Year 2025 turned Trump's biggest strength against him

As usual when Donald Trump occupies the White House, 2025 condensed a decade's worth of political upheaval into a single year.

- Ronald Brownstein, Tribune News Service

Identifying the most important of those developments is like picking through the wreckage to find a few family heirlooms after a tornado has torn through the neighbourhood.But in the swarm of conflicts, controversies, personnel changes, policy reversals, legal battles, feuds and shifting alliances, several dynamics emerged this year that are most likely to shape the electoral landscape in 2026, 2028 and beyond.

Of those key developments, the most significant was the collapse of faith in Donald Trump's ability to manage the economy. In virtually every survey during Trump's first term, more people approved than disapproved of his handling of the economy. Moreover, his approval rating on the economy almost always exceeded his overall job performance rating, which meant that confidence in his economic agenda was a floor bolstering his support no matter which other controversies engulfed him.