New Orleans        One year into Trump 2.0, he’s gaining speed on his sled down the mountain.

“A Washington Post average of national polls so far in December found that 39 percent of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing, compared with 57 percent who disapprove. On the economy in particular, the average is slightly worse for Trump, with just 36 percent approving and 58 percent disapproving.”  Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s consiglieri, and columnist for the Wall Street Journal cautions that unless Trump reverses course he is heading for an epic failure in the 2026 midterms.

All reports indicate his advisors are desperately struggling to get him on message and follow some kind of script.  In a recent 18-minute address, for a change he mainly read from the teleprompter, though on a double time march, there were more limited asides and ad libs than usual.  He seemed to have been schooled that affordability is a real issue, rather than a Democratic conspiracy, though he couldn’t resist still making false claims and wild promises about the economy.  Reportedly, he didn’t mention his war with Venezuela to take their oil, but had claim he made peace with numerous countries over the last ten months, despite bullets and bloodshed belying that that premise as well.  He promised big tax returns this April and a gift of $1776 to the military.

All in all, though you can tell his heart isn’t really in following this new trail where his team is now herding him.  He’s clearly bracing at the bit.  Furthermore, they want him back on the hustings with rallies, reportedly to reconnect with his base.  As we saw recently, when he did a pep rally for himself in a Pennsylvania casino, these events are Trump unleashed.  He can’t help himself and is unbounded and undisciplined.  He’s going to mess up.  He won’t be on program.  He won’t stop blaming everyone outside of his own family for the mess he has created with his tariffs.  He won’t be able to not mention former president Biden a dozen or more times.  He is genetically unable to tell the truth or not shade and distort the facts.  He seems unable to take his foot off the accelerator, even when on steep downhill declines.

The Times, predictably, was rougher on his stumbling effort to right the ship, saying

• Trump argued he cut drug prices by 400, 500 or 600 percent, all mathematical impossibilities.

• He claimed that inflation had dropped significantly since he became president, without mentioning that in September, the last month for which the government has numbers, it had returned to 3 percent, exactly where it was on Mr. Biden’s last weeks in office.

• He argued that gasoline was now under $2.50 a gallon in much of the country; his own department of energy reports it was $2.90. And he claimed there were states where gas was $1.99; in fact, no state average gas price was that low, AAA reports.

• …the man who just threw a Gatsby-themed party at Mar-a-Lago did not realize what the job market feels like to ordinary Americans. In fact, the country continues to lose manufacturing jobs. But most importantly Americans appear unconvinced about tariffs — “my favorite word, tariffs.”

• He described foreign investment pouring into the United States but cited a figure twice as high as his own White House has estimated.

And so it went, even if not for hours, but just minutes.

It’s becoming more and more true that he just can’t help himself.  The difference now is that more and more Americans are finally realizing that he also can’t help us, even if he wanted to, which has never been certain.