President Donald Trump has apparently grown tired of being admonished about his policies and dire polling numbers and has instead shifted the conversation to golf.
Mark Mitchell, chief pollster at conservative polling firm Rasmussen Reports, spoke to the president at the White House and warned Trump that he was losing support in his MAGA base during his second term.
Mitchell was invited to the White House by Vice President JD Vance in hopes of giving Trump an outside perspective on how the public views his presidency, The Washington Post reported.
President Donald Trump is playing golf in Scotland in July during another trip abroad. / Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The invitation came as polls repeatedly showed Trump posting dismal numbers and record low approval ratings, amid growing concerns that the 79-year-old is not focusing on improving the lives of tens of millions of Americans facing a cost-of-living crisis and abandoning his “America First” agenda.
Mitchell told the Post that while Trump initially listened to his concerns and asked questions, the president eventually changed the subject to golf. That included bragging about two of his golf buddies — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Fox News host Bret Baier — and bragging about how much money he just raised at a golf fundraiser for Graham.
“As much as we were talking about the message of economic populism, he wasn’t as interested as I would have hoped,” Mitchell said.
Polls have consistently suggested Trump faces a backlash from voters for downplaying — or outright denying — that millions of Americans are facing financial hardship during his second term. Last week, Trump appeared at a rally in Pennsylvania to try to convince voters that his economic policies are working, but instead once again labeled concerns about “affordability” as a Democratic “scam.”
Days later, an AP-NORC poll found that just 31 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s handling of the economy, a record low for the president and a nine-point drop from March.
Even the latest Trump-friendly Rasmussen Reports poll shows a majority of likely voters (51 percent) disapprove of the president’s performance.
Pollsters told Donald Trump that he said “Fight, fight, fight” immediately after Butler’s shooting, but “nobody ever clarified what that meant.” / Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images
There are growing fears that the erosion of Trump’s support in his base could have devastating consequences for Republicans in next year’s term, where the GOP already faces an uphill battle to retain control of the House and possibly the Senate.
Speaking to the Post, Mitchell said he told Trump he had lost the momentum and goodwill he had gained from supporters following the July 2024 assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“You said, ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ But no one has ever clarified what that means,” Mitchell said, referring to Trump’s defiant fist-raising gesture immediately after the shooting. “And right now, you’re fighting Marjorie Taylor Greene, and you’re not fighting for Americans.”
Trump fought Marjorie Taylor Greene. / Evelyn Hockstein / Reuters
Mitchell added that he warned Trump during the White House meeting in November that many supporters believe he has failed to “drain the swamp” in Washington and that his base wants to see the 79-year-old “breaking the oligarchy, not being the oligarchy.”
“Building ballrooms financed by billionaires, jet-setting around the world and promoting trillion-dollar investment deals is very much the stuff of the oligarchy,” Mitchell said.
Savanah Hernandez, a conservative commentator and contributor to Turning Point USA, also suggested that Trump is becoming overly focused on foreign policy, particularly his desperate efforts to secure a Nobel Peace Prize during his second term.
“When Americans see billions of dollars going overseas to any country, it really feels like a betrayal when we’re struggling here at home,” Hernandez told the Post.
Two senior White House officials told the newspaper that Trump receives feedback on his performance, including criticism from MAGA-aligned voices, on an “almost daily basis.”
In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described Trump as the “proud founder and undisputed leader” of MAGA and “the greatest political movement in American history.”
“President Trump is delivering on his core campaign promises, keeping his word to the nearly 80 million patriots who elected him in a landslide and fighting every day to make America greater than ever,” she said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Vance’s office for comment.