Trump's Regime Is Unpopular And Weak

[DocWatts]

I thought I might create this thread as a Public Service Announcement to counter some disinformation I've been seeing on this topic.

While Trump likes to puff himself up as a strong man, in actuality he's resorting to terror tactics - ICE abductions, arresting judges, sending Americans to concentration camps -  not because his regime is strong, but because it's unpopular and weak. He's attempting to govern by decree like a King because his administration is too weak and disorganized to get actual legislation passed.

Trump wants us to feel that he's invincible - that he has a popular mandate from the American people, and that any resistance to him is futile. This is NOT true.

First up, a majority of American didn't vote for him: %31.8 of voters did, the rest voted for other candidates or stayed home. More importantly, Trump 2.0 is already historically unpopular.

100 days in, when presidents are normally in their honeymoon period, Trump is underwater on every issue - including the economy, which is what he won the election on. His 100 day approval rating - 39% as of 4 / 28 / 2025 - is the lowest of any president since the Great Depression. Biden's 100 day approval rating was at %57, for comparison. Bush and Obama were sitting in the 60s at this point in their presidencies.

Any of the (undeserved) goodwill from voters on the economy is GONE as Trump's chaotic policies have thrown the markets into chaos. This will only get much, much worse when Americans start to wake up to empty grocery store shelves, as global trade to the United States dries up.

Trump has set up his party to lose big in the 2026 midterms, and the GOP knows it - which is why voter suppression efforts like the SAVE Act are on overdrive.

"So what", you may ask - "it's clear that Trump's intent is to become a dictator, he doesn't have to care about whether or not he's popular."  This is also not true.

Even authoritarian regimes require some level of public support in order to survive. The Chinese Communist Party is still around because it managed to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, despite its blatantly authoritarian policies. Hitler and Putin's ability to survive long enough to consolidate centralized power was in large part due to a national economic recovery that they were credited for. 

Trump's chaotic policies are INTENTIONALLY causing economic hardship, so that he can offer selective relief in exchange for kissing the ring. This mafia-like behavior is not only evil, it's a dumb strategy. A typical American may not care if the US Constitution is being ripped to shreds and people they've never met are being sent to concentration camps in El Salvador, but they will care once the price of everyday goods skyrockets as a result of his mismanagement. Blaming empty store shelves on Biden or trans people may work for Cult, but not for the other %70 of the country that are being crushed by his disastrous policy.

"But the Democratic Party is even more popular than Trump!"  This is true for the party as whole, but largely because the Democratic base is furious that the Democratic establishment is treating Trump's coup as 'business as usual' - rather than breaking with outdated norms to fight Trump. But this too is changing - Bernie and AOC are regularly drawing in tens of thousands of people in a year where there's NO ELECTION taking place.  

In April 9 million people took to the streets to protest Trump's regime, and this will only continue to snowball as the weather gets nicer and Americans are crushed beneath of the malicious incompetence of his policies. The American resistance is alive and well, and if you live in the States YOU can be a part of it. Instead of doomscrolling, find an in-person group like Indivisible or 50501, and attend a meeting. Grab the 5calls app and be the annoying person who calls every single week to demand that your Senator vote NO to Trump's bills and NO to all future cabinet appointees.

In short: you are not powerless. Part of Trump's game plan is to leave us feeling isolated in our individual despair. We fight this by organizing into networks of resilient communities that fight back with a STRATEGY and a UNIFIED PURPOSE.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-lowest-100-day-approval-rating-80-years/story?id=121165473
 

 

Edited Monday at 06:22 PM by DocWatts

[Raze]

The issue is we live in a two party system, so his weakness is only in proportion to the strength of his opposition, and currently democrats are even weaker.

[Hardkill]

On 4/28/2025 at 8:23 AM, Raze said:

The issue is we live in a two party system, so his weakness is only in proportion to the strength of his opposition, and currently democrats are even weaker.

Also, Americans are more conservative than people like me had thought before and the country is going through a serious right-wing populist backlash.

However, if Dems sounded a lot more like right-wingers on virtually every social issue, except on climate change and abortion rights, and ran on more New Deal economic populist type of messages, then they could eventually win back the solid majority of the people including the majority of white voters and rural voters in this country.

I hate to say it, but it's become clear to me now that most of the social justice stances the Democrats have taken since the late 1900s have hurt their party way too much by scaring too many older voters, rural voters, white voters, protestant voters, men, and working-class voters. 

Edited Tuesday at 11:02 PM by Hardkill

[DocWatts]

16 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Also, Americans are more conservative than people like me had thought before and the country is going through a serious right-wing populist backlash.

However, if Dems sounded a lot more like right-wingers on virtually every social issue, except on climate change and abortion rights, and ran on more New Deal economic populist type of messages, then they could eventually win back the solid majority of the people including the majority of white voters and rural voters in this country.

