Trump’s Approval Rating Breaks Through a Decisive Barrier Downward

9 February 2026, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

U.S. President Trump is now clearly heading to defeat in the November congressional mid-terms, and so to impeachment hearings by Democrats in the U.S. Congress starting in January 2027. If those hearings lead to his being replaced, they will produce a President Vance, who will then probably run for the Presidency in 2028, and (after having served out the rest of Trump’s term and moderating some of Trump’s policies in order to win in 2028) stand a good chance of becoming elected as President in 2028, especially because he’d be the incumbent and will have been hiding his extremism. Therefore, congressional Democrats will be reluctant to support removing Trump (a known and increasingly unpopular extremist) from office; and, consequently, they will not be citing as reasons for Trump’s removal-from-office the ones that would be the likeliest to achieve the necessary two-thirds vote in the U.S. Senate to remove Trump from the Presidency. Consequently, nothing would have been done to change what has been the U.S. status-quo since at least 2000, of the U.S. Government’s ideology in foreign affairs being neoconservatism (further expansion of the U.S. empire), and in domestic affairs neoliberalism (which Americans call “libertarianism”). It would, in other words, be the same U.S. regime in power. Nonetheless, the likelihood is now that Trump’s most extremist policies will become less extreme at least until he leaves office on 20 January 2029; and, that, after that time, the U.S. will continue to get Presidents like Trump, Biden, Obama and Bush (though perhaps younger ones), which is to say, yet more neoliberal neoconservatives in federal offices — and more increases in ‘defense’ (aggression) spending, and more cuts in everything else except soaring increases in the federal debt (and interest-payments) until either economic collapse or WW3.

The near-term turning-point is today, when the RealClearPolitics Poll Average “Approve” rating for Trump is 42.3%, which is 0.3% lower than what it had been ever since it was 42.6% on November 11th of last year and stayed that till now. On January 31st, I had headlined “Trump’s Approval-Rating Is Unchanged Since November 11, 2025”, and mentioned that Trump had, at that time, a solid 42.6% “MAGA” (i.e., Trump-approving) political base, and that

Articulate and well reasoned arguments (such as this) have been put forth that what Trump is in the process of doing is that he’s trying to achieve in his country an imposition of martial law but under a different name (such as “ICE enforcement”) so as to make his fascism acceptable to his base as being fascist (but ‘necessary’), which percentage of the public would then be (at present) 42.6% of the population accepting their fascism [neoconservatism and neoliberalism — otherwise known as imperialism and as extreme freedom for wealth; i.e., for the super-rich, who hold most of the nation’s wealth and who therefore benefit from further expanding the empire], which [42.6%] would then probably be a larger percentage than any of the political Parties to his left. I have argued that what is needed, in order to produce a democacy, is to outlaw political Parties altogether.

Americans aren’t yet aware we live in a dictatorship (by the aristocracy — the super-rich) instead of in a democracy; and, so, the lie that only one of the two U.S. political Parties is fascist is still believed by most Americans; and consequently the situation in the U.S. would need to get considerably worse before the population will be sufficiently angry against the Government (instead of against ‘the opposite’ political Party) so as to rise up in a second American revolution to overthrow America’s aristocracy (the billionaires); and we are therefore merely rotating between two fascist Parties.

0.3% difference in Trump’s approval-rating might seem to be an insignificant drop, but when considering the fact that ever since November 11th Trump’s approval-rating had been rather steadily at 42.6% or even higher, this 0.3% below 42.6% constitutes a significant political breakthrough downward.

In addition to that fact, there is one other reason why I think that this time is a political breakthrough downward for Trump — Trump’s starting to lose support from some of the Republicans in Congress:

On January 28th, there was the following news-summary from Semafor — which is perhaps the most-read news-source for Fortune 500 corporations’ “C-suite” (top executive officers):

https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/01/28/2026/semafor-washington-dc-personnel-purgatory

https://archive.ph/CukCx

28 January 2026

INSIDE THE FED’S PERSONNEL PURGATORY

The Federal Reserve’s most recent addition isn’t going anywhere, Semafor’s Eleanor Mueller reports. Lawmakers last year confirmed President Donald Trump’s adviser Stephen Miran to a term that ends Saturday. But the now-governor can stay until the Senate greenlights his replacement, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told Semafor Tuesday night he still plans to stop the Banking Committee from advancing any Fed nominees until the Justice Department drops its investigation into Chair Jerome Powell. “In reality, the only way I move on any Fed position is for this to be adjudicated — because otherwise, you’re really giving weight to the idea that the Fed is no longer independent,” Tillis said. He said he has not heard from the White House about his opposition: “I think my position is pretty clear, and I’m here because the DOJ put us here.”

THE GOP’S IMMIGRATION BREAK WITH TRUMP

The breaks between the Trump administration and congressional Republicans over immigration enforcement are piling up in the wake of the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott report. Tillis and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to go — a big change, considering they voted to confirm her a year ago. “It’s the president’s decision, but I think there’s got to be a level of accountability,” Murkowski said. Multiple Republicans are breaking with the administration’s descriptions of Pretti as a terrorist and the suggestion he shouldn’t have been armed. The scrutiny is only set to increase: Top immigration officials will appear before both chambers of Congress in February; Senate Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky., said “we’re going to find out” if he still has confidence in Noem.

