The Walls are Starting to Close in On Trump

[marmar]

The Walls are Starting to Close in On Trump
Story by Stephen Silver • 22h


Several weeks of bad polling for U.S. President Donald Trump led to a new poll featuring what, in that poll, is the lowest approval rating of Trump’s second presidency.

....(snip)....

Reuters/Ipsos found that Trump’s approval rating was underwater on most major issues, including “from inflation and immigration to taxation and rule of law.” Even on immigration, traditionally seen as Trump’s strongest issue, 45 percent of Reuters respondents approve and 46 percent disapprove.

Of those polled, 83 percent said the president “ must obey federal court rulings even if he doesn't want to.” In addition, a full two-thirds of respondents, 66 percent, answered that they “did not think the president should be in control of premier cultural institutions such as national museums and theaters.”

....(snip)....

“As more and more Americans begin to feel the pain of his policies, we may well look back on his first 100 days as the prelude to a historically unpopular presidency,” Sosnik, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, wrote in the Times. ..............(more)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-walls-are-starting-to-close-in-on-trump/ar-AA1DoU0J

[Irish_Dem]

1. Does he care about approval ratings?

His goal is to become a trillionaire. As long as he can rake in the cash, he is happy.

[Lovie777]

5. And fucking the American people....

at the same time.

[Irish_Dem]

9. He really loves that part, getting one over on people.

Screwing them, cheating, lying, committing crimes with no consequences.
He really loves this part.

[BaronChocula]

31. Yep. That's why he creates conflict where there was none

He goes up against someone or something that has no interest in a fight and tries to wear them down so they'll concede something and make him look like a winner. Which is just one small part of what makes him a total loser.

[Irish_Dem]

38. Trump is said to always create division and in fighting amongst his staff.

He loves all the toadying up to him, jockeying for power, etc.
He gets off on the cruelty.

[dchill]

14. That part has become essential, I think.

All his grievance comes from the gut knowledge that more than half of the people absolutely revile him - and he craves either love or vengeance. Draining the country of all its value is that vengeance. Love me or die.

[Harker]

13. He seems to have cared about his TV ratings, and crowd sizes...

but no matter the magnitude of his unpopularity it will be, in his little mind, those who disapprove who are wrong.

His personality disorders won't let him accept that he's wrong about anyything.

[Irish_Dem]

15. He is emboldened by the sheer size and scope of his power, immunity, and wealth.

Last edited Wed Apr 23, 2025, 02:04 PM - Edit history (1)

He believes he is brilliant, special, entitled.

I think now he is just all about making money.
That is all he really cares about.

He is also quite angry and his second goal is revenge on everyone.

[Harker]

17. If the concept of the relationship of 'hubris' and 'nemesis' has validity

he's heading for an epic downfall. I hope he lives just long enough to experience it.

[Irish_Dem]

35. This son of a bitch just keeps falling upwards.

I agree, in the normal world he would be on a course towards an epic
downfall of Shakespearian proportions.

[New Breed Leader]

30. I agree with what liberal comedian Hal Sparks said:

Donald Trump is incapable of shame.

...but he CAN be embarrassed.

Those low ratings can help with that.

[pat_k]

33. The weaker his support, the more likely his...

... protection squad in Congress starts to crack.

He may not care, but he does care about holding his grip on the party. And he is reportedly afraid of causing a 1929. He would try to unlawfully remove Powell in a heartbeat but for the fact that even a hint that he would take out that stabilizing force sent the markets plummetting -- and so he backed off.

He will follow his worst impulses more often than not though. And that will steepen his already steep downward trajectory.

[TomSlick]

44. No. He doesn't care.

One way or the other, he's not running again.

He doesn't give a tinker's dam about his popularity.

[Peacetrain]

2. Great minds think alike marmar

I just posted something similar.. and that to me is a good sign

[Tribetime]

3. Yes I don't see this ending well for him or republicans its just

A matter of time now. There is no escaping their downfall

[wolfie001]

19. From your mouth to God's ear

And I'm not religious

[AdamGG]

34. I thought this was the case on January 6th though

and the scale of destruction that he can inflict in the next 3 3/4 years is something I try not to dwell on because it's disturbing.

Hopefully, he faces some consequences, but he has a long track record in his life of avoiding that. Best case scenario is probably that he dies, but after seeing that Vance is every bit as committed to Putin's playbook, it won't provide much relief.

