US President Donald Trump has weathered political storms before. He has survived impeachments, criminal cases, assassination attempts and years of relentless political warfare. Yet the challenges confronting him this summer are beginning to pile up in a way that even his allies find difficult to dismiss. A string of legal setbacks, stubbornly weak approval ratings, growing public anxiety over inflation and fuel prices, and an increasingly frustrating standoff with Iran have combined to create one of the most difficult periods of his second presidency.
None of these problems alone would necessarily threaten Trump's political standing. Together, however, they are creating a narrative of a president increasingly squeezed from multiple directions. At a moment when Republicans are trying to protect their congressional majorities ahead of the midterm elections, the White House is finding itself on the defensive across several fronts.