SHUTDOWN ODDS RISE FURTHER

Senators are still far apart on a bipartisan immigration compromise that could stop government funding from partially lapsing Friday night. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters Tuesday that Democrats are closing in on a “set of reforms” to add to appropriations legislation after Alex Pretti’s killing Saturday: “[We] can’t trust anything this administration promises,” Murphy said. But Republicans fear they may not have the votes to pass a tweaked spending bill in the House, which is out this week anyway. “If there are things the Democrats want … they ought to … see to what degree the administration may be able to to address that,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said. “I would prefer that there be a way that we keep the package together. [Otherwise] I think it becomes really complicated and, frankly, risky.”

RUBIO TO DEFEND MADURO OERATION

Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to defend the administration’s Venezuela actions during public testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee later today, according to prepared remarks seen by Semafor. The crux of Rubio’s message: The capture of Nicolás Maduro “was an operation to aid law enforcement.” His appearance comes as the administration continues to face questions about next steps in Venezuela. Lawmakers will likely ask about the decision to hold Venezuelan oil proceeds in Qatar, and Rubio will be expected to address concerns about allowing interim Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez to head up the country. On Rodríguez, Rubio plans to emphasize that the Trump administration believes “her own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives.” He’ll also deliver a warning: Trump is “prepared to use force to ensure maximum cooperation if other methods fail.”

TECH CEOs START TO BREAK WITH TRUMP

Technology executives have spent much of the past year cozying up to Trump, but the killings in Minneapolis are testing that support. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman notably broke his silence on the immigration crackdown, telling employees in an internal Slack message, per The New York Times: “What’s happening with ICE is going too far.” He echoed Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, no stranger to confrontation with the White House, who called the situation a “horror” this week. Apple’s Tim Cook — one of the business leaders who attended a screening of Amazon’s Melania Trump biopic at the White House the day federal officers shot Pretti — told employees he’d had a “good conversation” with Trump and urged “deescalation,” Bloomberg reported. A growing cadre of Silicon Valley leaders is speaking up, the Times reported, harkening back to some of the clashes of Trump’s first term.

TRUMP, THE ULTIMATE ACTIVIST INVESTOR

Top corporate advisers paid for fending off hostile takeover attempts and vocal activist investors are now getting ready to contain America’s most potent investor — Trump, Semafor’s Rohan Goswami writes. The Trump administration’s $1.6 billion investment in an American rare-earths miner, USA Rare Earth, is the latest case highlighting the need for CEO whisperers and takeover defense experts, who had already begun to include “the president wants to own a bit of us” in their quarterly “what-if” scenario planning, one adviser told Semafor. The strategy is the same whether companies are trying to fend off a federal investment or court one, and it rests on an aggressive DC ground game. Avoidance is not a strategy, said Jack Kelleher, managing director at activist-defense specialist Collected Strategies. “It’s always clear who got caught flat-footed,” he said.

TESTER SEES BLUE WAVE COMING

Former Montana Sen. Jon Tester sees the potential for a massive blue wave this fall, although it won’t include him, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reports in a new video interview dropping this morning. The longtime Democratic senator said that on Republicans’ current political trajectory, the midterms might make the 2006 wave Tester rode into office look like a blue ripple. “It has the potential of being 1932 all over again,” Tester said. “Because people are starting to realize that this ain’t working.” So why doesn’t Tester want to twin with former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and potentially ride that wave? “I spent 18 years there; it was a good 18 years, I worked my ass off,” Tester said. “My generation has screwed this country up enough, quite frankly. It’s time for a new generation to come in and fill some of these seats.”

All 7 of those news-reports were indicative of a turn-around downward regarding elite financial support for Trump’s campaign to retain a Republican Congress.

Trump is trapped, just like Netanyahu is, and yet the regimes that each heads will almost certainly continue on their present racist-fascist and neoliberal neoconservative paths until either economic collapse or WW3. Yesterday, I headlined “America Must Be Regime-Changed”, but only a tiny percentage of Americans — or of other people throughout the empire — are at all aware that this is the case. (Of course, the billionaires don’t want the public to know it, because they profit from it.) If such regime-change in America keeps getting delayed, the result will be either economic collapse or WW3.

Trump is so stupid and so vicious that he is seriously considering even to go to war simultaneously against Iran, Russia and China in order for America to continue to be the world’s most powerful country. His neocon supporters portray such defeat of all three as being necessary in order to preserve America’s position as the world’s most powerful nation — as-if such an evil Government as America now is, ought to be the world’s most powerful country, which is ridiculous. Neocons are basically just psychopaths.

Here is the person (who has condemned the neocon/neolib policies of both Biden and Trump) whom I consider the best-qualified to replace this imperialistic-fascist regime and lead as America’s President, and to lead in transforming America into an authentic democracy. But if that can’t be done, then, as I have previously argued, a purely lottery-based political system would be far likelier to produce a Government that actually has the same policy-priorities that the nation’s public do — far likelier to actually represent the public than any elections-based system is. The billionaires can always spend enough money to deceive enough of the public to vote for their candidates, and that’s the problem with any electoral ‘democracy’ — it degenerates into an aristocracy (a Deep State ruled by only the richest).

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.