In a scathing op-ed for The Hill, politics professor John Kenneth White has declared that “the Trump presidency is over.”

The president, White wrote, is seeking to “bend reality to his liking,” the same way he did at the start of the pandemic. Trump’s claim at the State of the Union address that prices are “plummeting downward” simply “does not comport with the stark realities,” White said, adding that “rising prices posted on gas stations are a daily advertisement of Trump’s failures.” He added that polls make it clear “most Americans have turned on him,” including Republicans.

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CNN’s chief data analyst, Harry Enten, recently outlined Americans’ widespread dissatisfaction with Donald Trump’s handling of the economy.

In October 2024, 38% of respondents said Trump would make/is making them financially worse off, compared to 44% who said they were better off. Now, 53% are saying they’re worse off, and only 18% believe they’re better off.

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Enten said the numbers among independents, who he reminded viewers are usually the ones to decide elections, are “even more troublesome for the White House.” In October 2024, 38% said Trump made them worse off financially, whereas 40% said they were better off. Now, 60% say they are worse off, and only 13% said they’re better off.

“Ultimately, this puts Trump in historic company you don’t want to be,” Enten said. “He’s the leader of the pack – or last in the pack – when it comes to 21st-century presidents and how Americans are viewing him on the economy, at least among independents.”

Approval ratings for the president seem to keep getting worse, and according to White, Trump won’t be able to make a comeback.

“Presidents who don’t recover can’t change the subject,” White explained. And the president has found himself “unable to turn the public’s attention away from surging gas and grocery prices, masked ICE agents patrolling the streets, the Epstein files, and now, the war in Iran.”

In essence, White is saying that Trump’s continued efforts to distract the public from one scandal by starting another are backfiring, as Americans are managing to remain outraged on all of the scandals at the same time.

While the president will continue to retain the basic powers of the presidency for the next two years, White said his presidency is symbolically over because he has continued to govern without the consent of the governed. He quoted Abraham Lincoln, who once said, “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” 

And Trump, he said, “Cannot recover his political standing.”

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