Democrats need to be more than anti-Trump

Published July 29, 2025 12:01am ET



The Democratic Party may be planning to campaign against President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act “from now until November 2026,” but new polling shows it will need more than anti-Trump rhetoric to break up Republican control of the House and Senate next year.

Trump’s polling numbers may be underwater right now — the RealClearPolitics average shows 52% of people disapproving of his job as president compared to just 46% approving. But in 2017, the year before Democrats gained 41 House seats, flipping control of the chamber, Trump was much further behind, with 54% disapproving and just 40% approving. The 2017 deficit is more than double Trump’s current 6-point disapproval margin.

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