NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - FEBRUARY 09: U.S. President Donald Trump attends the Super Bowl LIX Pregame at Caesars Superdome on February 09, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

There are a number of you who simply don’t agree with me about the role of public opinion in the battle against Trumpism, which I sketched out in yesterday’s Backchannel and in other posts over recent months. And that’s great. Because, among other reasons, you keep me on my toes. And TPM isn’t a community that has any one point of view, in any case. But I note this because I have to again whack this same hornets nest today. So apologies in advance, probably mostly to myself. But this time it’s not with an argument, not some proposition I want to convince you of. It’s more a personal interpretation, my perception of events.

Quite simply, I think Trump’s already lost.

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