Trump forced into 'defensive crouch' as he loses his 'oomph': analyst

President Donald Trump is in political retreat after months of unpopular decisions and an electorate increasingly fed up with him, The Atlantic staff writer Ashley Parker told MS NOW's Katy Tur on Wednesday — and it's sapping the political capital he has to do anything.

This comes as the president rages against the result of the Virginia redistricting referendum on Tuesday, calling the result "rigged" and "deceptive" — as voters backed redrawing congressional maps in a move widely seen as a rebuke to his own calls for Republicans to redo their gerrymanders.

"Ashley, not surprising from the president," said Tur. "I wonder, does this rigged election claim still have the same power that it used to?"

"You know, it's a good question," said Parker. "I think who does not have the same power he used to is Donald Trump. And he had this incredibly kind of muscular, powerful first year in office in his second term. And what we're seeing now ... you can really trace it to the beginning of this year to January, is essentially a sophomore slump, which is shown everywhere from the poll numbers, as you outlined."

"I think he also has similarly low approval numbers to Joe Biden around this time," said Parker. "But also to, you know, he starts losing things on the domestic front in two ways. First, the Pretti killing in Minneapolis, which happens in January. Then the Supreme Court stands up to him on tariffs. And now we're seeing the essentially the cascading ramifications of his decision to go to war with Iran and midterms that are becoming competitive in a way that just a year ago would have been unimaginable for Republicans."

"So to answer your original question, does calling this in Virginia 'rigged' on Truth Social, which doesn't have the power that he had when he was on Twitter, back when it was on Twitter, carry the same oomph from a president who's struggling in a defensive crouch on a lot of fronts?" said Parker. "I think the simple answer is no, it doesn't."

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