In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America.
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Focus → deliver → America
Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture.
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pieces → publish → picture
You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.
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You → find → pieces
Polymarket has the odds of President Donald Trump being impeached before his term ends at 70%.
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term → have → %
That feels low.
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That → feel → ?
Democrats appear ready to ride a tidal wave into the House, and their voters want vindication for their decadelong Trump monomania.
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voters → appear → monomania
They won’t wait out the clock politely; they’ll crack the whip and cleanse the temple.
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they → wait → temple
A new Center for Strategic Politics poll found that 77% of Democrats want Trump administration officials jailed, a majority would welcome Trump dying in his sleep, and 32% would cheer his assassination.
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% → find → assassination
If Democrats take the House, investigations and impeachment proceedings are certain.
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investigations → take → House
That’s less certain.
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That → ’ → ?
The good news for Trump is that the math hasn’t changed.
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math → change → Trump
Conviction in the Senate requires a two-thirds supermajority of the senators present.
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Conviction → require → senators
That means something like 17 to 20 Republicans will be needed to remove the president from office.
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Republicans → mean → office
But the politics surrounding the president are entirely different now.
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politics → surround → president
And the self-dealing of Trump’s second term will give Democrats plenty of ammo.
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dealing → give → ammo
Underwater and sinking
We’ll start with the politics.
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We → start → politics
Trump’s RealClearPolitics job approval average has dipped into the 30s, with six of the last seven polls showing him below 40%.
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polls → dip → %
His disapproval average sits right at 60%.
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average → sit → %
The last president to hit 60% disapproval on the RCP average was George W. Bush, who first reached the mark the summer before the 2006 midterm elections.
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who → hit → elections
Joe Biden’s average disapproval peaked at 58, and Trump never reached 60% disapproval in his first term — even after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
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Trump → peak → Capitol
A new CNN poll found that a staggering 72% of Americans now rate current economic conditions as “poor,” compared with only 28% who said the same at the midpoint of Trump’s first term.
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who → find → term
A new Wall Street Journal poll confirms the foul public mood on the economy, with 60 percent of voters saying that Trump’s policies have made the economy worse and only 25% saying they’ve made the economy better.
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economy → confirm → voters
Trump’s poor marks extend beyond the economy.
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marks → extend → economy
A new Fox News poll found that a clear majority believes Trump’s immigration enforcement policies have “gone too far,” erasing his long-standing advantage on his signature issue.
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policies → find → issue
That same poll found only 37% believe he’s handled foreign policy well — once another strength for the president.
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he → find → president
Numbers like these change behavior — even around a president who has spent a decade defying political gravity.
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who → change → gravity
Republicans are suddenly crossing Trump on the campaign trail and in the media.
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Republicans → cross → media
In recent days, three Midwestern Senate nominees broke with the president over the Iran war: Rep. Ashley Hinson (IA), former Rep. Mike Rogers (MI), and Sen. Jon Husted (OH).
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nominees → break → war
The GOP’s gubernatorial nominee in Wisconsin, Rep. Tom Tiffany, formerly a close Trump ally whom the president endorsed in the primary, called for the U.S. to leave Iran and focus on domestic issues.
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U.S. → endorse → issues
Tiffany even blasted the president over renaming the Great Lakes and beef tariffs.
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Tiffany → blast → Lakes
In Trump’s own home state of Florida, gubernatorial nominee Rep. Byron Donalds scrubbed mentions of the president from his website and openly criticized Trump’s plan to issue $5,000 “dividend” checks.
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Donalds → scrub → checks
Now the congressman is quietly putting some distance between them.
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congressman → put → them
There’s reason to suspect Trump will have little leverage left to plug these holes in the lame-duck stretch of his presidency.
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Trump → ’ → presidency
It is no longer a given that the benefit of Trump’s blessing outweighs the cost of appearing alongside him.
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benefit → give → him
On Tuesday, Washington Examiner executive editor Bob Cusack told CNN’s Laura Coates, “There’s going to be more of them…
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Cusack → tell → them
And I think the dam could break after the election.”
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dam → think → election
Should the president’s numbers continue to slip into the low 30s and even high 20s — a recent American Research Group poll pegged the president’s approval rating at a startling 29 percent — Republicans might begin to calculate, with an eye toward 2028, that their own fortunes would improve with Trump gone.
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Trump → continue → 2028
And Democrats will be more than happy to oblige.
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Democrats → oblige → ?
That calculation, of course, won’t be true in every case — in certain contexts and in certain pockets of America, Trump’s approval will remain valuable.
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approval → remain → America
Indeed, there are still contexts in which George W. Bush’s blessing is considered helpful.
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blessing → be → which
…and 19 more, not listed.
The Aporia
