Trump faces mounting setbacks as doubts grow over his second term

Trump turned 80 on June 10 with a familiar show of force from the White House, but the machinery around him looked less dependable than it did at the start of his term. Courts have pushed back on parts of his agenda, his effort to wind down the war with Iran has stalled, and his approval ratings have softened enough to revive talk in Washington that his second term may be entering lame-duck territory.

The latest signs of strain have come from Republicans, not just Democrats. In one week, lawmakers rebuked Trump’s war against Iran, rejected $1 billion tied to a White House ballroom project, forced a retreat on a $1.8 billion Justice Department anti-weaponization fund, and blocked domestic spying legislation. The House also passed a bill to provide aid to Ukraine and impose new sanctions on Russia, a move headed for a Trump veto. Thom Tillis has said lawmakers are more likely to vote the way their constituents want as Election Day approaches, a warning sign for any president who needs party discipline to keep his agenda moving. Abigail Jackson, the White House spokeswoman, said reports of divisions were overstated and insisted the administration looked forward to continuing a close relationship with Congress.

The pushback has extended beyond Capitol Hill. Federal courts have blocked Trump in a number of cases, and hundreds of lawsuits have piled up against his second administration. The administration said it would comply with a federal judge’s order temporarily blocking the anti-weaponization fund, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune was weighing whether to strip nearly $1.5 billion in Justice Department funding to salvage the larger reconciliation bill. On trade, Trump is still trying to recover from a major legal blow after the Supreme Court struck down his first tariff strategy less than four months ago. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials are now searching for a way to process refunds for tens of billions of dollars in tariffs the court deemed illegal.

Trump’s weakness in the polls is sharpening those limits. A June 3-8 survey put his approval at about 35 percent, near a career low, and the numbers on inflation, gas prices, border security and immigration have remained underwater. That makes Republicans more attentive to local pressure just as midterm races begin to define the rest of his presidency.

Even so, Trump is far from powerless. He helped drive out Republican incumbents who crossed him, including John Cornyn, who lost his Texas Senate primary to Ken Paxton by 27 points after Trump endorsed Paxton. PBS News also documented Trump’s role in sidelining or endangering Bill Cassidy, Brad Raffensperger and several Indiana Republicans. That mix of hard limits and enduring fear is the defining fact of his second term: Trump still dominates the political conversation, but his governing margin is getting thinner.