In yet another indication that things Trump touch turn to dross is his much-touted ballroom.

Even Republicans avoided a vote on the measure for the $1 billion Trump wants for security for his ballroom leaving the whole project up in the air.

According to Strength in Numbers, the G. Elliott Morris Substack, reports that 68% of respondents oppose spending $1 billion on the ballroom. 57% oppose it strongly and only.  21% support it.

86% of Democrats strongly oppose the spending.  52% of Independents strongly oppose the ballroom plan and 9% somewhat oppose it. Only 20% of Republicans strongly support it and 22% somewhat support it.

They all also seem to have remembered that Trump promised the ballroom would be paid for entirely by private donors.

Perhaps more importantly Republican Senators have sniffed the breeze and are having serious doubts about the project and have gone into recess without voting on funding.

Consumer confidence is also falling. The latest Gallup Economic Confidence Index – a measure of how Americans feel about the economy – has plummeted with consumer confidence at a negative 45% – the third straight drop in a row.

Morris said sentiment is now just below the previous historical trough seen in June 2022.

“The cost of living continues to be a first-order concern, with 57% of consumers spontaneously mentioning that high prices were eroding their personal finances, up from 50% last month”, he said.

“Lower-income consumers and those without college degrees posted particularly strong sentiment declines; these groups are more sensitive to increases in the cost of gas and other essentials. Independents and Republicans saw decreases in sentiment, with both groups reaching their lowest readings of the current presidential administration.”

He also pointed out that consumers appear worried that inflation will increase and proliferate beyond fuel prices.

What is particularly relevant to Trump now, he said, is that Trump won on the support of inroads into traditional Democrat supporters. He is now losing them.

Trump won in 2024 because voters who were traditionally disinterested low engagement working class men thought Trump would give them economic reef.

Meanwhile, the latest New York Times poll shows that political independents favour Democrats in Congressional races by 18% and Americans who didn’t vote in the 2024 election give the Democrats a 31% margin – should have, could have, didn’t and now regretting it.

Back in 2024 Independents split 48-48 between Trump and Harris. Now Democrat House candidates are leading by 17%.

Morris said: “But for now, the big hidden story in all this new polling is that persuadable Americans of 2024 have turned on Trump and his unpopular agenda, and on Republicans in the race for the House.

Morris also suggested that the big takeaways from recent polling are: Nobody likes Trump and his net rating makes him the most unpopular President at this point in modern history; he is underwater in roughly 40 states including big Republican ones such a Georgia, Florida and Texas.

Something totally apparent to everyone but hard core MAGA supporters is that the public is losing confidence on Trump’s mental fitness.  61% (including 30% of Republicans) think Trump has become erratic with age and only 45% call him mentally sharp enough for the job.

Pew Research found that only 32% are extremely or very considerably confident that he is “mentally sharp”.

Biden’s ratings on these measures were worse at the same stage, but the trend suggests Trump is catching up.

Trump’s big pitch was on prices and inflation. Yet now he is underwater by 40% and the Iran war and the impacts on petrol prices is not helping his ratings on affordability.

As Morris concludes – the trend is not Trump’s friend.

Meanwhile Trump’s devotion to being the grifter in chief as well as the Commander in Chief is still very, very strong as indicated by the massive rort over reimbursement for investigations of his tax dodges. Sadly ,for Trump (not really) Senators have decided that it’s a good time to take a break and not devote time to the Trump proposal to nix the investigation.

Morris’ research also showed that 64% of Americans says the war in Iran was not worth the cost and that 48% said the US should never have gone to war in the first place.

However, Trump’s net approval was positive on one measure – on border security – where Trump was plus 1%. It was the only area where he was not underwater.