（President Trump speaks during a roundtable on farm subsidies in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Dec. 8, 2025, in Washington. ）
It doesn’t take a political genius to recognize that things are in free fall over at the White House. Less than a year after staffing his administration with a cadre of bumbling goons valued only for their slavish devotion to his ego, President Trump now finds himself leading a government wholly incapable of governing.
Forgive my lack of surprise.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing mounting Republican criticism over a potentially illegal order to kill the survivors of a Caribbean boat strike. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice is in disarray after three failed efforts to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. And on Monday, U.S. Attorney Alina Habba abruptly resigned after being disqualified by a federal judge from holding her office.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel is defending his misuse of a government jet to ferry his country music star girlfriend to her shows, and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is defending himself against claims from his alleged former mistress Olivia Nuzzi that he is lying to the nation about his sobriety.
If anyone in Trump’s White House is actually getting any work done, they’ve done a good job hiding it from the public.
Trump’s approval rating cratered to a new low of just 36 percent in late November following months of open-air dysfunction and his repeated failure to address fundamental problems like rising consumer prices. For the millions of Americans who are just starting to tune in politically ahead of next year’s big midterm election, the added horror of Trump’s nonfunctional White House team simply solidifies the growing consensus that, despite his big promises, Trump just doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing.
The situation has grown so bleak for Republicans that many endangered Republican lawmakers are doing something once considered impossible: directly criticizing Trump’s failure to lead. As Axios reports, Republicans concerned about their 2026 prospects have taken to bucking Trump at a level that would have been unimaginable during his first term, including forcing the release of the Epstein files (which Trump has yet to do) and lambasting his scheme to issue budget-busting “tariff rebate checks.”
In fact, most of Trump’s second-term strategy seems to revolve around offering substantial payouts to critical voting blocs alienated by his half-baked economic policies. Facing a revolt by once reliably Republican farmers, Trump hurriedly announced a $12 billion farm-focused bailout aimed at undoing some of the damage caused by his agricultural tariffs.
In a sign of just how frosty Trump’s relationship with Congress has grown, most of that money will be distributed through the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, avoiding what would likely be a losing fight with skeptical Republican senators. Whatever power Trump once exerted over his colleagues on Capitol Hill seems to have dissolved as his popularity continues to skid.
But Trump’s own advisers are beginning to realize they can’t pay off all of the people all of the time, and even die-hard MAGA voters are growing impatient for Trump to deliver any significant legislative wins. If Trump’s current priorities are any indication, they’re going to be waiting a while.
Nearly 40 percent of Trump voters now say the cost of living in their area is the worst they can remember, and they largely blame Trump for failing to act on his pledge to immediately lower prices “starting on day one.” Instead of acknowledging his misstep and doubling down on a solution, Trump is instead furious that Republicans are talking about affordability issues at all. It’s hard to imagine a more out-of-touch response to legitimate voter concerns.
Trump’s crumbling administration is living proof that the best way to convince voters to elect Democrats is to let Republicans run things for a year. The White House is so soaked in ethical and legal scandals that its governing agenda — what little there ever was — has evaporated completely. No one, least of all the president, seems very interested in trying to salvage the few stalled policy initiatives that remain. Merely keeping track of their multiplying crises eats up most of the day.
As America turns the page on 2025, Trump’s already overburdened and underqualified team will now have to add a tempestuous midterm election to its growing list of headaches. Republicans outside Trump’s orbit have serious doubts about his ability to save the party from a looming electoral reckoning now that the veil has slipped off the MAGA movement to reveal the sloppy mess that always churned just below its oily surface. They are right to be horrified at the nightmare that lurks below.
