Transcript: Donald Trump’s Presidency Is in Free Fall

Greenberg: I mean, I think it says what it says, which is that people are tired of this mad king act, right? The reality is it’s not going to be one single thing. It is this constant sense of unaccountable, imperious governance—of his focus being on things like invading and occupying a major American city, or building himself a ballroom palace, instead of on regular people’s experiences, the cost of living, the crises that regular people are going through all over the country. It is the sense that American society is struggling under the weight of AI, a weak jobs market, continued inflation, while Donald Trump focuses on his own glory, his own enrichment, his own power. It’s not a matter of one thing, but it is the aggregate of all of that together.

And I should also add, particularly in the last month, what we’re seeing is that the war is driving a new set of folks out and activating people in a different way. Because fundamentally, people are still getting used to the fact that this is a real and full and escalated war. But they’re reacting very clearly to that.

Sargent: The mobilization in the face of the war is a really extraordinary thing. CNN polling analyst Harry Enten had this amazing on-air monologue. His calculations have Trump’s net overall approval 18 points underwater and among independents, 45 percent underwater. Listen to this.