Trump Is a Weak, Failing President, and the Media Is Finally Saying So

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Suddenly, media outlets seem to have figured out that President Donald Trump is really, really unpopular. There’s been a palpable shift in the discourse: The New York Times reports that Republicans are quietly looking beyond Trump, suggesting he’s losing his grip on the party. Axios claims that it’s “red alert” time for Trump and the GOP. Politico describes how Republicans are getting routed in school board races, a sign that MAGA culture-warring has lost its sway and is even backfiring. And one CNN analyst offers a brutal reading of recent approval numbers on Trump, pronouncing them “atrocious.” We talked to Salon’s Amanda Marcotte, who regularly dissects MAGA and media foibles alike. We discuss why the political media smells blood, how deepening splits in MAGA show Trump’s weakness, what it means that the Trump-MAGA culture war and immigration raids are badly alienating ordinary voters, and how Trump is in a potentially irreversible tailspin. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.4	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:30.5	Suddenly, a bunch of media outlets seem to have figured something out.
0:34.0	President Donald Trump is really, really unpopular.
0:39.9	There's long been a tendency to ascribe to Trump something akin to magical political powers, but there's been a palpable shift in the discourse, and we think that's highly significant.
0:46.4	In one example, Axios, which is generally friendly to Republicans, reported that everywhere
0:52.2	Republicans look, they see big political trouble.
0:56.2	Axios said it's red alert time for Trump and the GOP.
1:00.2	In another example, a leading polling analyst called Trump's fortunes atrocious and horrific.
1:07.3	We think Democrats should talk up Trump's weaknesses a lot more and push the media to tell this story more as well.
1:14.6	So today we're scheming about all this with Salon's Amanda Marcotte, one of our favorite observers of MAGA and media foibles alike.
1:22.5	Amanda, good to have you on as always.
1:24.9	Thank you so much for having me.
1:27.0	So let's start by listening to the striking
1:29.0	polling analysis from CNN's Harry Anton. It's a bit long, but it's worth it. Listen to this.
1:35.2	I would say this is probably the worst 10-day period for the president in the polls, his entire second
1:41.9	term. The numbers are just atrocious. What are we talking about here
1:45.7	in terms of net approval rating? Well, take a look. These are all November polls. The best one of the
1:50.8	group puts him at 14 points underwater. That's the Marquette University Law School poll,
1:55.3	tied for the worst he's ever had in that poll. Fox, 17 points underwater. Maris, 17 points
2:00.8	underwater. The Reutersipsos poll, 22 points underwater. Maris, 17 points underwater. The Reuters Zipsoz, Paul, 22 points
2:03.3	underwater. And then taking the cake, the AP North Pole, 26 points underwater. If you think this is bad,
	...

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