The Arrogance of Power, Trump-Style, Got Whacked on Tuesday
President Trump’s arrogance of power got whacked on Tuesday.
Voters across the country said a loud and powerful NO to President Trump, his performance and his party’s candidates. Voters said “basta.”
Democrats won everywhere and in races at all levels. They also overwhelmingly won a California redistricting initiative responding to Trump’s pressuring of Texas and other red states to redistrict in the middle of a decade – and in the process rig the 2026 congressional elections.
Recent polls have made it clear that the public and Tuesday’s voters are on the same page. Both are rejecting Trump’s policies and grabs for autocratic power.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos Poll found that by 64 to 30 percent, the American people believe Trump is going too far in his attempts to expand the power of the presidency. This poll also found that, by 59 to 41 percent, the American people disapprove of the job Trump is doing. That’s his highest job disapproval in this poll since January 2021.
Similarly, a CNN poll released this week found that, by 63 to 37 percent, the American people disapprove of Trump’s job performance; his highest numerical disapproval rating in this poll in either of his terms.
Given his repeated displays of arrogance, combined with his autocratic ways, it is not surprising that his disapproval ratings are so high.
With tens of millions of Americans suffering from the impact of the extended government shutdown, Trump fiddled away. He refused to lift a finger to try to solve this problem.
He has, however, put a great deal of time and effort into tending to his personal obsessions.
This arrogant tendency can be seen in the sudden destruction of the White House East Wing with no notice, after claiming, falsely, that it would not be touched.
It can be seen in his plan to build a huge ballroom to replace the East Wing that will dwarf the size of the rest of the White House, which is the people’s house, not Donald’s.
It can be seen in Trump’s “let them eat cake” Great Gatsby party at Mar-a-Lago for the wealthy and well-connected, launched mere hours before the government programs that children and others depend on for food lapsed: because of the government shutdown.
It can be seen in Trump “raising” more than $300 million to pay for his ballroom from major corporate interests, many of whom reportedly have billions in government contracts or are the subject of federal investigations. This is “pay to play” money that is infested with conflicts of interest.
Most starkly, Trump’s arrogance of power can be seen in his revenge campaign against his “opponents,” who he is subjecting to criminal investigations and prosecutions.
His approach to elections is no different. His pitch against the California redistricting initiative, which passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday, was to call it a “giant scam” and a process that is “rigged” against Republicans, with once again no evidence provided. Trump said that it is under “serious legal and criminal review.”
Trump invariably calls elections “rigged” that he doesn’t like. We can assume he will call the 2026 congressional elections rigged and try to steal them if necessary to prevent the Democrats from winning control of one or two chambers of Congress. We can also assume he will misuse the military and law enforcement agencies to carry out his attack on the elections.
But his grab for an authoritarian presidency is running into roadblocks – with the widespread defeat for Trump and his party on Tuesday just the latest one.
Lower court federal judges, appointed by Republican and Democratic presidents alike, have repeatedly ruled against Trump’s illegal moves. Even the Supreme Court majority’s subservience may come to end, at least temporarily, with the case challenging his tariff policies. Reports are that the Justices were skeptical at oral argument.
Most importantly, citizens throughout the country have stood up to challenge Trump. The No Kings rally last month that peacefully and vigorously protested Trump’s actions is likely the largest single-day protest in American history.
The scale of the Democrats’ victories on Tuesday for offices ranging from Governor to school board take the citizen concerns being expressed beyond polling.
Trump’s arrogance and autocratic ways will one day be confined to history. But when we celebrate the 250th anniversary of independence on July 4, 2026, our democracy and Constitution will remain firmly in place. They will also be there when Trump leaves office.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter, and other recent editions, here. And subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
