Trump 'failing' as hawkish team, tariffs bite: analyst — SkimNews
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- Trump's presidency is "failing" as of late September 2026, with the "vibe shift" evaporating, young voters swinging back to the left, and a House incumbent in a Trump +15 district distancing herself from his immigration policy.
- Trump's national security team — described as "extremely hawkish" and likely to lead to "hot war with Iran" — has "kind of wrecked Trump's presidency," the author argues, reprising what he sees as a Republican pattern of hawkish overreach.
- Trump's immigration enforcement has gone beyond jailhouse pickups to aggressive interior actions, stripping legal status, erroneous deportations, and cases where officials "literally killed American citizens without cause," though immigration remains among his better-polling issues.
- Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs triggered "massive market and political blowback" and a partial walkback, but he has since tried to rebuild them while carving out exemptions that keep the data center construction boom going.
- The "One Big Beautiful Bill" combined with tariffs is pushing up the cost of living — directly contradicting the affordability promise that won Trump the 2024 election.
- Senate races in Iowa, Texas, Alaska, and Kansas — states that "should not be in play" — are now competitive for Democrats, even as Republicans retain a "daunting cash advantage."
Why it matters: The author argues hawkish foreign policy — not just Trump's personal missteps — is structurally wrecking his presidency, reprising the Bush-era pattern where military overreach hurt economic performance. If he's right, competitive Senate races in Iowa, Texas, Alaska, and Kansas signal midterm opportunities Democrats didn't expect and that the post-2024 "vibe shift" narrative already overstated.
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