President Donald Trump is reportedly tired of being warned about his policies and dire poll numbers and is turning the conversation to golf.
Mark Mitchell, chief pollster for conservative polling firm Rasmussen Reports, spoke with the president at the White House and warned Trump that he would lose support from his Make America Great Again base in a second term.
According to the Washington Post, Vice President Vance invited Mitchell to the White House in the hope that he could get an outsider’s perspective on how the public views his presidency.
President Donald Trump golfed in Scotland during another trip in July. /Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The invitation comes as polls repeatedly show Trump’s approval rating at record lows and amid growing concerns that the 79-year-old is not focused on improving the lives of tens of millions of Americans struggling with a cost-of-living crisis and abandoning his “America First” agenda.
Mitchell told The Washington Post that while Trump initially listened to his concerns and asked questions, the president eventually turned the conversation to golf. That included praising his two golfing buddies — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Fox News host Bret Baier — and bragging about how much money he had just raised at Graham’s golf fundraiser.
“He’s not as interested as I would have liked him to be in terms of us talking about an economic populist message,” Mitchell said.
Polls have consistently shown that Trump faces a backlash from voters for downplaying or outright denying the economic hardship millions of Americans will experience during his second term. Last week, Trump appeared at a rally in Pennsylvania to try to convince voters that his economic policies were working, but again called concerns about “affordability” a Democratic “hoax.”
Days later, an Associated Press-NORC poll found that only 31% of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, a record low for the president and down 9 points since March.
Even the latest poll from the Trump-friendly Rasmussen Reports shows a majority of likely voters (51%) disapprove of the president’s job performance.
Pollsters tell Donald Trump he said “fight, fight, fight” immediately after the Butler shooting but “no one has clarified what that meant”. /Rebecca Drock/AFPGetty Images
Concerns are growing that Trump’s declining support among his base could have devastating consequences for the Republican Party in next year’s midterm elections, with the party already facing an uphill battle to retain control of the House and even the Senate.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Mitchell said he told Trump he had lost momentum and goodwill from supporters following an assassination attempt on him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
“You say, ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ But no one has clarified what that means,” Mitchell said, referring to the defiant raised-fist gesture Trump made immediately after the shooting. “Right now, you’re fighting for Marjorie Taylor Greene, not for Americans.”
Trump has been feuding with Marjorie Taylor Greene. /Evelyn Hochstein/Reuters
Mitchell added that he warned Trump at a White House meeting in November that many supporters believed he had failed to “drain the swamp in Washington” and that his supporters wanted to see the 79-year-old “smash an oligarchy, not become an oligarchy”.
“Building billionaire-funded dance halls, jet-setting around the world and touting trillion-dollar investment deals looks a lot like the stuff of an oligarchy,” Mitchell said.
Savannah Hernandez, a conservative commentator and contributor to Turning Point USA, also said Trump has become too focused on foreign policy, especially his desperate efforts to win the Nobel Peace Prize during his second term.
“When Americans see billions of dollars going overseas to any country, while we’re struggling at home, it really feels like a betrayal,” Hernandez told The Washington Post.
Two senior White House officials told the newspaper that Trump receives feedback on his performance “almost daily,” including criticism from Make America Great Again voices.
In a statement, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt described Trump as the “proud founder and undisputed leader” of MAGA and “the greatest political movement in American history.”
“President Trump is fully delivering on his core campaign promises, keeping his word to the nearly 80 million patriots who overwhelmingly elected him, and fighting every day to make America stronger than ever,” she said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Vance’s office for comment.
