Wait a second—Donald Trump meets with Vladimir Putin, talks peace in Ukraine, and his approval ratings… go up? That wasn’t supposed to happen.
Not according to the pundits. Not according to the think tanks. Definitely not according to your average MSNBC panel still clutching their imaginary pearls over “Russian collusion” like it’s 2017 again.
But here we are. New polling from InsiderAdvantage (you know, one of the few remaining outlets that doesn’t have “Activate Panic Mode” hard-coded into their analytics dashboard) just dropped a political grenade: Trump’s approval sits at 54% nationally. That’s majority approval, folks. Let that sink in. And here’s where it gets juicier—
He’s winning over young people. Yep. According to the breakdown, 57% of Americans aged 18-39 and 39-64 approve of Trump right now. The only group still holding out? Voters over 65. Apparently, bingo night and CNN still have a chokehold on that demographic.
🚨 JUST REVEALED: Stunning new poll finds President Trump’s approval rating at a whopping +10, 54%-44%, per InsiderAdvantage. The media is in shambles – the attacks didn’t work, again. pic.twitter.com/ArBJXeIW9z
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 18, 2025
Oh, and get this: his numbers are rising among black and Hispanic voters, too. Somewhere, a Democrat strategist just spit out their oat milk latte.
So what’s behind the surge?
Well, it might have a little something to do with the fact that Trump just sat down face-to-face with Putin in Alaska—yes, that Putin—and instead of throwing chairs or starting World War III like the Left always predicted, he actually made progress. Real progress.
The summit, held last Friday, resulted in what Trump called a “very productive” meeting, with “many points agreed to” and just “a very few that are left.” Translation: he didn’t just pose for pictures and then scurry back to D.C. with a vague memo and a participation trophy.
And then—brace yourself—Putin actually gave ground. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff revealed that, for the first time ever, Russia agreed to allow the U.S. and European nations to offer Ukraine Article 5-style security guarantees in a peace framework.
Let me say that again for the folks in the back: Trump got Russia to agree to Western-backed security guarantees for Ukraine.
Major shifts: Ukrainians who back fighting for full war victory vs. Russia has collapsed from 73% in 2022 to 24% now.
Support for a negotiated end is up to 69%, as few (25%) think the war will end soon.
Belief that Ukraine will join NATO soon is down from 64% (2022) to 32% now pic.twitter.com/KIVAUeuOo3
— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) August 18, 2025
This is the same Trump the media still insists is Putin’s “puppet.” You know, the guy Rachel Maddow thought would sell Alaska back to Moscow in a secret handshake deal behind a KFC.
Instead, he just did what two years of Biden’s speeches, photo ops, and check-writing couldn’t: he moved the needle toward peace.
And how did the media respond? Mostly by pretending it didn’t happen or cherry-picking some poll from Pew showing Trump with 38% approval. Sure. Because Pew’s sample of 4,000 college professors and coastal retirees is definitely the pulse of America.
The left is panicking and bringing out all their old material.
Talk of Donald Trump as a Russian asset has (re)emerged following the Putin summit.
I still don’t believe it.
I think there is a WAY simpler explanation. pic.twitter.com/qt4jtHyZwu
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) August 18, 2025
Meanwhile, InsiderAdvantage—ranked top 10 by RealClearPolitics for actual accuracy—took a broader, more realistic look and found a different story. A story that Democrats really, really don’t want getting airtime.
Why? Because it destroys the narrative.
Trump’s not the reckless warmonger they painted for years. And he’s definitely not the orange stooge of the Kremlin. He’s outmaneuvering the D.C. establishment and showing that diplomacy doesn’t have to be packaged in polite failure. Sometimes, it looks like results.
And let’s be honest: if Joe Biden had gotten Putin to accept anything resembling Western security guarantees for Ukraine, the media would’ve declared it the foreign policy moment of the century. There’d be Nobel Prize talk before the ink dried.
But Trump does it? Crickets. Or worse—backhanded headlines about “optics” and “concerns from European allies.”
The truth is, Trump’s not just gaining support in spite of this summit. He’s gaining support because of it. Americans are watching a guy who doesn’t apologize for putting America first and who can sit across from a geopolitical adversary without blinking.
🚨 HOLY CRAP! CBS’ Margaret Brennan thought she knew more about foreign policy and the Russia-Ukraine negotiations than Marco Rubio.
She didn’t. He put her in her place. Rubio is a masterclass.
“No it isn’t, that’s not why…That’s not true…No.”pic.twitter.com/ZpZASCsFYQ
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 17, 2025
And that? That’s leadership people actually respect.
No wonder they’re freaking out.
