President Donald Trump is dealing with a mounting stack of problems, from declining poll numbers and contentious military actions in the Caribbean to pushback from loyalists in Congress and soon-to-increase health insurance premiums for millions of Americans.
There’s also his seemingly reflexive assessment that no deals can be reached with Democrats on health care and other issues that are front of mind for many voters. And on Tuesday, he, again, appeared to nearly doze off in public.
In short, the year is not ending how Trump and his White House team had hoped.
In recent public remarks, Trump has boasted about his under-construction White House ballroom and bashed his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. He on Tuesday even announced — out of the blue — plans to revamp Northern Virginia’s Dulles International Airport.
“It should be a great airport, and it’s not a good airport at all. It’s a terrible airport. It was incorrectly designed with a good building,” he said during a Tuesday Cabinet meeting at the White House. “But we’re going to turn that around and we’re going to make Dulles Airport — serving Washington and Virginia, Maryland, etc. — we’re going to make that into something really spectacular.”
His comments came as Democratic lawmakers have for months been saying he should be more focused on bringing down the prices of food, electricity, home heating fuel and other energy items, and medical care. Dulles is a popular hub for Washington insiders — whom Trump has railed against for over a decade — to jet to tropical, European and other global destinations.
“Donald Trump and House Republicans promised to lower costs on day one. They lied. Republicans have not put forth a single credible proposal to address the affordability crisis. Instead, life in America is more expensive,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote in a Monday “Dear Colleague” letter. “The reckless Trump tariffs have increased costs on hardworking American taxpayers by thousands of dollars per year.
“At the start of the holiday season, housing prices, grocery costs and electricity bills are skyrocketing,” the New York Democrat added. “The American people are struggling to live paycheck-to-paycheck.”
Trump’s dismissive messaging about still-high prices has coincided with declining poll numbers during a term that can feel more calibrated for retribution and a list of things, like Dulles, that simply annoy him. A reporter on Tuesday asked him if he was worried Americans have been “getting impatient with the reforms that you’re making” to lower daily costs. Trump’s reaction was to blame two of his favorite targets: the media and the opposition party, while talking about the 2024 election.
“I think they’re getting fake news from guys like you. Look, affordability is a hoax that was started by Democrats who caused the problem of pricing, and they didn’t end it when — look, they lost in a landslide,” he said. “We won every swing state. We won the popular vote. We won everything.”
Trump did not bring up last month’s off-year elections, which saw Republicans lose key races in Virginia, New Jersey and across the country.
‘Make a bad deal’
If Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill — and the White House — cannot reach a deal by Dec. 31, lawmakers and analysts say health care premiums for millions would skyrocket when subsidies linked to the 2010 Affordable Care Act are set to expire.
But Trump made clear Tuesday that reaching a deal before the deadline would be a challenge rooted in partisan politics.
“It’s probably not going to be easy because the Democrats, frankly, they don’t want to make a good deal for the people,” he said during the Cabinet meeting. “They just want to make a bad deal for the country. They want to make a bad deal for the Republican Party.”
Should health premiums soar, any sitting president — and incumbent lawmakers — would likely feel the heat from voters. And his job approval rating has already taken a hit.
Gallup’s presidential approval tracker has him at 36 percent, just 2 points above his all-time low (34 percent after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot near the end of his first term).
A RealClearPolitics average of recent polls, as of Monday afternoon, put his job approval rating higher, at 42.4 percent — but his average disapproval rating stood at 54.9 percent. What’s more, he was underwater on several issues that propelled him to a second term.
That list included: inflation (62.3 percent disapprove); the economy (57.9 percent disapprove); the Russia-Ukraine conflict (56.3 percent disapprove); foreign policy (52.8 percent disapprove); immigration (52.0 percent disapprove); and crime (50.0 percent disapprove). In fact, of the seven issues tracked by RealClearPolitics, Trump was above water, on average, on just one: the Israel-Palestinian conflict (48.0 percent approve; 44.9 percent disapprove).
Trump’s low marks on inflation and the economy would appear out of step with his assessment that he leads the “hottest country” in the world. Two of his closest Cabinet members also set a rather high bar for the economy’s performance next year, when voters will decide control of Congress— and the fate of Trump’s remaining domestic agenda.
“Mr. President, it’s been a great year on the economy, but the best is yet to come,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared at the Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
“In 2026, we are going to see very substantial tax refunds in the first quarter. So the best way to address the affordability crisis is to give Americans more money in their pockets, which is what this bill has done,” he said, referring to Republicans’ massive domestic tax and spending law. “We’re going to see real wage increases. I think next year is going to be a fantastic year — taxes, deregulation, energy certainty. That’s why everyone, with your leadership, is coming to America.”
Vice President JD Vance followed suit — but with fewer policy specifics.
“We have now done incredible work to fix what Joe Biden broke and I think the next year in American growth and American prosperity could be the best year that we’ve had in the United States of America,” the former Ohio senator said. “It’s going to happen because we’re all working hard. It’s going to happen because we have the greatest country in the world.”
The 79-year-old Trump appeared to doze off several times during the 2-hour-and-17-minute Cabinet meeting, though White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told The New York Times he was “listening attentively and running the entire” meeting.
Despite occasionally floating the idea of seeking a third term, Trump again signaled Tuesday that he has only three more years to deal with the myriad of problems a president faces.
“[Democrats] have really bad policy, and I’m not going to say what it is because I don’t want them to change it, necessarily, because I want to run against it, whether it’s — it’s not going to be me. It’s going to be somebody that’s … probably sitting at this table,” he said. “Could be a couple of people running together, sitting at this table.”
In a telling moment, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had high praise for Vance, a fellow contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination.
“The vice president, by the way, I want to acknowledge, has played an extraordinary role in our foreign policy,” Rubio said. “And he, too, has been a witness to all of this as it’s been occurring — and he’s been a big part of it as well.”
The post Problems mount for Trump as first year back in White House comes to a close appeared first on Roll Call.
