The Trump administration will “collapse” within 30 days, according to veteran Democratic strategist James Carville.
“It’s collapsing right now. We’re in the midst of a collapse,” Carville told Mediaite founder Dan Abrams on his podcast, The Dan Abrams Show, Friday.
Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.
Why It Matters
Some recent polls have shown President Donald Trump’s approval rating eroding, reflecting Americans’ potential concerns about the number of moves made in the month since he returned to the White House.
Trump has moved to crack down on immigration, end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and roll back transgender rights. He has also empowered Elon Musk to downsize the federal workforce and cut government spending, which has led to the firing of thousands of federal workers and the potential shuttering of entire agencies that were created by Congress.
Democrats have sounded the alarm about the power Musk, an unelected billionaire, has amassed. And the Trump administration is facing dozens of lawsuits nationwide challenging his executive orders and moves to shrink the federal government.
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What To Know
“I believe that this administration, in less than 30 days is in the midst of a massive collapse, in particularly a collapse in public opinion,” Carville said.
Carville pointed to the drop in approval ratings Trump has seen in the four weeks since he returned to office.
“This is the lowest approval, not even close, that any president has ever had at a comparable time,” he said. “That’s a provable fact.”
Carville said he does not believe Republicans will be able to lift the debt limit or pass a reconciliation package, and that GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson will be forced to reach across the aisle for help from Democrats. “That is going to be the equivalent of stacking arms. It’s over,” he said.
He added House Democrats “know exactly what they’re doing, and they know exactly what’s going to happen…I think Democrats make a lot of mistakes but I think these guys know what’s coming and they know how they’re going to handle it, and Mike Johnson’s going to have no other choice. He’s going to have to go. And when he does, that’s—that’s surrender. It’s going to happen quickly.”
Carville advised Democrats to “play opossum” for now.
“This whole thing is collapsing. It doesn’t need Elizabeth Warren in somebody screaming to pacify some progressive advocacy groups in Washington,” the former top adviser to President Bill Clinton said. “Hold your fire. It’s going to be easy pickings here in six weeks, just lay back.”
What People Are Saying
Carville said on Fox News last week that Democrats do not need to be “aggressive” in combating the Trump administration because the “collapse is already underway.”
He said: “Poll numbers are declining. The collapse is already underway. Let’s see when [they] put the Medicaid budget when [they] put the tax, the $4.5 billion, trillion dollars of tax cuts to wealthy people. Just let the ball come to you. We don’t need to be aggressive now.”
Trump appeared to respond to those remarks in a post on Truth Social on Friday that said: “I won the Presidential Election in a landslide, won ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, THE POPULAR VOTE, AND ALL FIFTY STATES SHIFTED REPUBLICAN, a record, and now I have the best polling numbers I’ve ever had. The Democrats, run by broken down losers like James Carville, whose weak of mind and body, are going crazy, and just don’t know what to do. They have lost their confidence and spirit – They have lost their minds! We are going to have big WINS for our Country, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. It’s already happening, and will get bigger and better than ever before!
What Happens Next
While some polls in recent days have shown that more disapprove of Trump than approve of him, others have found that more than 50 percent approve of the president. FiveThirtyEight’s average shows Trump’s net approval was above water at +1.5 percent on Friday, down from +8.2 percent on January 24.
It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration’s actions will significantly alter public opinion in the coming weeks, and whether Carville’s predictions about the administration collapsing come true.
Correction 2/24/2025 10:55 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of James Carville’s name throughout.
