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 3 hours ago by Hardkill