As Americans tire of Donald Trump, a Democratic midterm ‘tsunami’ could sweep the GOP out of power

It was a wake-up call for America. In January, Donald Trump took the oath of office, declared himself “saved by God to make America great again” and issued a barrage of executive orders. In the ensuing months the US president and his allies moved at breakneck speed and seemed indomitable.

But as 2025 draws to a close with Trump struggling to stay awake at meetings, the prevailing image is of a driver asleep at the wheel. Opinion polls suggest that Americans are turning against him. Republicans are heading for the exit ahead of congressional contests next November that look bleak for the president’s party.

“He came into office and, like a blitzkrieg, was violating laws and the constitution,” said Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “The American political process is slow-moving and so he was able to do things that were extraordinary.

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Do. Not. Trust. Polls.

    DO. NOT. TRUST. POLLS.

    This feels like a fucking repeat of the 2024 election. The internet naively believing they know the outcome, because certainly people can’t be that ignorant and shitty, can they?

    They can.

    They are.

    Go talk to people in the real world, instead of reading articles written by fellow shut-ins, and realize that the narrative is FAR different for the average person. You people are setting yourselves up for disappointment. Again.

    My prediction is the Dems will pick up just barely enough seats to take back control of the House. Not a snowballs chance in hell of taking back the Senate.

    • sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      You’re one of those folks who are too stupid to understand probabilities and what polls are actually saying, aren’t you?
      The polls in the run-up to the 2024 Presidential election were actually pretty good. The final aggregate error was right around 3.4 points [1]

      Anyone who suggested that there was a clear favorite was lying about what the polls said. That’s not a failing of the polls, its a failing of the media reporting on the polls. Sure, there were some particular, individual outliers. The Anne Seltzer poll comes to mind. But, credit where it’s due, Seltzer published an outlier poll, because that was the outcome of the poll based on then methodology she had been using for a long time. Like with scientists publishing null results, it’s actually really important that such things are published and not hidden, but they are usually hidden.

      Go talk to people in the real world, instead of reading articles written by fellow shut-ins, and realize that the narrative is FAR different for the average person.

      Then plural of “anecdote” is not “data”. And quite the opposite here, if you’re out talking to people within your own social bubble, you’re far more likely to get a warped view of reality. This is one of the reasons polling is so hard, getting a truly representative sample of the population is hard. It is also likely a reason polls keep underestimating Trump. People with low social trust seem to favor Trump, and those same people are very hard to poll. They don’t often pick up the phone and often aren’t willing to divulge their political choices to strangers on the phone. So ya, expecting the polls to “miss” by 3-5 points, underestimating Republicans isn’t all that out of line.

      My prediction is the Dems will pick up just barely enough seats to take back control of the House. Not a snowballs chance in hell of taking back the Senate.

      This is funny, because this is very much an opinion which will have been informed by polling. It’s also what most analysis are coming up with:

      Articles like the one posted by the OP are just pure hopium. Dems may make some gains this year, but a rational analysis of the current polling data tells a bleak story. They might get the House, the Senate is basically out of reach.

      • Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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        2 days ago

        Is it? There seems to be widespread agreement on that point, here on Lemmy, that expecting the worst of everyone is critical to motivate the Americans to go out and vote.

        It’s a strong enough consensus, reinforced with absolute certainty over and over in our political communities, that I’ve been forced to ponder it myself many times. Because I also have an instinct that it’s quite possible to demotivate and even deactivate would-be voters by making them feel that theirs is a lone flame in the wind, or that the insurmountable forces of evil will make their efforts inconsequential.

        As a counter example, here in New York, that wasn’t what brought people out to knock on doors and vote for the new progressive mayor. People participated because they had hope for change, or maybe just to be a part of a something new. They weren’t voting against Cuomo as much as they were voting for Mamdani, if that makes sense.

        Are we confident that our all-in commitment to motivating people through fear of their neighbors’ inaction is a winning strategy?

  • ikidd@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    And the Democrats will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, for totally unknown reasons.

    • Baron Von J@lemmy.world
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      The reason is they won’t listen to voters who are willing to left perfect be the enemy of better.

      • Pacattack57@lemmy.world
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        That’s a huge issue with voters honestly. They will vote against the democratic nominee because of 1 issue but are ok with a radical far right racist fascist because…Israel?

