{"id":168236,"date":"2026-08-25T15:45:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/trump-has-utterly-abandoned-populism\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T15:45:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T18:45:40","slug":"trump-has-utterly-abandoned-populism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/trump-has-utterly-abandoned-populism\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump has utterly abandoned populism"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n When President Donald Trump took the political world by storm in 2016, his rise was often described as a \u201cpopulist\u201d one. And he certainly played the part of a renegade challenging a broken political system on behalf of regular Americans.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ten years later, though, Trump has almost completely abandoned this brand of politics.\n <\/p>\n

\n Indeed, in many ways, he has become the anti-populist<\/em>.\n <\/p>\n

\n And he\u2019s got the poll numbers to prove it.\n <\/p>\n

\n Polling this month from Reuters and Ipsos has shown Trump\u2019s approval rating dropping to a record low of 33%. That\u2019s just 1 in 3 Americans who endorse his job performance.\n <\/p>\n

\n But perhaps more telling is the still-falling percentage who \u201cstrongly\u201d approve of him. It\u2019s been dropping for a while now<\/a>. And in the newest poll, it\u2019s at just 13% of all Americans and 35% of Republicans<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n That\u2019s roughly 1 in 8 Americans who think what Trump is doing is great \u2014 a remarkably small number of truly devoted supporters. And despite the president\u2019s supposed hammerlock on his base, nearly two-thirds of Republicans are less than enthused.\n <\/p>\n

\n So how does a president get to that point?\n <\/p>\n

\n For Trump, it\u2019s by almost totally disregarding public opinion in favor of his own whims, desires and even personal enrichment and glorification \u2014 a propensity he seems inclined to continue even during the stretch run of the midterms, when many politicians are highly sensitive to what plays well with voters.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s threatened 50% tariffs on Canada<\/a> are a case in point.\n <\/p>\n

\n A CNN poll<\/a> this spring showed 65% of Americans said Trump\u2019s tariffs had a negative impact on their personal finances. And even when the tariffs as a whole weren\u2019t as unpopular last year, his initial Canada levies were still very unpopular; between 60%<\/a> and 64%<\/a> of Americans opposed them from the outset.\n <\/p>\n

\n So what does Trump do 70 days before the midterms? Embrace a trade war with Canada, naturally.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump on Tuesday even threatened to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America<\/a> as part of the feud \u2014 echoing his purported renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Around two-thirds<\/a>\u202fof Americans<\/a>\u202falso opposed the latter change.\n <\/p>\n

\n Vice President JD Vance got in on the act Monday by mislabeling Canada as a \u201cstate\u201d and calling it a \u201cFreudian slip\u201d \u2014 evoking Trump\u2019s threats to make Canada the 51st state. And why not? A Marquette University Law School poll last year, after all, showed 75% of Americans opposed<\/a> this idea.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s recent positive comments about data centers are also perplexing for a supposed populist.\n <\/p>\n

\n There is perhaps no more clear-cut populist issue right now than opposing data centers. As many as 7 in 10 Americans oppose<\/a> having them in their communities, largely perceiving the centers as something powerful tech companies are inflicting upon them.\n <\/p>\n

\n But even as his fellow Republicans turn sharply against them, Trump is embracing them<\/a>. He\u2019s calling data centers \u201cbig, strong, bold, and Money Machines\u201d and \u201cCash Cows.\u201d He said communities should welcome them and praised their architecture as the \u201cmost incredible buildings I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d He\u2019s even criticized Republicans for supporting moratoriums that ban data center development.\n <\/p>\n

\n But these are hardly the only examples of Trump\u2019s anti-populism:\n <\/p>\n

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