The latest approval numbers land like a verdict, but not a simple one. Trump’s second term has become a stress test for the entire political system: institutions, media, and voters all pulled into a cycle of outrage, loyalty, and fatigue. His fiercest supporters see the polls as meaningless, another weapon from a hostile establishment. His critics see them as long-delayed accountability for chaos and norm-breaking that never truly stopped after his first term ended.
Yet beneath the partisan noise lies something more fragile: a country that no longer shares a common story about what leadership should look like. The ratings don’t just measure Trump’s standing; they expose how exhausted and suspicious Americans have become of one another. Whether his numbers rebound or sink further, the deeper question is whether the nation can find any path back from this permanent state of siege.
