Peggy Noonan is a conservative icon. It’s rare indeed that she would be taking a sitting Republican president to task like she is but then again, Donald Trump is scarcely your normal Republican. He may well be the Republican id, the reptile brain of the party, but he certainly has never presented the decorum or bearing that is (or was) expected of a president of either party. You well remember during Trump 1.0 how the mantra was that Trump would “become presidential” just any moment now. Alas, it stayed a mantra and never manifested into a reality. And now people don’t even bother with that fantasy. It’s just Trump being Trump, always has been, always will be. Wall Street Journal:
Donald Trump and his tumult nearly 11 months in: He’s a rocket going not up but sideways or down. All polls say down. On Thursday AP-NORC reported his approval on the economy and immigration has “fallen substantially” since the spring, with 31% of Americans approving his handling of economic matters, down from 40% in March, and his approval on immigration at 38%, down from 49%. Recent Democratic sweeps in New Jersey and Virginia, and this week’s Miami mayoral race, make 2026 look distinctly blue-tinged.
In fairness, 11 months as president is long enough to get on everyone’s nerves—to disappoint your fans and infuriate your foes. But he’s in a fix, surrounded by mood shifts, challenges and bad signs.
His Capitol Hill base for once and famously began to kick away this summer, with loyalists breaking with him on the Jeffrey Epstein files and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on other issues as well. She’s leaving Congress but not looking like someone who lost her battles with Mr. Trump. His problem: Once someone makes a successful jailbreak, all the other prisoners know a jailbreak is possible. This changes the conversation in the prison yard. Guards are eyed differently, the warden’s mystique is diminished.
Outside Washington Mr. Trump’s base is fighting with itself. America first is saying “I’m not MAGA.” Conspiracists all over: “Israel killed Charlie.” The assassination of Charlie Kirk looks increasingly like an epochal event. Did he understand how much he was holding together the Trumpian right? Without the force of his mediating presence they are cracking up.
Percolating below, unseen, is the price you pay in time for success. The president’s border triumph will likely weaken his and MAGA’s political position. He shut down illegal immigration on the southern border, which had been more or less open for decades. But it was anger at illegal immigration that kept his base cleaved to him and allied with each other. Remove the issue that made you, and you can no longer use it to gain votes or maintain unity.
So where does Trump go from here is the big question? Noonan takes a shot at his character, which is surprising coming from the Wall Street Journal.
There is the matter of his mouth. The president’s supporters have for 10 years put up with his babyish obsession with insulting people. They think of it as the Trump Tax, the price you pay for getting someone bold and tough. But his hate-stoking now, in an era of political violence, is going to get someone hurt. In his Truth Social post Tuesday night he used criminal language about the press—news outlets and reporters are “seditious, perhaps even treasonous,” They “libel and demean THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.” They are “true Enemies of the people, and we should do something about it.” Like what?
It isn’t 2015, we’re more on edge. In a darker time, he’s going to find in the polls fewer people willing to pay the Trump Tax.
Wow. If that is true then that means that America has grown up. While I’m glad to hear it, I don’t see it happening in truth. This is the first editorial from a credible source, not left-wing affiliated, that has taken on Trump’s childish behavior front and center.
And don’t forget the cold hard numbers: 31% of Americans approve how the economy is being handled and his immigration approval has fallen 11 points, to 38%. This is not the stuff that dreams are made of. These numbers are a nightmare for any president, particularly at this stage of a new term.
It just occurred to me Noonan (not a fan – like Maureen Dowd I’ve always thought she wasn’t as ‘great’ as she and others think she is) is in the ballpark referencing a rocket. But rather than rocket I think Trump is turning out to be one of Saddam’s SCUD missiles which got so much attention back during the first Gulf War several decades ago.
Wildly inaccurate and prone to blowing up even before reaching the apex of their flight, our side made a huge deal out of deploying Patriot Missile batteries to Israel that were oh so “successful” in shooting them down. Most were launched at night so Saddam had a better chance of the launchers not getting hit by airstrikes we would see images of a Patriot streaking into the sky – and though the TV cameras were too far away to depict either the SCUD or the Patriot interceptor missile we’d see a nice explosion way the hell up in the sky.
The implication was the Patriot had “intercepted” the SCUD and blown it out of the sky. The Pentagon’s foks sure liked painting that notion but it was mostly bullshit. Yes, there were actual interceptions and SCUDs blown up long before they could reach the ground in Israel the fact is most of them broke up and blew up because they were of shoddy design and construction! The stresses on them during their flight was more than they could take. Ergo they broke up and blew up when they did so.
THAT is what we might see with Trump. Shoddy design and construction/maintenance leading to him breaking up in a big explosion. The sooner the better as far as I’m concerned. Yes, Vance is a concern but Trump has fucked things up so badly that Vance, who lest we forget was no “star” in the first couple of jobs Peter Theil got for him. He’ll be in way the hell over his head if he inherits Trump’s mess one way or the other before Trump’s term is out, and face at the very least a Democratic House.
He’ll try to be Trump, or even ‘out Trump Trump’ but we seen more experienced people than him try. Only Trump has gotten away with being Trump and I don’t think there’s anyone out there that can bend and even suspend the laws of political physics the way Trump has somehow done. While I won’t believe Trump is truly gone until he’s politically had a stake through whatever clump of tissue is where the heart is, his head cut off and his mouth stuffed with garlic and his body dropped in a tank of holy water with foot thick steel walls and launched into deep space it DOES seem like ‘gravity’ is finally starting to get hold of Trump.
His mind, never much to begin with is clearly failing. So is his body. He can’t even flip a fucking coin – I just watched the mid-field coin flip for the Army-Navy game and he didn’t have the dexterity to use his stubby short thumb to flip the coin into the air. It was flat in his palm and he just tossed it that was without causing it to spin like it should! (Btw – Go NAVY! Beat Army!)
Anyway I think the time will come when he suddenly breaks up and blows up like a SCUD.
Clearly that 31% who approve of his economy and that 38% who approve of his immigration policy are (a) morons, and (b) rich white folks.