Strongman, Weak President

With his poll numbers sinking to historic lows, Donald Trump is failing—again.

Trump, the sequel, features the corrupt and malignant narcissist seething with hate and vengeance. This time, however, the aging politician has begun struggling to keep his eyes open in daytime meetings.

For a decade, Trump has personified the ideal of strict father morality, the moral system underlying conservative politics. He demands complete obedience, never apologizes or admits wrong, dehumanizes anyone who stands up to him, uses cruelty as a substitute for strength, and views himself as the only person in the nation who actually matters.

But Trump’s strict father act is also a political liability. A politician who can't admit error—even to himself—can’t correct course. That makes him terrible at politics. More and more Americans, including white voters and some MAGA voters, have begun to notice his incompetence.

Democratic candidates are now winning elections in Trump districts. If there is an election in November, it will be a disaster for Republicans.

Good for campaigns, disastrous for governing

Trump’s embrace of strict father morality propelled him to power. This style is perfectly suited for a vicious campaign, especially against a woman. It activates every hierarchical urge in the lizard brain and reframes politics as a restoration of a “natural order.” Trump beat Clinton and Harris with this playbook—and billions of dollars in backing from the worst billionaires on earth. It’s grotesque, and it works.

But governing is a different matter, and now his brazen instincts are working against him. Voter support is slipping and, since elections still matter, Trump is becoming increasingly desperate. All of his bluster and vitriol can’t cover up the fact that he is betraying his supporters by breaking one of his core promises.

When dominance becomes dominated

Trump ran on a promise to bring down prices, and pollsters say voters care more about affordability and the economy than anything else. But Trump’s strongman tactics have pushed costs even higher.

Take his tariffs. Prices are up. Supply chains are wrecked. Farmers are getting hammered by retaliation. Trump tried to ignore it—until voters didn’t.

November 2025 was a bloodbath. Republicans lost the Virginia governorship by nearly 15 points and got wiped out in nearly every competitive race. The rejection was undeniable. Trump finally pulled back food tariffs, because even he couldn't ignore that kind of drubbing.

But he can’t adjust with consistency or coherence. That would require admitting he got the policy wrong. Instead, he still throws out new tariffs at random, pulls others back on a whim, and announces more via Truth Social at 3 a.m.

Trump seeks to look dominant and powerful, but he’s failing to keep his promise. His antics—like Trump himself—look old and weak.

To be clear, Trump remains dangerous. His actions are creating fear, pain, and even death. But Trump’s strongman stunts increasingly look like pathetic attempts to mask his glaring weaknesses.

Trump’s approval rating has fallen to thirty-seven percent. Fifty-two percent of Americans now say Trump has made the economy worse, according to Pew Research Center. CBS polling shows something deeper: Americans believe the system has stopped working for them. Majorities say it’s harder now to buy a house, find good work, or raise a family.

Trump promised miracles but is delivering disappointment and denial. Last month in Iowa, he promised to lower housing prices. The next day, he said he’d keep prices high because homeowners should “stay wealthy." He even went so far as to call the affordability issue a “hoax.”

He can’t have it both ways.

This is what weakness actually looks like. Trump is trapped in a psychological prison built on never being wrong.

The sycophant bubble

The state of Trump’s Cabinet tells the story. First term? Chaos. Firings. Resignations. Some people trying—and failing—to restrain him. Second term? Eerie stability.

Did Trump learn to value dissent? Of course not. He just hired the worst of the worst this time. No adults in the room—just yes-men and yes-women validating whatever impulse fires through his deteriorating brain at 3 a.m. His worst instincts now run unchecked.

That’s the trap. His base chose him because he's a “winner.” But the strict father model may also be his undoing.

As his numbers sink, the spiral worsens. The strict father can't look weak, so Trump reaches for familiar weapons: more racism, more deportation threats, more white grievance. More sexism. More saber-rattling, because nothing says “strong” like rallying around the flag of war.

But that’s not working, either. Not even the young men who helped elect him want foreign wars they may be sent to fight.

We saw this failure mode during COVID, when Trump’s refusal to admit error cost hundreds of thousands of lives and the 2020 election. He learned nothing. Trump’s unyielding certainty now reeks of desperation.

The opportunity

The strict father trap guarantees the spiral will worsen—more racism, more threats, more desperation masked as dominance—because admitting error is the one thing the model forbids.

We need to say what everyone can already see: he betrayed your trust and broke his promise to make your life better. And he can’t fix it—because fixing it would mean admitting he was wrong. 

Jason Sattler is LOLGOP on BlueSky and pretty much every other social media platform. His writing has appeared in USA TODAY, Wired.com, the New York Daily News and Alternet.