I hate to say it, but it's become clear to me now that most of the social justice stances the Democrats have taken since the late 1900s have hurt their party way too much by scaring too many older voters, rural voters, white voters, protestant voters, men, and working-class voters. 

The consensus I've seen is that Trump won due to perceptions about the economy - inflation, the cost of living crisis - rather than cultural issues. Incumbent parties on the left and the right lost pretty much everywhere in the world in that same year, as other nations deal with the same issues under Late Stage Capitalism.

This goes hand in hand with Biden's approval reaching its high water mark - %57 - when he passed expanded benefits to help people survive during COVID. This approval rating dropped off at an almost 1:1 ratio as these programs ended.  Kamala could have made a clean break with Biden like Mark Carney did with Trudeau in Canada, and signaled that her presidency would be a bold new direction for the country. But she chose not to.

Add to that the fact that 4 million voters were strategically were purged from voter rolls in the months leading up to the election, and that almost certainly was a factor in tipping the outcome in Trump's favor.

But to your larger point, I agree - the Dems should abandon performative Rainbow Capitalism, and run on bold Left-wing economic populism ala the New Deal. The problem that we need to address over the coming years is that Rainbow Capitalism is preferable for the wealthy donor class that the old-guard is beholden to, due to our corrupt campaign finance system.

Interestingly, while none of the Democratic candidates are 'popular' with conservatives, Bernie and AOC do much better than establishment Democrats and centrists like Harris and Biden. Americans are hungry for substantive change, and in lieu of genuine economic populism from the Dems they'll continue to be marks for grifters on the right.

[Breakingthewall]

Trump is great. He's going to show the world that narcissistic clowns with a decorative woman at their side are pathetic. Elon Musk has already taken a big step toward showing how pathetic those "winners" are, and now Trump is going to top it all off. The problem is that the lesson could be quite expensive. 

Anyway, it's good that trump won because the democrats with Blinken wanted war escalation in Ukraine. It could have had disastrous consequences 

Edited 17 hours ago by Breakingthewall

[Hardkill]

5 hours ago, DocWatts said:

The consensus I've seen is that Trump won due to perceptions about the economy - inflation, the cost of living crisis - rather than cultural issues. Incumbent parties on the left and the right lost pretty much everywhere in the world in that same year, as other nations deal with the same issues under Late Stage Capitalism.

This goes hand in hand with Biden's approval reaching its high water mark - %57 - when he passed expanded benefits to help people survive during COVID. This approval rating dropped off at an almost 1:1 ratio as these programs ended.  Kamala could have made a clean break with Biden like Mark Carney did with Trudeau in Canada, and signaled that her presidency would be a bold new direction for the country. But she chose not to.

Add to that the fact that 4 million voters were strategically were purged from voter rolls in the months leading up to the election, and that almost certainly was a factor in tipping the outcome in Trump's favor.

But to your larger point, I agree - the Dems should abandon performative Rainbow Capitalism, and run on bold Left-wing economic populism ala the New Deal. The problem that we need to address over the coming years is that Rainbow Capitalism is preferable for the wealthy donor class that the old-guard is beholden to, due to our corrupt campaign finance system.

Interestingly, while none of the Democratic candidates are 'popular' with conservatives, Bernie and AOC do much better than establishment Democrats and centrists like Harris and Biden. Americans are hungry for substantive change, and in lieu of genuine economic populism from the Dems they'll continue to be marks for grifters on the right.

Yeah, I largely agree with everything you're saying. 

Though, what if Democrats and progressives start talking about how corporate greed has ruined family values, traditional gender norms, true patriotism, real Judeo-Christian values, law and order, and other traditional values in America?

It's not just older voters, rural folks, white voters, Protestants, men, and working-class people who feel like Democrats don't really speak to them culturally. Even a significant portion of middle-aged voters, younger first-time voters, suburbanites, Black and Brown people, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, women, and highly educated folks think the Democratic Party has been pushing left-wing social issues too hard and too quickly.

Here are examples of how Democrats and progressives should frame traditional values through economic populism or frame economic populism through traditional values or both:

Family Values: "Corporate greed forces both parents to work overtime for low wages, robbing families of time together. That’s not freedom — that’s economic tyranny."

Patriotism: "Real patriots don’t offshore jobs to China or hide profits overseas. That’s betrayal, not patriotism."

Law & Order: "The biggest looters wear suits — corporations steal wages, poison water, and walk free while poor folks get prison time."

Judeo-Christian Values: "No religion teaches that billionaires should hoard wealth while kids go hungry. The donor class mocks faith with every tax loophole they exploit."

Traditional Gender Norms: "It wasn’t feminism that pushed moms into 60-hour workweeks — it was low wages and unaffordable healthcare."

