The winter of Trump's discontent - The Boston Globe

On Monday, a day after Secret Service agents and a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed an intruder who breached the security perimeter of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, President Trump addressed the issue during an event at the White House.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be around,” he told his audience in the East Room. “Got a lot of people gunning for me.”

Trump survived two assassination attempts in 2024. Now Trump’s biggest threat seems to be Trump himself.

On the eve of the first State of the Union address of Trump’s second term, a CNN/SRRS poll conducted last week revealed a presidency in free fall. On how Trump is handling his job, 63 percent disapproved. When asked whether Trump had “the right priorities,” 68 percent said no.

FEATURED VIDEO

Among Latino voters, who supported Trump in higher numbers in 2024 than ever before, the president’s approval rating has dropped from 41 percent to 22 percent since last February.

Trump’s overall approval rating sits at a grim 36 percent.

By any measure, this presidency is failing. But that’s not what Trump or his Cabinet gaslighters are saying, especially about the economy.

“I inherited a mess,” Trump said last week about the economy under former president Joe Biden. This is the same economy that The Economist, in October 2024, called “the envy of the world.”

In the CNN/SRRS poll, 57 percent of respondents said the economy/cost of living was the issue they most wanted Trump to discuss in his State of the Union address. By more than 20 points, the economy outranked immigration, the state of democracy, health care policy, crime and safety, and foreign policy combined.

Advertisement

Trump didn’t inherit a mess. But on multiple fronts, he has created one, and he knows it.

That’s at least one reason why he’s lashing out in every direction more than usual. His most consequential recent setback came last week, when the conservative-led Supreme Court did something it has rarely done during Trump’s second term — it ruled against him, striking down his global tariffs as illegal.

Two justices who voted with the 6-3 majority, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, were nominated by Trump. In his post-ruling tirade, Trump, without mentioning them by name, ripped into them like recalcitrant employees who failed to do what he hired them to do — always vote in his favor.

On his social media site, he said on Monday he will refer to the Supreme Court with “lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect.”

At the same time, Trump is still threatening a war against Iran. In his latest authoritarian move, he slapped a banner featuring his scowling official portrait on the Justice Department’s headquarters, in case it wasn’t already clear who is running the joint.

Cases built on false accusations by federal immigration agents keep getting tossed out of court. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, D.C., has yet to secure a single indictment against Democratic officials, stalling Trump’s revenge tour.

If Trump were a child, his temper tantrums could be chalked up to the need for a nap or a dirty diaper. But his behavior seems to stem from surging public rejection. In various states, including some that Trump won, legislators and residents have rejected proposals for massive warehouses to be converted into immigrant detention camps. On Tuesday, after weeks of protests from residents, the administration scrapped plans for such a facility in Merrimack, N.H.

Advertisement

Neighbors are defending neighbors against federal immigration agents invading their communities with impunity, and Trump’s snatch-and-grab immigration enforcement is unpopular, not to mention unconstitutional.

Unanswered questions and information from the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender and former Trump pal, won’t — and shouldn’t — go away, no matter how much Trump wants people to move on. Despite his claims, the president has not been “totally exonerated.”

Trump couldn’t even get through the Olympics without insulting and mocking some US athletes, instead of celebrating Team USA’s 33 medals, including 12 gold-winning performances.

With the crucial midterm elections in November, Trump will double down with more of the same and probably worse. But the numbers don’t lie: A majority of Americans are fed up with Trump and are pushing back against a corrupt and vindictive administration that doesn’t care about their most basic needs.

Is this any way to treat an authoritarian? Yes. Yes it is.

Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at [email protected].