President Trump’s shambolic mess of a second term is getting sucked into a political sinkhole. Polls show he is now underwater even among white working-class voters, the molten core of his populist insurgency.
This follows eroding support over the past year among independents, working-class Hispanics and young voters. Trump can still count on a solid MAGA base to vote out Republicans who don’t blindly obey his orders. But most Americans have turned thumbs down on his inflationary tariffs, capricious military attacks and brazen corruption.
No wonder Democrats are feeling upbeat about the midterm elections. Whatever gains they make, however, will likely prove fleeting unless the party finally tackles its strategic imperative since Trump crashed the political stage in 2016: reconnecting with America’s non-college majority.