We really need to pick up 4 Senate seats in 2026, which is a significant challenge. If Ossoff can hold on, there's Maine, North Carolina, hopefully Sherrod Brown in Ohio (not an easy task, but possible), but then what could be #4?

[tonkatoy8888]

4. Obviously

"The walls are starting to close in on Trump" means something entirely different for the author of this article than it does to me. For him it means low polling. I don't think anyone in the Trump administration is particularly interested in or concerned about polling. They will just continue on, blithely doing what they want to do. Republicans in the Senate have ceded their power to Trump and the administration seems to have no intention of following court directive, so it's all good to them.

To me, "The walls are starting to close in on Trump" means his staff is packing a go-bag for him, looking for countries without extradition treaties with the US, and making sure Air Force One is gassed up and ready to go.

From my perspective, a big difference.

[Martin68]

6. Trump's administration is being assailed on numerous fronts: the courts, the unions, the universities, the law firms,

and the polls. I doubt they have the coherence, intelligence, know-how, or balls to withstand this assault, and the pressure will continue to mount.

[surfered]

7. These are the walls I want to see closing in on Trump

And no R2D2 to save him.

https://m.

&pp=ygUhc3RhciB3YXJzIGdhcmJhZ2UgY29tcGFjdG9yIHNjZW5l

[tanyev]

11. Ha! That was my first thought, too.

[surfered]

37. Disturbed minds think alike.

[Meowmee]

50. Yes

[EnergizedLib]

8. I freaking wish

How many times we have heard this before?

[William769]

10. Good!

[GoodRaisin]

12. "The 100 days of terror"

How history will record it.

[wolfie001]

20. I have no idea why but this zany bit keeps creeping into my brain:

[Towlie]

16. What walls? Opinion polls are not going to remove him from power!

That article ends with a link to this one, which says this:

Donald Trump is not slowly creeping toward authoritarianism. He’s sprinting toward it, daring the country to stop him. And so far, nobody has. Not the courts. Not Congress. Not the bureaucratic institutions supposedly designed to resist lawlessness from above. And certainly not his political opponents, who still whisper about norms and proceduralism while the Constitution burns behind them.

If walls are closing in on Trump then apparently they're traditional Japanese walls made of paper. Something more is needed to stop him and it seems like everyone is only complaining and depending upon others to come up with a solution.

[Martin Eden]

24. IMPEACHMENT Walls, if Dems retake the House and a bunch of Senate seats

Seems unlikely, and I'm not sure we'll even have legit midterm elections.

Also, I don't like the prospect of President Vance.

[Iamscrewed]

18. Walls

They need to be prison walls.

[Icanthinkformyself]

21. Polls

are meaningless when the vote is counted by ElonComputers. Before we have a wet dream we should give reality a look see.

[maxsolomon]

22. LOL, sure they are, Steve.

Other than a Federal Judge here and there, there's nothing standing in the way.

The wholesale revanchist dismantling of the Federal bureaucracy continues unabated.

We haven't even gotten to the Reconciliation Bill that's coming.

[Greg_In_SF]

23. Don't get too excited

While it's nice to point out the one poll where he is at 42%, the average of the major polls has him at 46.6%.

How it's that high, no one knows.

[Blasphemer]

40. Easy - racism and xenophobia. nt

[aggiesal]

25. This is from The Economist ...

More graphs in the article, but I displayed the graph of the President's 1st 100 days for each President since 2008.

How popular is Donald Trump?
https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker

[Jrose]

26. He who has lived by creating walls...

will be surrounded and crushed as a consequence of his walls.

[electric_blue68]

27. faster... Faster....

FASTER!!!!!

[CountAllVotes]

28. No confidence

The con man has lost all of the confidence he had managed to acquire.

What is left are the diehards, those that have played his Wall Street game and followed his "tips".

It is a sickening situation but the reality is that no one can trust him or believe in him any more.

They need to find a way to remove him from the Office of the President as he is anything but a President. He is a con man plain and simple.

[3catwoman3]

29. I think he absolutely cares what people think. He wouldn't be so petty and vengeful...

...if he didn't. He is completely unable to ignore even the smallest slight or insult.

How many times have we heard him rant about being treated poorly, or complain that someone was "not nice" to him, or express great admiration for some real creep who strokes his ego?

