Donald Trump has 99 problems, and popularity isn’t one.
The Republican strategy for the midterm election has always been to attach themselves to Trump and hope that he can get the party’s most faithful to the polls to help them preserve their congressional majority and prevent Trump from becoming a lame-duck president.
For nearly a decade, Trump has been able to count on the support of MAGA base and Republicans who claim that they are willing to go along with the president for “policy” reasons.
All of this is rapidly changing, and a few issues appear to be the main reasons why.
A new NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll found:
65% of Americans, up from 54% in June of 2025, think the actions of ICE have gone too far in enforcing immigration laws. 12%, down from 18%, say ICE’s actions have not gone far enough. And 22% say the actions of ICE are about right in enforcing immigration laws. This is down slightly from 26% previously.
Increasing proportions of Democrats (93% up from 83%) and independents (71% up from 59%) think the actions of ICE in enforcing immigration laws have gone too far. A plurality of Republicans (45%), notched down from 49%, say ICE’s actions are about right. The proportion of Republicans who say ICE has gone too far has increased to 27% from 20%.
If immigration were Trump’s only problem, Republicans might have some hope, but things are so much worse.