President Donald Trump has long dismissed approval ratings, a habit that has followed him from the campaign trail into the White House. When bad poll numbers surface, the response is rarely to sit with the reality, but to find a target — often the media, sometimes an ally — who can absorb the blame.
That instinct surfaced again as his public support slid to new lows, with Trump turning his frustration outward in a way that hinted at a familiar pattern: when the spotlight turns harsh, someone nearby usually ends up under the bus.
On Tuesday, Trump lashed out over a string of damaging polls, at one point singling out his own press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, while railing against the media.
The episode underscored a broader reality for his administration: sinking approval numbers tied to economic strain, the war with Iran and political turmoil at home are colliding with a leadership style that raises fresh questions about how the White House plans to navigate mounting pressure ahead of the 2026 midterms.
“The Washington Post is almost extinct,” Trump ranted in the Oval Office on March 31 when asked about his nosedive.
“The papers that are being dishonest, the papers generally, people don’t believe the media, and to finish, I got 93 percent bad publicity. Some people say 97, but between 93 and 97. A person that gets 97 percent of bad stories,” he added before pointing across the room and calling out Leavitt to her face. “Maybe Karoline is doing a poor job, I don’t know. She’s my representative; you’re doing a terrible job. Should we keep her? I think we’ll keep her,” Trump said flatly — and he didn’t appear to be joking.
Leavitt, the one official who bends over backward every day to defend the president through deflection and obfuscation, found herself singled out.
Trump’s remarks landed as new polling painted a bleak picture for the president.
A YouGov/The Economist survey showed Trump’s net approval dropping to -23 points, with just 35 percent of Americans approving of his performance compared to 58 percent who disapprove, according to The Hill. That marks a steady slide over recent weeks and places him below where both he and former President Joe Biden stood at similar points in their presidencies.
Other polls tell a similar story. A University of Massachusetts Amherst survey found Trump’s approval at 33 percent, with 62 percent disapproving. Surveys from Fox News and Quinnipiac University also show disapproval outpacing approval by wide margins, reflecting broad unease across key issues.
The decline is not just coming from political opponents. Among Trump’s own 2024 voters, support has softened, with approval dropping from 84 percent three weeks ago to 76 percent. That erosion within his base comes at a time when the administration is facing pressure on multiple fronts, including a deepening conflict in Iran, rising gas prices, inflation concerns and a partial government shutdown.
Political scientists behind the UMass poll described the numbers as a warning sign, pointing to the economy as a major driver. Large majorities of Americans say Trump is not handling inflation or jobs effectively, while tariffs, once framed as a cornerstone policy, are drawing negative marks from nearly two-thirds of respondents.
Online, the reaction to Trump’s comments reflected frustration with both the numbers and the blame-shifting.
“Trump gets 93% bad publicity — and blames Karoline Leavitt,” one observer noted. “Not the Iran escalation. Not rising gas prices. Not global instability. Always someone else.”
Another post pushed back on the criticism directed at his press secretary, writing: “After all his goof-ups, is he expecting Positive publicity. Who ever karolina is, she has done a great job, that you are not publicly given justice yet. Be grateful.”
Some saw the moment as part of a longer-running pattern inside Trump’s orbit, where allies are praised when things are going well but quickly thrown aside when they are not.
“He has a bus schedule to throw everyone of these clowns under, but they don’t see it.”
Others framed the episode less as a one-off and more as a defining trait of Trump’s leadership style.
“When everything goes wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault, the generals, fake news, Obama, Biden, NATO now even your own spokesperson. At some point, the pattern isn’t a coincidence, it’s character.”
Inside the White House, officials have tried to counter the negative polling by pointing to Trump’s 2024 election victory as the only result that matters. A spokesperson said the “ultimate poll” was Election Day, when nearly 80 million Americans voted for him, and argued that his policies are still taking shape.
But the steady drumbeat of unfavorable surveys is raising the stakes for Republicans heading into the midterms. Low approval ratings could weigh on candidates in competitive races, especially if economic concerns and foreign policy tensions continue to dominate headlines.
At the same time, the president’s public posture, attacking the media while singling out a top aide, risks adding another layer of instability to an already difficult political environment. For critics, it reinforces the idea that the administration is more focused on managing perception than addressing the underlying issues driving voter dissatisfaction.
