Trump faces slipping approval as GOP pushback grows on vanity projects

Donald Trump is pressing ahead with some of his most personal and least popular ambitions even as his political standing softens. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released May 19 found his approval rating at 35%, near its lowest point since he returned to the White House, while new polling showed Americans rejecting several of his marquee projects by wide margins.

The backlash has been especially sharp over the White House itself. An ABC News, Washington Post and Ipsos poll found Americans opposed tearing down the White House East Wing to build a ballroom by about 2-to-1. The same survey found even stronger resistance to a proposed 250-foot arch and to putting Trump’s signature on paper money, with the currency idea opposed by more than 5-to-1. Democrats have seized on the ballroom plan as proof that Republicans are out of step with voters worried about affordability, a message designed to tie Trump’s taste for spectacle to kitchen-table costs.

Trump’s appetite for sweeping gestures has not been limited to architecture. On May 21, a federal commission approved his triumphal arch project after receiving roughly 1,600 public comments, with only one reportedly favoring the design without major changes. That kind of overwhelming negative response has done little to slow Trump’s push, but it has given opponents a vivid symbol of excess at a moment when many Americans are still focused on prices, wages and basic stability.

The pushback is now coming from Republicans as well as Democrats. Senate Republicans abandoned plans on May 21 to vote on an immigration-enforcement funding bill after a revolt over Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund for victims of government abuse. Some Republican lawmakers have criticized the fund as politically damaging and out of touch, a warning sign for a party that has often bent to Trump’s priorities but is not always eager to absorb the electoral cost.

The broader political weather is turning colder too. Recent polling has pointed to weakness on the economy, inflation, immigration and Iran, areas that once helped Trump project strength. Even among evangelicals, whose support has been crucial to his coalition, there are signs of fatigue and doubt. His core base remains loyal, but the widening gap between Trump’s governing ambition and his approval numbers is becoming harder to ignore. Whether that gap reflects strategic defiance or a misread mandate, it is starting to constrain the political machine around him.