PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s approval rating has hit an all-time low according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll. The survey found 62 per cent of Americans disapprove of the president’s performance while 63pc say the country is headed in the wrong direction. These are Trump’s worst numbers since he returned to the White House last year. The results align with findings of other polls, which show he has fallen out of favour with the majority of Americans. The slide isn’t just about an unpopular war with Iran. Trump’s management of the economy is also driving public discontent. The first 18 months of the mercurial leader’s second term have been defined by disruption at home and abroad. His ‘America First’ unilateralism has meant military strikes on multiple countries and upending of the global trading system. It reflects contempt for international law and other nations’ sovereignty. For a president who promised to end wars, not start them, his record is the opposite. Trump assumed American power could browbeat other countries into compliance at no cost to the US. That was a miscalculation. His overreliance on force also failed to produce the results he wanted. Trump may be extreme in his imperious, unilateralist ways but there is continuity with past US conduct in an important respect. Throughout its history of dealing with other nations, the US has underestimated the power of nationalism and the resistance it would meet in trying to force its will on others. It found that in its interventions in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, which entangled Washington in unwinnable wars, produced strategic blunders and doomed its military adventures. Today, it is finding that again in the war against Iran. Trump also doesn’t seem to understand that the unipolar world long passed into history. In today’s multipolar world, countries will not so easily bend to Washington’s will. Indeed, the more Trump makes blusterous claims and tweets about how he has the power to get what he wants, the more it exposes his inability to secure his goals. There is no shortage of commentary on Donald Trump’s personality and record. Two of the latest books are worth noting. Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan and Betrayed: America didn’t vote for this by Ira Shapiro and Anne Kim. Both cover the first year plus of Trump’s second presidency and deliver stinging indictments of his performance. Betrayed is written by a broad coalition of distinguished bipartisan experts from among former government officials, lawyers, scholars and journalists. They are members of what is called the Common Sense Coalition. They chronicle the damage Trump has done to his country and to America’s standing in the world. This damage assessment is undertaken across multiple areas — economy, foreign policy, democracy and free speech, judiciary, voting system, education and climate. The book’s main point is that Americans did not vote for what Trump is doing and the disorder he is producing. His abuses of power must be stopped and his team members held accountable if America’s crisis is to end. With his approval ratings having plunged Trump’s conduct has hardened global attitudes towards the US. Though brief the chapters are pointed. The one on a weaker America is especially sharp. It argues that Trump has fractured the foundations for global stability. His costly and impetuous military adventures without a strategy or respect for international law and his contempt for traditional allies have endangered US security. The authors describe an unchecked president dragging the country into multiple conflicts with scant regard for the fallout. The attack on Iran, they argue, lays bare the hallmarks of his foreign policy decision making — impulsiveness, prioritising force over diplomacy, failure to take rational decisions based on their likely impact and trashing the concerns of allies. They frame his National Security Strategy as a reversal of eight decades of US foreign policy. This has resulted in ‘America Weaker’ and ‘America Alone’ and drained its soft power. Its international stature has diminished. Trump has alienated virtually all allies who had helped the US maintain global peace. The authors also argue Trump has misused and politicised the military and packed it with yes-men afraid of telling him the truth. In the chapter on the rule of law the writers hold Trump guilty of violating limits on presidential power, threatening the integrity of courts and usurping Congressional powers. Core civil liberties have been threatened. He is seen as weaponising government machinery including the Justice Department to punish political opponents and suppress dissent. He has violated court orders and vilified judges while shielding his friends from legal accountability. Regime Change is no less scathing about Trump’s record in office. Its subtitle Inside the imperial presidency of Donald Trump indicates its focus is on the inner workings of the White House. It is a riveting, richly sourced account of the chaos wreaked by a president who has acted with impunity and radically changed the office he occupies. It narrates how efforts have been made to stop Trump but failed. Based on over 1,000 interviews, it takes the readers behind the scenes to offer insights into Trump’s decision-making that has been so consequential and of course harmful for the country. How his team fell in line with his decisions even when they strongly disagreed is exemplified by a telling exchange between Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu during his February visit to Washington when he convinced Trump to attack Iran. The Israeli leader assured Trump that regime change would succeed in Iran and its nuclear capability would be destroyed, before Tehran could seize the Strait of Hormuz. The CIA director rubbished this view while the secretary of state called it “farcical”. But Trump prevailed. Trump’s conduct has hardened global attitudes toward the US. Friends, allies and adversaries view the erratic swings in American policy with alarm. The latest poll by the Pew Research Centre captures the shift. China is viewed more favourably than the US in most countries surveyed. Given the turbulence of the past 18 months, that result is hardly unexpected. The writer is a former ambassador to the US, UK and UN. Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2026