  • Boomer Humor Doomergod@lemmy.world
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    Even if they won every single election the Dems will do nothing and wonder where their support went.

    Because this happens every fucking time.

  • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    People who vote for the Democratic party can get disfranchised easily, but the Republicans don’t.

    They will reliably vote Republican even if their party slits their throats, takes a piss on them, and kills their women.

    This is the current conundrum.

        • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Which is ridiculous considering Reagan had no fucking clue what he was doing. He was a puppet President who had such severe Alzheimer’s by the end all he could do is sit around and eat jelly beans while his wife and administration ran the show.

    • yermaw@sh.itjust.works
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      If even half of the leopardsatemyface screenshots are real and not made up that’ll be the case.

      They’re all along the lines of “Mr President I love everything youre doing and I’m glad I voted for you and everything is incredible but I cant afford to eat now and my gran died of totally preventable causes. Still love everything about you though”

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I certainly hope so, but I’m afraid the Democrats will fuck it up or Leon Hitler will manipulate the voting machines with a “minor” update.

  • cmbabul@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The cowards could probably still save themselves if they did the right thing and removed him, but they won’t so they are complicit

  • RedC@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    Really? Because I predict that millions of Americans wont be voting Democrat or at all because of the utter incompetence of the Dems. Not to mention the immediate bending over for the GOP after winning 3(?) Elections, reopening the govt in exchange for a promise, when the right was in the worst position it has been in decades and just when they were really feeling the heat.

    Plus, we all want the democrats to be the ones to make reasonable laws we can all get behind but they dont do that. Like the “high capacity” magazine bans. In a time where more leftists are arming themselves than ever before, nobody wants that. They keep warning of a fascist takeover while simultaneously disarming citizens. Or the fact they voted to fund the military to the tune of $1 trillion. Or the democrats that voted with Republicans against youth trans care. Or their response to most republican shenanigans, a strongly worded letter.

    Democrats have been doing nothing but fumbling the easiest victories they could ever have over and over again. Idk how anyone can expect democrats to win anything with this old guard establishment demo still in power.

    Say what you will about the GOP, and I hate what their doing as well. But at the end of the day they get their shit done. For better or worse, at least they dont just sit on their power. I wish I could say the same about the dems

  • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Unpopular seems to me to be quite an understatement. I can only report back from Germany: here, he is deeply despised by most people.

      • DandomRude@lemmy.world
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        Unfortunately, in Germany we are also facing major problems with the resurgence of fascism. Here, it takes the form of the AfD these days, a right-wing extremist party that basically stands for the same inhumane ideology as MAGA: hatred, greed and blatant stupidity.

        I attribute the popularity of these damn fascists primarily to the fact that Europe uses the same US social media platforms, which are controlled by the same billionaires. Another reason may be that Europe is also experiencing an economic downturn, and the AfD, like MAGA, promises a return to “the golden days,” which is of course a blatant lie, especially since the AfD is a neoliberal party that, like MAGA, exclusively pursues policies that benefit the super-rich - yet somehow people here don’t seem to see through this either.

        So I’m afraid we can’t help out, especially since the world today is a completely different place, if only because of nuclear weapons. Sorry :(

        I’m afraid I phrased that incorrectly: In Germany, the US president is despised by the vast majority of rational-minded people, but unfortunately there are also many completely brainless, hateful people here who vote for a party that stands for exactly the same Nazi bullshit.

  • BanMe@lemmy.world
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    “Dragged down by an unpopular president” makes it sound like he’s not the leader of the Republican party, he’s not fully in control, he’s not giving orders all the way down. “Intentionally torpedoed by its leader and self-anointed king” might be more accurate. But I digress.

    • InputZero@lemmy.world
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      And yet Democrats will still manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I am expect them to lose seats in the election.

  • Mulligrubs@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    It’s almost as if the incumbents are “trounced” every couple years or so.

    Why? Because we have two options attached to their corporate sponsors (i.e. they do what they are paid to do, please check out Super PACs).

    One corporate shill is religious flavored (the only reason they are still a viable party), the other corporate shill is secular, both do exactly as they are paid to do. These are not popular measures, so of course the incumbent is blamed, the scapegoat for their good cop/bad cop routine.

    There are so many “old reliables”, like the southern border, that chestnut has paid off so many times for decades.