Alan Zendell, Ocober 3, 2026
Heather Cox Richardson described the situation perfectly, today, in her Letters From an American newsletter. “[T]he crux of the crisis that is driving a seismic political change [is that] it has become crystal clear that Trump never intended to address the real problems he identified. His tariffs, deep tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, extraordinary corruption, multiple vanity projects, and war on Iran are benefiting him, his family, and his cronies. At the same time, the Republicans are, at his direction, slashing the social welfare programs, medical funding, education, infrastructure, and healthcare that used to serve the American people.”
The political change she referred to is emerging on the midterm election scene from every direction. If you’re skeptical of poll numbers, there’s still a ton of convincing evidence that in thirty-ones days, American voters will deliver a repudiating defeat to the Republican party that has allowed itself to become a Trump cult. While individual poll numbers might be questioned, an overwhelming trend in those numbers from dozens of reputable pollsters is very believable and reliable as a forecasting tool.
Ever since the primaries, Trump’s overall approval rating has dropped steadily and consistently. The most recent polls suggest that it is now approaching thirty percent, a horrifying number if you’re a Republican incumbent who has been making the wrong choices. Even if you think thirty percent is off by a bit, the trend is unarguable. Trump has mostly lost the support he had in 2024 from Independent voters, Hispanics, and blacks. More and more, two and three-time Trump voters are turning against him because they see that Trump never had any intention of following up on his promises and his actions throughout his second term have been making life worse for Americans.
Trump hoped that most of the negative impacts of his policies wouldn’t become apparent until after the midterm elections. Many of the draconian cuts to programs millions of Americans depend on are slated to take effect in January. But even before those cuts hit, the combination of Trump’s tariffs, his stalemated war in the Persian Gulf which still threatens to expand into a uncontrollable disaster, the shocking cost of energy, especially diesel fuel, and his focus on vanity projects over things people need to survive have revealed him to be the huckster he is.
The corruption isn’t abating, either. As Trump accepts the reality that the November election will stop most of his initiatives in their tracks, his efforts to enrich himself and his friends and his disregard for laws and standards of ethical conduct now have no guardrails at all. He is eloquently telling all Americans that he intends to do anything he pleases regardless of legality, decency, or basic morality. He has so handicapped our justice system that he’s confident he can sufficiently cripple the legal process that no one can stop him. The Supreme Court decision that granted him full immunity from prosecution for criminal acts while in office, and his shameful use of presidential pardons to hold the perpetrators of his illegal acts harmless make it a certainty that no one and nothing will stop his rapacious behavior. Don’t forget that he pardoned the insurrectionists who threatened the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Look back at what this egocentric monster has done in twenty months in office. He has severely damaged all of the alliances that have kept our adversaries at bay for seventy-five years, weakening NATO to the point where it may not survive as an effective deterrent. He has disrupted the world economy, creating inflationary pressures domestically that forced even his handpicked fed chairman to begin a series of interest rate increases that will extend through 2027. Mortgage rates are now at 7.28%, and the cost of buying and financing almost everything we need rises every month.
My son told me yesterday that he sees diesel prices in the Pacific Northwest as high as $8.60 per gallon. Since a typical semi-truck’s fuel tank holds over 250 gallons, it now costs truckers in that region more than $2,000 per fill-up to fuel the trucks that carry food and manufactured goods to our stores and warehouses. Industry experts tell us it will be a long time, if ever, before those prices return to what we used to think of as normal.
The latest example of Trump’s craven approach to governing is a proposal to end Russia’s aggression in Ukraine that involves a deal to purchase billions of dollars worth of Russian oil and natural gas resources to sweeten the pot for Vladimir Putin, while also providing a massive influx of dollars to the families of Trump, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner. Even the most loyal of Trump’s followers feel the pain, and even the most dimwitted among them realize they’ve been fleeced.
American politics has tremendous inertia. Changes take time, but the unprecedented incompetence and criminality of Trump’s presidency have created a wave of reaction that has the inevitability of a slow-motion avalanche.
Still, change will not happen unless all of us cast our votes, regardless of the intimidation we’re likely to run into at the polls.
