President Donald Trump reportedly grew bored of being warned about his policies and dire polling numbers and instead shifted the conversation to golf.
Mark Mitchell, head pollster at the conservative polling firm Rasmussen Reports, spoke with the president at the White House and warned Trump that he is losing support among his MAGA base during his second term.
Mitchell was invited to the White House by Vice President JD Vance in the hope that he would offer Trump an outsider’s perspective on how the public views his presidency, The Washington Post reported.
The invitation came as polling has repeatedly shown Trump recording bleak numbers and record-low approval ratings, amid growing concerns that the 79-year-old is not focused on improving the lives of tens of millions of Americans, who are struggling with 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 praising two of his golf buddies—South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Fox News host Bret Baier—and bragging about how much money he had just raised at a golf fundraiser for Graham.
“To the extent that we were talking about the economic populism message, he wasn’t as interested as I would have hoped,” Mitchell said.
Polling has consistently suggested that Trump is facing backlash from voters for downplaying—or outright denying—that millions of Americans are experiencing 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” a Democratic “hoax.”
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 since March.
Even the latest survey from the Trump-friendly Rasmussen Reports shows that a majority of likely voters (51 percent) disapprove of the president’s job performance.
There are growing fears that Trump’s erosion of support among his base could have devastating consequences for Republicans in next year’s midterms, 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 gained from supporters following the assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
“You said, ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ But nobody ever clarified what that means,” Mitchell said, referring to the defiant fist-raising gesture Trump made in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. “And right now, you’re fight-fight-fighting Marjorie Taylor Greene, and not actually fight-fight-fighting for Americans.”
Mitchell added that he warned Trump during the November White House meeting that many supporters believe he has failed to “drain the swamp” in Washington, and that his base wants to see the 79-year-old “smash the oligarchy, not be the oligarchy.”
“Building billionaire-funded ballrooms, jet-setting around the world, and touting trillion-dollar investment deals looks a lot like oligarchy stuff,” Mitchell said.
Conservative commentator and Turning Point USA contributor Savanah Hernandez 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 a “near-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 across the board, 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 before,” she said.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Vance’s office for comment.
