Donald Trump’s second presidency has been a disaster since the beginning, but it appeared to further spiral out of control this week.
Almost all of Trump's woes harken back to his stupid decision to launch a war in Iran, which has proven to be a much more difficult endeavor than he thought it would be.
Iran continues to fight back against the United States and Israel's aggression, attacking oil infrastructure in nearby nations and maintaining its blockade of a critical oil passageway called the Strait of Hormuz, thus creating an oil shortage that is spiking gas prices and weakening the global economy.
Stock traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Trump has tried to calm financial markets by saying the war will end soon and that he is negotiating with Iran—neither of which appear to be true. And while his Truth Social posts seemed to mollify investors for a time, even they appear to be ignoring Trump's comments now. The stock markets are set to have their worst week since January, and oil commodity prices are rising to around $110 per barrel.
It’s probably why Trump is already looking for a scapegoat for this catastrophe.
Those high gas prices are clearly taking a toll on Trump and his party's approval, threatening not just Republicans’ House majority but also their control of the Senate in the November midterms. Trump's approval is now at a second-term low, falling more than 16 percentage points underwater. His approval is even underwater with men, a constituency that helped propel him to the White House in 2024.
Given that experts anticipate that fuel prices will increase even more, those numbers could get worse for Trump. It's why he and his doltish administration officials tried to gaslight the public at a batshit-crazy Cabinet meeting on Thursday, saying that Americans will be fine with high gas prices. Sure, guys, keep telling yourselves that.
Worse yet for Trump is that his poor approval rating appears to be influencing election results. On Tuesday, Democrats flipped two Republican-held state legislative seats in Florida, including the state House district encompassing Trump's tacky Mar-a-Lago residence.
President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
The flips were even more concerning for Republicans because the electorates that turned out leaned Republican, meaning that independents backed the Democratic candidate by Assad margins. In fact, Republicans are now having second thoughts about gerrymandering Florida's congressional districts, fearing that a new map could backfire on the GOP and lead Democrats to win more seats than if the maps remained unchanged.
Redrawing congressional districts was critical to the GOP’s midterm plans, with their belief being it would help save their House majority. But that plan is falling apart.
If all of that wasn't bad enough, Congress this week refused Trump's demand to pass the SAVE America Act, a voter-suppression bill championed by Trump and other far-right Republicans. On Friday, Senate Republicans left Washington, D.C., for a two-week recess, without any action on the legislation.
What's more, Trump's efforts to force Democrats to cave on fully funding the Department of Homeland Security failed. The funding lapse caused chaos at airports, adding hours to already-long security lines, as Transportation Security Administration workers quit or refused to show up for unpaid work.
But instead of scaring Democrats into caving, the GOP-led Senate instead passed a DHS funding bill that did not include money for Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the two agencies for which Democrats are seeking reform.
Ultimately, it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for Trump.
But hey, at least he'll get his ugly signature on American currency. For now, he has that.
