Reports from Washington suggest the Republican Party has at last become concerned about Donald Trump’s deepening unpopularity and the party’s prospects in November’s midterm elections. It has taken a long time for them to wake up and smell the coffee.

Opinion polls suggest near-record levels of unpopularity for Trump’s presidency and growing dissatisfaction among voters with the administration’s handling of nearly every big issue.

More worrying to them are the stated priorities of those polled. Issues such as immigration and crime have fallen in importance compared with the state of the economy. There is no sign of the golden age promised by Trump at his inauguration 18 months ago. Inflation is stubbornly high. Gasoline prices have ballooned. Trump’s tariffs have not created a protectionist boom. Those in work face huge “cost-of-living” issues. The AI stock market boom – or bubble? – may be making the rich richer on paper. But middle America is feeling the pinch and losing economic confidence.

Trump’s disastrous involvement in Binyamin Netanyahu’s war in the Middle East has turned out to be a vote loser back home. It has ruptured Trump’s credibility in middle America. Repeated claims to have destroyed Iran’s military capacity have been exposed as threadbare........

© The Irish Times