We’ve Officially Entered the Twilight of Late-Stage Trumpism

It’s all there in a new CNN poll, and it’s heartening to see: Large majorities are sick of Donald Trump’s vanity, venality, and megalomania.

No one has ever seen anything like it, as Donald Trump himself might say. Buried in a new CNN poll is something striking: Trump isn’t just cratering by conventional approval measurements; he’s also absolutely collapsing by many metrics involving personal traits, from his mental state to his disconnectedness from ordinary people to his fondness for building monuments to himself.

Welcome to the era of Late-Stage Trumpism. The “personalist” aspects of Trumpian rule—the shaping of much of the government and even the physical capital of Washington, D.C., around one man’s relentless self-dealing and self-aggrandizement—have all started imploding in on themselves, in a collapsing supernova of venality and megalomania.

The CNN poll finds that only 34 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, matching the low point he hit after inciting a violent insurrection on January 6, 2021. Here are some striking findings on his personal traits and obsessions:

73 percent say Trump is not in touch with the problems that ordinary Americans face daily; only 27 percent say he is.

66 percent say Trump does not put the good of the country over his personal gain; only 34 percent say he does.

62 percent say Trump is not an effective world leader; only 38 percent say he is.

57 percent say Trump does not have the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president; only 43 percent say he does.

64 percent say Trump has gone too far in pursuing his personal business as president; only 31 percent say this has been about right.

61 percent say Trump has gone too far in undertaking projects to remodel the White House and other Washington landmarks; only 32 percent say he hasn’t.

That’s remarkable. Note that the poll uses very benign language to describe Trump’s unilateral........

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