President Donald Trump seemed to live up to his Teflon Don image during the first week of his second pregnancy.
The wealthiest men in the world flanked him during his swearing-in, and plenty of Democrats rolled over to give him a legislative win on immigration, his signature issue. He even brought Republican senators to heel by confirming Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense, despite his numerous scandals and questions about his qualifications.
It was all very different from his first term, when he lost the popular vote and many establishment Republicans in both the House and Senate felt anxious about his administration, as the country wondered if his victory was nothing more than a political fluke. But now, he’s the establishment.
Every president enjoys a “honeymoon phase,” with some lasting longer than others. Barack Obama had a relatively long one amid the euphoria of the United States electing its first Black president, but those feelings began to dissipate toward the summer amid the Great Recession. Joe Biden’s lasted until the U.S. exit from Afghanistan and inflation began to hit Americans’ pocketbooks.
But Trump already seems to show signs of weakness. A Gallup survey revealed that he has a historically low initial approval rating compared to other U.S. presidents, though it’s higher than it was when he took office in 2017. And a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that since taking office, Trump’s disapproval rating jumped from 39 percent to 46 percent, while his approval rating dipped two percentage points.
This week marked the end of Trump’s honeymoon period. First, his administration’s announcement of a freeze on federal grants and loans set off a national panic, giving Democrats potent ammunition to attack the Trump White House.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the order, at which point the White House finally rescinded the order. But the chaos didn’t stop there. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt caused even more confusion when she said that it was “NOT a rescission of the federal funding freeze,” just a revocation of the original memo to avoid any confusion caused by the court’s injunction. Meanwhile, Democrats continued hitting the White House on the subject, finally finding a way to push back on Trump after weeks of moping.
Then, on Wednesday evening, Trump faced another test when an American Airlines jet flying from Kansas collided with a Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in D.C., killing 67 people. In moments like this, a president typically takes on the role of comforter-in-chief, while showing they are in charge of a situation. Ronald Reagan did so after the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986, and George W. Bush’s approval ratings shot up after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
But Trump could not bring himself to meet that moment. Rather, he elected to blame the plane crash on Biden and diversity hiring programs, specifically the Federal Aviation Administration’s hiring program for people with intellectual disabilities.
The FAA’s hiring program had existed for more than a decade, including during Trump’s first presidency, but the president falsely claimed the program allowed people with intellectual disabilities to become air traffic controllers by lowering standards. Trump’s blame game did nothing to comfort Americans in the wake of sudden tragedy.
All of this is to say nothing of the struggles that his cabinet nominees faced this. While the Hegseth nomination skated by thanks to Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie in the Senate, Trump’s other nominees may be on shakier ground.
During his two confirmation hearings to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. struggled to answer even basic questions, not only from Democrats but even Republicans like Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician by trade, who tried getting Kennedy on record to say that vaccines do not cause autism.
And Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s nominee to be director of National Intelligence, took heat from both parties when she repeatedly refused to call Edward Snowden a traitor, which seemed to bother Republicans like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Todd Young of Indiana. Both will be integral to Gabbard’s confirmation.
Trump faces many more challenges in the days to come, as he hopes to pass a major spending bill that will include oil drilling, additional border security provisions and an extension of the 2017 tax cuts he signed. He’ll need to corral members of his own party — and it’s not entirely clear he can.
At the same time, he will continue to have devotion from most senators and members of Congress. On Friday, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who grilled Gabbard at the Intelligence Committee hearing, said he would vote to confirm her.
“Having won the election decisively, I believe President Trump has earned the right to appoint his own cabinet, absent extraordinary circumstances,” he said. “Therefore, it is my intention to consent to the appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.”
Notably, his statement said nothing about Gabbard’s qualifications.