There are signs that voters are losing faith as problems mount for his administration ahead of midterm elections

As oil prices surged to four-year highs and his approval ratings sank to new lows, Donald Trump found some comfort on Wednesday by hosting the astronauts of the Artemis II in the Oval Office.

“These incredible people behind me, where they get their bravery, I have no idea,” the US president said of the crew that ventured to the far side of the Moon. “We have the hottest country in the world.”

But Trump’s attempts to project swagger 16 months after he launched his second term with a vow to deliver a “golden age” for America are increasingly falling flat.

The 79-year-old president is being weighed down by an unpopular war in Iran that has triggered a sharp increase in petrol prices, a double hit to his two campaign promises of no foreign military interventions and a cure for inflation.

Meanwhile, he has launched attacks on Pope Leo XIV, cast himself as a religious figure on social media and fired his third cabinet member and the secretary of the navy, raising additional fears of chaos and drift within the administration.

“We’re watching the unravelling of Trump’s second term before our very eyes,” said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University, saying the US president was haemorrhaging critical parts of the political coalition that drove him to victory in 2024 amid disenchantment with his performance.

Americans were increasingly questioning: “Who really is Donald Trump? And do we need this showman anymore?” Brinkley added.

Even after he earned sympathy in the wake of another assassination attempt last weekend, Trump used the event to tout the need for his giant White House ballroom construction plan — a $400mn project that has scant backing from Americans.

“He does these outrageous headline-grabbing, attention-grabbing, content-driven things, but when we turn back to the economic numbers, they’re just not better,” said one former Trump administration official close to the White House. “They need to find a positive pivot and they just don’t have that right now.”

Trump’s aides have continued to project confidence in his leadership and the merits of his policies. But some Republicans fear the president has become detached from the concerns of ordinary Americans and there is no one to stop him from making basic political mistakes.

“In Trump one, the staff really tried to prevent these own goals, but in Trump two it almost seems like they’re helping with these own goals,” said one former Trump administration official who is still close to the White House.

Recent polling has been grim for Trump. According to the RealClearPolitics national average, just 41 per cent of Americans approve of his performance in office, compared to 57 per cent who disapprove, a yawning 16-point gap that bodes poorly for Republican prospects in the midterm elections.

Political forecasters have raised their expectations that Republicans will lose control of the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate in November.

“Voters [in battleground districts] are deeply frustrated with Trump and are willing to overlook their antipathy to Democrats in order to put a check on the president,” the Cook Political Report, a non-partisan political analysis group, wrote this week.

The two-month-old war against Iran and the extended closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has raised global energy prices and petrol prices in America, looks increasingly like an act of political self-harm for the White House.

“Trump has still not told voters what we’re doing and how we would define victory in Iran,” said Doug Heye, a Republican strategist.

“A part of his base is asking if Trump is serious. Or is he just like every other politician that gets in there and then figures out how to start a war,” said the former Trump official close to the White House. “Now they just want to know, what’s the off-ramp?”

Trump has defended the war by saying that petrol prices will drop “like a rock” as soon as the conflict ends and it is worth the disruption to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

On the Strait of Hormuz, Trump has doubled down on the US Navy’s blockade of Iranian ports as a way to pressure Tehran, framing the closure of the waterway as Washington’s idea, rather than a point of leverage for Tehran.

But unless the waterway opens up again, Trump is likely to be saddled with high energy prices for the foreseeable future, a blight that he has constantly hammered predecessor Joe Biden over. It has also diminished his attempt to portray himself as a bold statesman, an image that he has been craving throughout his second term.

“Being flummoxed on the Strait of Hormuz and being stuck with not a real great hand to play in Iran has made Trump seem impetuous and feeble. It does not give the idea of this ardent president who’s creating a new geopolitical world order,” said Brinkley.

Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson, said on Thursday that what mattered most to Americans was that Trump had taken “decisive action to eliminate threats and keep them safe”.

“The president does not make these incredibly important national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interest of the American people.”

However, Heye said the gap between the White House and the public was now glaring.

“Trump was elected to do two things essentially. One, fix the border, which has been done, and two, bring down prices. He hasn’t done that and doesn’t really even talk about it anymore, except to tell voters that they’ve never been richer or hotter — which is not something voters believe or feel.”