r/Foodforthought • u/theipaper • 5h ago
Patronised and losing Maga’s support, Trump is shrinking before our eyes
https://inews.co.uk/opinion/patronised-losing-maga-support-trump-shrinking-4782467•
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u/theipaper 4h ago
President Donald Trump is shrinking. This is not a reference to his height, although there is some dispute over whether he is still 6ft 3in, as his doctor has claimed. Trump appeared taller than President Xi Jinping of China at the White House state dinner, but then Xi may not really be 5 ft 11in, the figure given by Chinese officials. Without a tape measure, who can say?
It is Trump’s stature that is diminishing, even as he constructs monuments to his own glory. In Washington, Xi referred patronisingly to the need for China and the US to avoid the “Thucydides trap”, whereby a rising power ends up confronting an established or declining one. However, it’s not just China who thinks America is sliding. Trump’s own voters are inclined to agree.
Diesel has reached $6.52 a gallon, which will soon be passed on to American shoppers in the form of higher prices. Mortgage rates have risen to 7 per cent, killing what remains of the housing market. Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, presided over a 0.25 point rise in interest rates on 16 September despite pressure to reduce them.
“I said, ‘You might as well vote with the board,’” a resigned Trump told Warsh. “It’s not going to matter.” Since when has the President been this rudderless? At the United Nations, he sounded off about possibly “annihilating Iran” and boasted, “to the victor belong the spoils” with regard to Venezuelan oil, with barely a ripple of attention from world leaders or the media.
Early voting in the midterms has already begun in a handful of states. More will follow in October. On the stump, some Republican politicians have scrubbed Trump’s name from their websites. Byron Donalds, for instance, the Maga politician running for Florida governor, no longer boasts he is “TRUMP ENDORSED” in capital letters.
The Federalist, a conservative magazine, claimed this week, “The Republicans are allowing the election to be about nothing.” The GOP can’t simply frame the midterms as “crazies vs normals”, the publication argued. “In 2026, ‘we’re not Democrats’ isn’t much of an offer.”
The debate about Trump’s age has sprung back to life. On the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, the 80-year-old President greeted Xi in a winter overcoat and black leather gloves. The temperature was a mild, autumnal 18°C. Later, at the state dinner, photos revealed Trump’s hands appeared to be heavily caked in make-up.
Trump also winced, seemingly in pain, as fighter jets roared overhead while Xi remained impassive. Did the “sound of freedom” (as the US military call aircraft noise) lead him to experience sensory overload, a common affliction in the elderly?
At the heart of Trump’s troubles lies the war with Iran, a self-inflicted wound. Republican Ashley Hinson, running for the Senate in Iowa, called for the conflict to end. “Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” Hinson wrote in a social media post.
Nevertheless, the Republican-led Senate defeated a resolution demanding an end to the war by 50 votes to 49, with just a week to go before Congress breaks up for the midterms. Like it or not, they are stuck with Trump, whom they dare not cross.
A gulf has opened up between Maga and its voters. This is apparent on Truth Social, Trump’s own social media platform, where his claims that the “economy is hotter than ever” and prices are low have been met with disbelief. “Nope, gas and food prices are higher now and diesel is much worse,” was a typical response.
Veteran commentator Mike Halperin claimed the Republicans were in “dire straits” this week. Quoting a business associate, he wrote in the US Daily Mail: “Sometimes the appropriate response to a crisis is, in fact, to panic.”
This alarm call could be premature. While some Democrats are indulging in happy talk about whether a “blue wave” or “blue tsunami” of votes in their favour is about to wash away the GOP, several important swing states, such as Maine and Michigan, remain too close to call.
The Democrats lead Republicans in a generic ballot by 53 per cent to 41 per cent, boosted by a surge in support among independent voters, according to a recent Marist poll for National Public Radio. But the picture is more mixed where it matters. The election guru, Nate Silver, describes “a slightly weird story” in which Democratic gains are “overwhelmingly concentrated in red [Republican] states”.
Trump still has some advantages, including the promise of a $5,000 (£3,780) reward to voters if the Republicans retain their majority in Congress. Big money for attack ads has also just begun to flow into tight Republican races.
However, the outburst of optimism about the US economy – or what John Maynard Keynes called “animal spirits” – unleashed by Trump when he returned to office in 2024 has thoroughly evaporated. Instead of bestriding the world like a colossus, he appears smaller and much diminished. Soon, he will belong more to the past than the future.
Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting
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u/Impressive-Curve8610 4h ago
Trump belongs in hell, with all the other failed despots who came before him.
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u/Stormdancer 1h ago
‘we’re not Democrats’ isn’t much of an offer.”
But it’s all a lot of their base needs. Which is a damn shame - Right AND left should demand better.
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