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Trump’s Approval Sinks Amid Unpopular War, Darkening G.O.P. Prospects
NEW YORK TIMES ^ | https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/18/us/ | LISA LERRER

Posted on 05/19/2026 5:12:49 AM PDT by hcmama

Most voters think President Trump made the wrong decision to go to war with Iran, a New York Times/Siena poll found, leaving the Republican Party on rocky political footing heading into the midterm elections as his approval rating sinks and economic concerns rise.

Majorities of voters said that the war was not worth the costs and held deeply pessimistic views about the economy.

Mr. Trump’s approval rating — a key historical predictor of how a president’s party will fare in an election — has sunk to a second-term low in Times/Siena polls of 37 percent amid the deeply unpopular Middle East conflict. _____

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Iran; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 123oclock4oclockzot; aipacfailure; antifaonfr; bibiswar; camillebaker; concerntroll; concerntrolling; darkening; fakenews; fakepolls; hcmamaislisalerer; hcmamdani; ibtz; learnhowtopost; lisalerer; miriamsmillions4war; newyorkslimes; panicporn; rop; ruthigielnik; tds; tdstrolls; terroristloversonfr; thewallsareclosingin; threeauthors; trump; trumpmidterms; worldwar3; zot

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The same poll shows Democrats with an 11-point lead on the generic ballot for the mid-terms
1 posted on 05/19/2026 5:12:49 AM PDT by hcmama
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To: hcmama

Typical trash from the Always Fake “news”. No wonder they are the NY Slimes.


2 posted on 05/19/2026 5:15:18 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: hcmama

Pretty sure if you’re a pollster and you’re working for the NY Slimes... You know from the get go that they don’t want any polls favorable towards Trump.


3 posted on 05/19/2026 5:16:43 AM PDT by jerod (Nazis were essentially Socialist in Hugo Boss uniforms... Get over it!)
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To: hcmama

why do you post this slime??


4 posted on 05/19/2026 5:17:38 AM PDT by LurkingSince'98 (Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam = FOR THE GREATER GLORY OF GOD)
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To: hcmama

I don’t think approval is sinking because of an unpopular war.

I think it’s because he keeps stalling. Saying “I’ll give you two weeks” every two weeks for months is damaging his cred. It’s very disappointing.


5 posted on 05/19/2026 5:18:57 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam ( "Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away". - B. Franklin)
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To: hcmama

LMAO Times/Siena poll, you mean the one that had Hitlary at 95% chance of winning, the one that showed Kamal Kakula was going to win.

Talk about bottom of the barrel cope. I get it we all cope sometimes but seriously, ease up on the copium.


6 posted on 05/19/2026 5:19:19 AM PDT by Skwor
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To: LurkingSince'98

She’s the enemy inside the gates.


7 posted on 05/19/2026 5:19:45 AM PDT by Sirius Lee ("Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.)
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To: hcmama

All the Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil are done by drone, often from over 1,000 miles away.

Israel could copy Ukrainian tactics.


8 posted on 05/19/2026 5:19:51 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (Ask your Congressman to tax tariff refunds at 100% & > ~$350 to each insured vehicle owner 4 gas)
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To: hcmama

HEY! Where’s the barf alert????


9 posted on 05/19/2026 5:21:06 AM PDT by 13Sisters76 ("It is amazing how many people mistake a certain hip snideness for sophistication. " Thos. Sowell)
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To: jerod
Except it's not just The New York Times.

Here is the RCP average for Trump's approval ratings. He is now under 40%:


10 posted on 05/19/2026 5:21:51 AM PDT by hcmama (Love that guy.)
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To: hcmama

Trump’s biggest mistake was the “ceasefire”. He should have finished them off. Instead he’s gone halfway and is stuck in endless threatening and hollow Truth Social posts and persistent inaction.


11 posted on 05/19/2026 5:21:56 AM PDT by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: hcmama

Polls showing Republicans doing well = lots of cheers, “great polling”.

Polls showing Republicans getting slammed = “bad polls…faked polling…blah blah blah”

If Trump had stuck to his campaign promises to avoid forever wars championed by neocons, we’d be cruising to a strong midterm election.

Spin all you want. Gas at $4.50/gallon as the “price we have to pay” for bombing a pissant country 7,000 miles from Maine is a bad look.


12 posted on 05/19/2026 5:22:32 AM PDT by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s²)
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To: MayflowerMadam

Every two-week delay costs the American public about $6 billion in petroleum costs alone.


13 posted on 05/19/2026 5:22:36 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (Ask your Congressman to tax tariff refunds at 100% & > ~$350 to each insured vehicle owner 4 gas)
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To: LurkingSince'98

Trump’s approval ratings are objectively bad across all metrics. His war with Iran is overwhelmingly unpopular. Should we act like these facts do not exist?


14 posted on 05/19/2026 5:23:12 AM PDT by hcmama (Love that guy.)
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To: hcmama

Why doesn’t the Jew York Times realize that Trump is the last friend they’ve got?