[Raze]

15 minutes ago, Hardkill said:

Here are examples of how Democrats and progressives should frame traditional values through economic populism or frame economic populism through traditional values or both:

Family Values: "Corporate greed forces both parents to work overtime for low wages, robbing families of time together. That’s not freedom — that’s economic tyranny."

Patriotism: "Real patriots don’t offshore jobs to China or hide profits overseas. That’s betrayal, not patriotism."

Law & Order: "The biggest looters wear suits — corporations steal wages, poison water, and walk free while poor folks get prison time."

Judeo-Christian Values: "No religion teaches that billionaires should hoard wealth while kids go hungry. The donor class mocks faith with every tax loophole they exploit."

Traditional Gender Norms: "It wasn’t feminism that pushed moms into 60-hour workweeks — it was low wages and unaffordable healthcare."

The first political campaign that realizes this is going to have a massive edge, imagine if they used algorithm data to tailor hundreds of different ads to all the relevant demographics. 

[DocWatts]

2 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Yeah, I largely agree with everything you're saying. 

Though, what if Democrats and progressives start talking about how corporate greed has ruined family values, traditional gender norms, true patriotism, real Judeo-Christian values, law and order, and other traditional values in America?

It's not just older voters, rural folks, white voters, Protestants, men, and working-class people who feel like Democrats don't really speak to them culturally. Even a significant portion of middle-aged voters, younger first-time voters, suburbanites, Black and Brown people, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, women, and highly educated folks think the Democratic Party has been pushing left-wing social issues too hard and too quickly.

Here are examples of how Democrats and progressives should frame traditional values through economic populism or frame economic populism through traditional values or both:

Family Values: "Corporate greed forces both parents to work overtime for low wages, robbing families of time together. That’s not freedom — that’s economic tyranny."

Patriotism: "Real patriots don’t offshore jobs to China or hide profits overseas. That’s betrayal, not patriotism."

Law & Order: "The biggest looters wear suits — corporations steal wages, poison water, and walk free while poor folks get prison time."

Judeo-Christian Values: "No religion teaches that billionaires should hoard wealth while kids go hungry. The donor class mocks faith with every tax loophole they exploit."

Traditional Gender Norms: "It wasn’t feminism that pushed moms into 60-hour workweeks — it was low wages and unaffordable healthcare."

This brings to mind an article I read awhile back about the rise of Left-wing Conservative parties in Western Europe, which combines Left-wing economic populism that's framed around more culturally conservative values.

 

https://open.substack.com/pub/discoursemagazine/p/the-rise-of-the-conservative-left?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1riug7

[BlessedLion]

On 4/28/2025 at 11:38 AM, DocWatts said:

strategy. A typical American may not care if the US Constitution is being ripped to shreds and people they've never met are being sent to concentration camps in El Salvador, but they will care once the price of everyday goods skyrockets as a result of his mismanagement

Sad but true. Such a cringe country, selfish as fuck too 

[PenguinPablo]

2 hours ago, DocWatts said:

This brings to mind an article I read awhile back about the rise of Left-wing Conservative parties in Western Europe, which combines Left-wing economic populism that's framed around more culturally conservative values.

 

https://open.substack.com/pub/discoursemagazine/p/the-rise-of-the-conservative-left?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1riug7

Lol trump trolling the libs. He's not really going to invade Greenland or Canada. Well, actually that would benefit them. Canada would be lucky to join the US. It could be a good thing. Nah bro he's just trolling lol. Shouldn't have come here illegally. That will never happen to me, I'm an American citizen,

 

Trump wtf Tesla is down. Fix this now! Man, I regret not voting for Kamala.

 

Rich influencers in a nutshell.

[Frylock]

Honestly? Trump was pretty frightening for a while there. But now he looks weak, pathetic, and so incompetent that the threat of his authoritarianism is more hollow than it once felt. Just an annoying fly that wants to buzz around in your face. Shoo it away and forget about it.

[Emerald]

1 hour ago, PenguinPablo said:

That will never happen to me, I'm an American citizen,

Famous last words...

[aurum]

3 hours ago, PenguinPablo said:

Canada would be lucky to join the US. It could be a good thing.

Canada and the US could do merger if it made sense for both sides. And if there was a respect for national sovereignty in the process. 

It's not unreasonable that a US-Canada supernation could be beneficial.

[Hardkill]

6 hours ago, DocWatts said:

This brings to mind an article I read awhile back about the rise of Left-wing Conservative parties in Western Europe, which combines Left-wing economic populism that's framed around more culturally conservative values.

 

https://open.substack.com/pub/discoursemagazine/p/the-rise-of-the-conservative-left?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1riug7

Oh yeah, that article mentioned politicians like John Fetterman who basically have been doing what I've been saying. Sherrod Brown from Ohio was like that too.