[kimbutgar]

32. It's not low enough and he is a dictator who no longer is harnessed by the law of the land.

I am so ashamed of my country now. He has ruined our international reputation and will destroy the robust economy President Biden created.

RIP America 1776-2024

[LetMyPeopleVote]

36. According to Rachel Maddow, trump still have a good number of his supporters who support his undemocratic actions

A new poll suggests roughly a fourth of GOP voters support giving the president authority over the rule of law and civic institutions.

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/latest-polls-point-sizable-gop-support-trumps-authoritarian-style-ambi-rcna202387

While Donald Trump’s allies keep trying to convince the public that his public support is “soaring” and “skyrocketing,” the president himself claims his approval rating is “in the high 70s,” reality keeps getting in the way. In fact, the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll found Trump’s backing down to just 42% — an unusually low number for an incumbent president just three months into his term.

But while the topline results were of interest, it was some of the issue-specific data that stood out for me. From the same national survey (click the link for details about methodology and the margin of error):

23% of Republican voters said the president should defy court orders he disagrees with.
28% of Republican voters said the president should withhold funding from universities he disagrees with.
26% of Republican voters said the president should control national museums and theaters.

Some might see this and feel a sense of relief, since the views are not a majority. But the flip side is true, too: The Reuters/Ipsos data suggests roughly a fourth of rank-and-file GOP voters are on board with a radical vision in which a president has authoritarian-style authority over the rule of law and civic institutions.

This comes on the heels of a recent CBS News/YouGov poll that found 44% of Republican voters said federal judges should not be allowed to review Trump’s policies.....

The more Trump sees evidence that his party’s base approves of authoritarian tactics as legitimate, the more likely it is that the incumbent president will continue to flout the nation’s constitutional system.

Rachel discussed some of these polling results last night. There are good number of trump supporters who are nut cases and want to do away with our democratic form of government

[Blasphemer]

41. That is his floor. Those ppl cannot be reasoned with. nt

[Evolve Dammit]

39. I hope so, but doubt it. He owns the congress, DOJ and is CIC.

[Cha]

42. TY Kick!

[Blue Owl]

43. Set walls to CRUSH mode

[Boomerproud]

45. I see him as slithering out of this self-made abyss.

He's done it time and time again. I fervently wish I was wrong-but I trust my instinct on this. I can't describe how hopeless it makes me feel.

[BlueTsunami2018]

46. No, they are not. He doesn't give a fuck about any of this.

He doesn’t care about polls. He doesn’t care about any of this because it’s all meaningless. None of it is going to stop Project 2025. None of it is going to stop the horrific things these people are doing. The crashing of the markets will continue, the flaunting of laws and courts will continue. Public opinion polls aren’t going to bring back funding for diseases, healthcare, education or stop ICE from grabbing people off the streets.

These people are there for four fucking years. He’s not going anywhere unless he drops dead. This country is already fundamentally changed by the actions of the people making this policy, which is not him, and will be completely unrecognizable by the time they’re done.

The elected Republicans are the only people who can stop this and as Murkowski said, the ones who know better are all scared to death. The others actively want these things to happen. They won’t do anything at all to put an end to it.

Walls closing in? Hardly.

[garybeck]

47. Sorry but polls don't matter anymore

popular opinion is meaningless in dictatorships.
most of history's worst dictators were hugely unpopular

and if you think the next election is going to fix this because we have free and fair elections,
you are even further wasting your time

the possible ways this could end any time soon are diminishing

[Kath2]

48. Good!

Impeach, remove and replace! Let’s elect more Democrats like AOC and be done with this fascist bigot.

[Jack Valentino]

49. The polls are inadequate. I would like to see the question "Trump should be dead" polled,

and see how many people respond positively to THAT....

just because I am very interested in polling statistics.

[joshdawg]

51. Let me know when they close enough to squash this cockroach.

They cannot close fast enough to suit me.

[Javaman]

52. I predicted 2 month ago...

that within 3 to 6 months he will order the national guard, or more likely, one of the fucked up militias to fire on a crowd of protestors.

I truly hope I'm wrong.

[markie]

53. he doesn't care

he is in office, he is making bucks, he has people around him that kowtow, and he feels invincible... he doesn't care about opinion polls, he doesn't care about other people's lives, he just doesn't care

[NNadir]

54. Too damned late.