15 posted on 05/19/2026 5:26:32 AM PDT by Wilderness Conservative (Death to the DEATH TO AMERICA, Democrats.)
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To: DoodleBob
If Trump had stuck to his campaign promises to avoid forever wars championed by neocons, we’d be cruising to a strong midterm election.

100% agree. This is what turning over your administration to Lindsey Graham, Mark Levin, and the tech bros looks like.

16 posted on 05/19/2026 5:26:43 AM PDT by hcmama (Love that guy.)
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To: DoodleBob

US consumers are paying about $30/more per barrel and the US uses about 17 million barrels a day.

That’s $510 million/day, the cost of several brand-new tankers filled with oil.

Congress could authorize Trump to use $1 billion to buy tankers stranded in the Gulf, fill them with crude, and have US Navy sailors run them through the Strait (or send them through by remote control or autopilot). A helicopter could be on each tanker in transit in case the crew needs to come off.

Congress could authorize Trump to have another 60 days if:
1. any US vessel is attacked while passing through the international waters of the Persian Gulf or the waters of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Oman,
2. an Iranian vessel, missile or torpedo enters the waters or airspace claimed by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Oman within four miles of a US vessel,
3. an Iranian vessel fails to promptly and harmlessly sail to Iranian coastal waters when signaled by US military flare.

The US tankers are unlikely to be attacked. Does anybody here think Iranian thugs want Trump to have another 60 days to whack them?

There is a way to drop oil and gas prices fast.


17 posted on 05/19/2026 5:27:20 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (Ask your Congressman to tax tariff refunds at 100% & > ~$350 to each insured vehicle owner 4 gas)
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To: hcmama

Think what seals the deal with old Trump is his comments about not caring how people are hurting due to his mindless Iran mess...


18 posted on 05/19/2026 5:32:13 AM PDT by dpetty121263
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To: hcmama

November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran — taking 66 Americans hostage in a 444-day standoff.
April 1983: The Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.
October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel — including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel — in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.
March 1984: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut, ultimately killing him the following year.
September 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 23 innocent people — including two American service members — in a car bomb attack at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut.
December 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 en route to Pakistan, diverting it to Tehran — where they brutally tortured and killed two American officials.
June 1985: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked TWA Flight 847 on its way from Athens to Rome, torturing a U.S. Navy diver before shooting him point blank in the head and tossing his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac.
July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him the previous year while serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
April 1995: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists killed eight people — including one American citizen — in a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip.
August 1995: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers, and wounding more than 100 others.
February 1996: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up another bus in Jerusalem, killing three Americans and wounding three other Americans.
March 1996: A suicide bomber linked to the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups killed 20 people — including two Americans — in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv shopping center.
May 1996: Iran-backed terrorists killed an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounded another American citizen in the West Bank.
June 1996: Iran-backed Hezbollah Al-Hijaz terrorists killed 19 U.S. Airmen and wounded nearly 500 others in a truck bombing at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.
September 1997: Iran-backed Hamas suicide bombers blew themselves up at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounding seven other American citizens.
August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people — including a dozen American citizens.
August 2001: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing three Americans.
January 2002: An Iran-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist killed an American-Israeli dual citizen in the West Bank.
July 2002: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist killed five Americans in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
June 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber killed 17 people — including an American citizen — on a bus in Jerusalem.
October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Committees terrorists killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza.
Between 2003 and 2011: Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq — “roughly one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.”
August 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American.
August 2006: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed American citizen and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Michael Levin during the Second Lebanon War — the only American to die in the conflict.
January 2007: A dozen men affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others in Karbala, Iraq, after disguising themselves as U.S. soldiers and entering the Provincial Joint Coordination Center.
March 2007: Former FBI Agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, likely dying in an Iranian prison.
July 2014: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed two American citizens serving in the IDF.
October 2015: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed an American citizen and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.
December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. service members in a rocket attack at K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq.
January 2020: 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.
September 2020: U.S. intelligence indicated the Iranian regime was considering a plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.
February 2021: An Iran-backed militia fired a rocket at coalition forces in Erbil, Iraq, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors.
July 2021: Iranian-backed militias wounded two U.S. service members in a series of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.
September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack killed an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.
November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad.
March 2023: An Iranian drone attack killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another contractor in a strike on a coalition base in Syria.
October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7th massacre.
December 2023: Iran-backed militias wounded three U.S. service members in an attack on Erbil Air Base in Iraq.
January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40 other service members in a drone attack against the Tower 22 military base in Jordan.
Between October 2023 and November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, wounding more than 180 U.S. service members and killing three service members.
November 2024: An Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged for plotting to assassinate President Trump.
June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked at least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/releases/2026/03/the-iranian-regimes-decades-of-terrorism-against-american-citizens/

Iranians and Muslims will fight “forever” wars until your knees are on a carpet five times a day.


19 posted on 05/19/2026 5:33:06 AM PDT by Brian Griffin (Ask your Congressman to tax tariff refunds at 100% & > ~$330 to each insured vehicle owner 4 gas)
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To: dpetty121263

And then saying it was a “perfect statement.”


20 posted on 05/19/2026 5:33:22 AM PDT by hcmama (Love that guy.)
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