Trump's schtick is wearing on Republicans, costing him his base | Opinion
Trump's gift, like that of most successful bullies, is the ability to be loud and look big, creating a smokescreen to hide his smallness. His ability to do that is waning.
Rex HuppkePresident Donald Trump and MAGA loyalists exist in a swiftly deflating bubble, their smallness highlighted by plummeting polling numbers, towering pop culture moments like the Super Bowl halftime show, and the spectacle of the world booing America’s vice president at the Olympics.
In Trump’s view – perhaps because his handlers filter out negative news – America is great, the economy is roaring and he’s a respected leader without peer. Some followers are still buying the con or at least playing along. They’re cozy in that shrinking bubble, ever hopeful Trump will turn America into something they want it to be, or somehow help them cling to power.
But Trump’s base is swiftly eroding, more Republican lawmakers are losing faith, and the upcoming midterm elections could well be a bubble-meets-needle moment.
Bad Bunny's celebratory halftime show made Trump look tiny
Take the optics of the Super Bowl halftime show, featuring pop superstar Bad Bunny performing a celebration of Puerto Rican culture and music all in Spanish, finishing with a Jumbotron display reading: “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE.”
There was no doubt the Trump administration and its cruel immigration tactics and violent mass deportation spree represented the “HATE” in that sentence. An alternative halftime show for the MAGA set managed about 6 million real-time viewers, while Bad Bunny’s performance is projected to have been seen by more than 130 million people.
On the biggest day in football-loving America, MAGA was small while the counter to MAGA was joyful and enormous.
Trump calls US Olympic skier 'a real Loser'
At the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Italy, Vice President JD Vance was soundly booed when his visage appeared on huge screens in the stadium. Trump himself reacted to mild criticism about what’s presently happening in the United States from Olympic skier Hunter Hess by labeling the American athlete "a real Loser.”
Hess had said: "It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on that I'm not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren't. I think for me, it's more I'm representing my friends and family back home, the people that represented before me, all the things that I believe are good about the U.S."
Hess seemed genuine. Trump seemed microscopic and outclassed.
Trump's polling is horrendous, and he's losing ground fast
Beyond the visuals of Trump’s shrinking stature are real numbers from U.S. voters.
Greg Sargent at The New Republic recently analyzed data from a Marquette Law School survey and found some remarkable areas where Trump has lost Americans who have historically made up his largest base of supporters.
Nearly 60% of Americans without a college degree disapprove of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is handling enforcement, with 75% of men ages 18-29 disapproving. Half of rural Americans don’t like what ICE is doing. And, per Sargent’s analysis, 54% of “non-college Americans oppose deporting longtime residents with jobs and no criminal records.”
According to Daily Beast, citing CNN data: “Trump won non-college voters by 14 points in 2024. Today, his approval rating among that same group stands at -9 points.”
Harry Enten, CNN’s chief data analyst, said of Trump: “He is absolutely collapsing with a group of voters that helped put him into the White House.”
MAGA base is shrinking, perhaps because its leader has shrank
MAGA podcaster and longtime Trump associate Steve Bannon said recently, “You have a massive lack of enthusiasm among the base. Because they’re sitting there going, ‘I’m just not feelin’ it right now.’ ”
That could be because Trump hasn’t followed through on his promises to bring prices down and usher in a Golden Age of manufacturing jobs and prosperity. Quite the opposite, in fact.
It could be because Trump leveraged his base’s foundational hunger for access to the Jeffrey Epstein files to get reelected, then turned around and slow-walked the release of the files while telling his people they need to move on.
It could be that, contrary to what Trump – in his bubble with his lust for cruelty – might imagine, most Americans are shaken by seeing U.S. citizens gunned down by federal agents. People don’t want to see hardworking immigrants with no criminal records snatched up with their children and hauled into sprawling detention camps.
Even Republicans are starting to see the mess that Trump got them into
Trump’s gift, like that of most successful bullies, is the ability to be loud and look big, creating a smokescreen to hide his smallness. His ability to do that is waning.
A few stray Republicans – like Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia – have stood up to him. When Trump recently posted a wildly racist video depicting the Obamas as apes, enough Republicans voiced outrage that he took the video down, though he never apologized.
Joe Rogan and other influential podcasters who once embraced him have begun to distance themselves. And again, the president’s poll numbers are tanking.
Trump’s schtick of appearing large, speaking as if he’s all powerful, and making himself omnipresent will continue, of course. It’s all he has.
But it’s important, in the days and weeks and months to come, to recognize this is a president shrinking in stature and in public reputation and in relevance and in all ways that matter. MAGA has become a self-marginalizing movement.
And so the bubble will shrink until the needle comes along.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk