President Donald Trump thrives in atmospheres he can bend to his will, where the story moves at his speed and the mood adjusts itself to his confidence, leaving little space for vulnerability or visible doubt.
Which is why the shift this week felt so jarring. For a brief but unmistakable moment, the bravado thinned and something less polished pushed through. It was subtle, but it was there: a flash of acknowledgment that the glow he insists surrounds him isn’t lighting up every corner the way he says it does.
At a White House ceremony Monday, Feb. 23, Trump lamented his tanking numbers, saying it “just amazes” him, before quickly pivoting and disingenuously claiming he has something called “silent support.”
“Our people, they’ve been incredible,” Trump began. “The job they’ve done and they take nothing but abuse, but they’re sort of pretty hardened to that, I think because they know they’re doing the right thing,” Trump tried to spin before conceding what a majority of Americans have known for months now.
“It just amazes me that there’s not more support out there,” a beaten-down Trump acknowledged.
Then he quickly returned to his worn playbook of rehashing election outcomes, this time claiming the 2024 presidential election was “rigged” because he didn’t win by higher numbers.
“It’s just we actually have a silent support. I think it’s silent,” he said, creating a new version of support.
“I think that’s how I won. I got probably 85 million votes. They say 78, 79 million. They cheated at this election, too. It was just too big to rig, too big to rig,” an accusatory Trump complained about actually winning the election, perhaps implying that recent polling was not accurate because his unpopularity at this point in his second term is stunning.
Trump beat rival former Vice President Kamala Harris by 1.5 percentage points, according to the Pew Research Center, or by 77.3 million to Harris’ just over 75 million votes in the 2024 election.
View on Threads
But a tone-deaf Trump wasn’t done. He continued to brag, as he has for months, that the U.S. economy is “the greatest we’ve ever had.”
“We have a country that’s now doing well. We’ve got the greatest economy we’ve ever had, the most activity we’ve ever had,” he insisted.
A social media frenzy erupted as users expressed shock and dismay at Trump’s duplicity.
“Deluded,” a Threads user proclaimed, while another chimed in, “It’s called delusional narcissism.”
Still another stated, “My god is he a mess.”
This poster agreed, “By every metric, Trump’s leadership has ruined the economy. And the American people know it.”
At another point Trump insisted the poll numbers were “fake news.”
“When you get a fake poll …. I saw one today … 40%. I’m not at 40%, the real number is much higher.”
View on Threads
But that’s not what the actual numbers show, and certainly low and middle-income Americans know this better than anyone. Job growth is down, wages are stagnant, groceries and utility bills have risen since Trump started his second term last January, and inflation is still worrying the Federal Reserve.
Four new polls bear this out, showing that support for Trump is collapsing.
In a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Sunday, Feb. 22, just 39 percent of Americans approve of Trump while 47 percent “strongly disapprove,” according to Politico.
When it comes to other issues, a surprising 58 percent disapprove of how the President is handling one of his top agenda items, immigration, and 57 percent disapprove of how he’s managing the economy. When you break that down even further, 64 percent disagree with his tariff policy and 65 percent don’t like the way he’s addressing inflation.
CNN released a new survey on Monday, Feb. 23, showing he’s losing major ground among independents with just 26 percent approving of his presidency now, 15 points lower than a year ago.
And just 38 percent said Trump’s policies are helping the country.
Still another survey from NPR/PBS/Marist finds a majority of Democrats and independents, 6 in 10, believe the country is worse off since Trump started his second term, while 82 percent of Republicans believe it’s better off.
And by the way, you’d never know Trump groused about his poll numbers and the 2024 election at the White House event on Monday.
His sour grapes rehashing of the election and misinformation about the economy overshadowed his proclamation of a “National Angel Family Day,” meant to honor those whose loved ones have been killed in violent crimes committed by immigrants lacking permanent legal status.
