Donald Trump's Presidency Will 'End Badly,' Karl Rove Warns: 'Americans Are Already Exhausted'

Donald Trump's approval rating has begun to tank following his disastrous tariff announcement in April, as former White House aide Karl Rove warned the president that the country is "exhausted" by his persistent quest for "revenge."

Rove appeared on America Reports to weigh in after the president spoke about his adjusted tariff plan.

The Republican adviser pointed out, "We aren’t 100 days into Donald Trump’s second term, and many Americans are already exhausted. They’ve had way too much thrown at them."

"Voters made crystal clear what they sought during the 2024 election. They wanted prices to come down and the economy revved up. The Southern border had to be closed, our military strengthened and a strong leader installed in the Oval Office," he continued. "Some of that we’re getting, especially regarding the border. Other things — the rebuilding of the military — appear to be in the works. But on the key issue of the economy, Americans aren’t happy."

"Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to break inflation has been replaced by a fixation on raising tariffs, which nearly three-quarters of Americans expect to hike prices," Rove explained. "We’re also confused: Is the goal getting trading partners to lower their tariffs on U.S. goods and services? Or replacing our income tax with high tariffs on foreign goods?"

Rove went on to point out that "discipline" has never been one of Trump’s strengths, as he appears to personally thrive on drama and attention rather than calming nerves by patiently explaining his actions to Americans.

George W. Bush’s former aide argued that "there’s way too much retribution," declaring, "Most of the president’s revenge attempts will end badly for him. Republicans could rue the day they set a new justification for retaliation from Democrats."

"We already know the country remains highly polarized. Democratic and Republican true believers are locked in. It’s the 15 percent to 20 percent of voters who didn’t like their choices last year that matter most," Rove told the network. "Mr. Trump started with 50.5 percent approving, 44.3 percent disapproving in the RealClearPolitics polling average a week after he was sworn in. Those RCP numbers went upside down on March 13 and today stand at 46.9 percent approving, 50.3 percent disapproving, a nearly 10-point margin shift in the wrong direction. "

"My hunch is things will get worse before they get better," he added. "That won’t matter for Mr. Trump’s ardent fans. For them, the past eight weeks have been exhilarating. But in the non-MAGA world — which includes independents and Republicans — the start of Mr. Trump’s second term has been exhausting."

As OK! previously reported, Rove previously advised the president not to engage in too much "happy talk" after the economy took a nosedive following his controversial tariff announcement on "Liberation Day."

"The focus was on tariffs, and for a good reason. It has a huge economic impact on our country. They’ve got to get this thing right," he explained. "Think about this: The U.S. population is only 4 percent of the world population, 96 percent of our customers for American businesses and goods and services are outside of the United States, and our economy is 27 percent of the world economy."

"One of the problems that we had under Biden was we had happy talk, ‘Bidenomics is working,’ and people didn’t believe it. Inflation was going growing dramatically,” Rove continued. "And look, we’ve had good inflation numbers, but it’s only one month. We got to be careful about that. And the administration needs to temper, in my opinion, its language."