Donald Trump has 99 problems, and popularity isn’t one of them.
The Republican strategy for the midterm elections has always been to stick with Trump and hope he can get the party’s most loyal voters to the polls to help them maintain their majority in Congress and prevent Trump from becoming a lame-duck president.
For almost a decade, Trump has enjoyed the support of the MAGA base and Republicans, who claim they are willing to go with the president for “policy reasons.”
All of this is changing rapidly, and a few issues seem to be the main reasons for that.
A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows:
65% of Americans, up from 54% in June 2025, believe ICE’s actions have gone too far in enforcing immigration laws. 12%, compared to 18%, believe ICE’s actions have not gone far enough. And 22% say ICE’s actions are about right in enforcing immigration laws. This is slightly lower than before (26%).
A growing share of Democrats (93% vs. 83%) and independents (71% vs. 59%) say ICE’s actions in enforcing immigration laws have gone too far. A plurality of Republicans (45%), down from 49%, say ICE’s actions are about right. The share of Republicans who think ICE has gone too far increased from 20% to 27%.
If immigration were Trump’s only problem, Republicans might have some hope, but things are so much worse.
