Trump's poll numbers are cratering. Why won't he change course?

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Trump’s poll numbers are cratering. Why won’t he change course?
Six months into his second term, the president refuses to change his policies and behavior

By Chauncey DeVega
Senior Writer
Published July 24, 2025 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) In a healthy democracy, public opinion can be understood as a type of barometer that elected officials use to calibrate their agendas and behaviors. When policies or actions are unpopular, presidents often pivot and change. If their agenda proves popular, those “single-minded seekers of reelection” will likely do more of it.

And then there’s Donald Trump.

Six months into his second term, recent polls have shown a significant drop in the president’s numbers. The latest Economist/YouGov poll, released on Tuesday and covering the period of July 18-21, finds that just 41% of Americans approve of Trump’s performance in office, while 55% disapprove. With a difference of minus 14%, his net approval is deeply underwater, marking “a record low for his second term, and is also lower than approval of Trump for most of his first term.” The survey also shows widespread levels of net disapproval over a range of issues, including inflation and prices (-29%), jobs and the economy (-12%), foreign policy (-11%) and immigration (-6%).

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Donald Trump is a different character altogether. Instead of modifying his course like his predecessors, Trump is continuing — and in some cases even escalating — his unpopular policies. This is the man who proclaimed “I alone can fix it,” a claim he continues to believe. His view of himself, at least in public settings, is that of an infallible, almost deific, figure. Following last year’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pa., he has come to believe he was “saved by God” for a divine purpose: “I’d like to think God thinks I’m going to straighten out our country.”

Trump’s refusal to change course in response to public opinion does not exist in a vacuum. It reflects a much larger autocratic trend by the American right, whose anti-majoritarian strategy and ideology includes voter suppression and nullification, gerrymandering and the repeal of birthright citizenship, as well as using the courts and “dark money” to ignore the public will on a range of issues such as women’s reproductive rights, separation of church and state, health, education, science and gun violence. As we recently saw in what was allegedly a politically-motivated shooting in Minnesota that killed a Democratic lawmaker, her husband and dog, and injured two others, it appears some MAGA supporters even support political violence to achieve their political goals. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/24/trumps-poll-numbers-are-cratering-why-wont-he-change-course/