Listen closely to the claim Donald Trump keeps making: he says he is making history. He says his second term is a triumph for the ages, a political resurrection that silenced doubters and proved that only he could bend the country back to greatness. In rally speeches and social posts, the message is unwavering—this presidency is a roaring comeback, a vindication, a reckoning for everyone who ever questioned him.
But the numbers tell a colder, far less flattering story.
Instead of a nation swept up in momentum, the country appears stalled in uncertainty—frozen between loyalty and fatigue, belief and disbelief. A new AP–NORC poll cuts through the bravado and exposes the quiet reality beneath the noise: America remains deeply skeptical, sharply divided, and unconvinced that Trump’s second act has delivered on its promises.
This term was marketed as a redemption arc. Trump framed it as his chance to prove that chaos was actually strategy, that disruption inevitably leads to results. Tariffs were sold as toughness. Immigration crackdowns as order restored. Aggressive foreign policy moves as proof that America was feared again. Again and again, he cast himself as a misunderstood strongman battling corrupt elites on behalf of “real Americans.”
Yet the public response has barely budged. Only about four in ten adults approve of his performance—virtually unchanged since early 2025. The needle refuses to move, no matter how loudly victory is declared.
Behind the speeches about record wins and historic strength lies a harsher verdict. Majorities disapprove of his handling of the economy, uneasy about rising costs and instability. Immigration policies, despite their severity, have not produced widespread confidence. Foreign policy is viewed with suspicion, trade with frustration. Even on the issues Trump insists define his greatness, the public remains unconvinced.
What stands out most is not collapse, but stagnation. His base is still fiercely loyal—almost immovable in its devotion—but it is not expanding. The coalition that carried him back to power has hardened into a fixed block, while the rest of the country watches from a distance, arms crossed, waiting for proof that never quite arrives.
This is the central drama of Trump’s second term: a president loudly proclaiming historic triumph while most of the nation quietly, stubbornly, refuses to believe him. The story he tells about himself and the story the country tells about him no longer intersect. And in that widening gap—between rhetoric and reality, between declared greatness and measured doubt—lies the unresolved tension of his presidency.
