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Trump: Iran asked me to be Supreme Leader, but I said no thanks

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‘Men need to be perp-walked’ after Epstein files release, Massie tells BBC

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Buried.News

The stories buried under the noise

Primary focus

Trump fires Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary

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The Trump gold coin is not normal : Consider This from NPR

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Featured

White House Confronted Over Huge Bets Made Minutes Before Trump’s Big War Move

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Trump weakest president this century: CNN polling expert

A president enters the State of the Union with historically low approval, testing the governing norm that public accountability and midterm exposure restrain executive overreach when legitimacy frays.

Media & Narrative

Feb 24, 2026

Sources

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-weakest-president-century-cnn-polling-poll-11572274

Summary

A CNN/SSRS poll conducted February 17–20, 2026 found President Donald Trump at 36% approval and 63% disapproval, a net approval of minus 27 points heading into the State of the Union. That places a sitting president’s pre-address standing at the lowest level for this point in a second term this century, with independents driving much of the collapse. The practical consequence is a weakened governing position heading into midterms, with fewer political margins for legislative fights and party turnout risk.

Reality Check

A collapsing approval margin this deep concentrates power incentives inside the executive branch, because a weakened president can treat institutions as obstacles instead of constraints, and our rights are the first casualty when governance becomes survival politics. Nothing described here is likely criminal—polling and political messaging are not offenses under federal law—but it is a flashing warning that legitimacy can erode without any formal breach of statute. When independents swing to minus 47 and the White House answers by insisting the “ultimate poll” already happened, it signals a posture that elevates election-day victory over continuous democratic accountability. That posture doesn’t violate a criminal code; it corrodes the norm that presidents must govern through persuasion and consent rather than dismissing ongoing public consent as irrelevant.

Detail

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten cited a CNN/SSRS poll fielded February 17–20, 2026, surveying 2,496 respondents with a ±2.5 percentage-point margin of error, showing President Donald Trump at 36% approval and 63% disapproval ahead of his State of the Union address.

The result yields a net approval of minus 27 points. Enten compared that figure to Trump’s pre–State of the Union standing in 2018, 2019, and 2020, when he was roughly 10 to 15 points underwater, and to other presidents at a similar point in their second terms: Barack Obama at about minus 15 and George W. Bush at about minus 11.

Enten also highlighted Trump’s net approval among independents at minus 47, described as his weakest with that group across both terms, compared with minus 13 a year earlier. The White House, through spokesperson Davis Ingle, responded by emphasizing the 2024 election outcome and asserting Trump’s political dominance. Trump said at a White House event that he has “silent support.”