
That’s not a blip. That’s a trend line screaming lose-lose.
And don’t think this embarrassment is isolated to a single snapshot of public opinion.
Political analysts and regular news outlets alike are calling this slump historic. One expert on a recent podcast observed Trump’s fury at press coverage over his poll woes, but noted that “Trump’s bluster displays weakness, not strength.” And that’s before you factor in how voters are responding to his aggressive policy shifts.
Other tribunes of conservative thought aren’t exactly painting rosy portraits either: after years of pushing hardline anti-immigration crackdowns and a barrage of tariffs, polls show many Americans souring on Trumpism and even reevaluating issues like immigration, trade, and international alliances as counterproductive.
Trump’s economic boomerang — the massive tariffs he hyped as a linchpin of a new American industrial renaissance — has become a political liability rather than a selling point. One recent Daily Beast piece points out the growing disconnect between the president’s rhetoric about a “golden age” and how voters actually feel about their pocketbooks.
Make no mistake: these numbers matter. As we barrel toward the 2026 midterms, Republicans can’t just gaslight or tweet away these trends. With approval underwater nearly everywhere, even some GOP voters are signaling unease. The opposition doesn’t need a revolution — just patience.
Trump’s reaction hasn’t been subtle. When polls turn against him, the response is predictable: denounce the pollsters as biased, demand investigations, or lob every conspiracy-theory-grade insult in his arsenal. But that doesn’t change the math. Metrics are numbers — not narratives — and right now the data paints a president whose broad support is heading in only one direction: down.
