Karl Rove Says Trump Has ‘Gone Way Too Far’ and Americans Find the ‘Narcissism Off-Putting’

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Republican strategist and Fox News contributor Karl Rove said President Donald Trump has “gone way too far” in some respects and that Americans are “tiring” of his outlandish statements.

Writing in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal, Rove began his op-ed by hailing the state of the economy, the southern border, and the Middle East. He then pivoted to Trump.

“This year had its share of bizarre developments,” he wrote. “No American president has ever ruled the news cycle like Donald Trump.”

Rove pointed to the president’s “round-the-clock” posts on Truth Social and said Trump dominates the news cycle. However, the strategist went on to state that the public is growing weary of the act. In particular, Rove said the electorate is “tiring” of the president, whose renaming of the Kennedy Center after himself is an example of the “narcissism” that Americans find distasteful:

His pace is unrelenting. He throws at reporters so much fluff—personal asides, fulminations about adversaries real and imagined, commentary on culture and self-congratulation—that the press and public often ignore important things.

This pace is also unsustainable. There are signs that the public is tiring of his hyperbole and insatiable desire for retribution. Increasingly, they may hear only the offensive or cruel things he says.

Has the president convinced himself that he doesn’t need to sell his policies and actions? It appears that he believes he can will people into agreeing with him by claiming his achievements are the biggest, best and most amazing in American history. He’s gone way too far by slapping his name on buildings (the Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts) and government programs (the Navy’s “Trump-class” battleship). He might receive a fawning reaction from his MAGA base, but the average American finds such narcissism off-putting.

This month, the Kenney Center board, which Trump stacked with loyalists, voted to change the name of the venue to the Trump-Kennedy Center, even though such a renaming would require an act of Congress, which named the venue in 1964. The president also named a class of forthcoming warships after himself and said he will even help design them because “I’m a very aesthetic person.”

Rove went on to say that Trump would have broader support “if he explained what he’s doing and asked for patience as his administration makes necessary changes.”

The GOP strategist’s warning about Trump’s hyperbole isn’t likely to be heeded anytime soon, or ever. Hours after the Journal published Rove’s column, the president, whose approval rating polls show is consistently underwater, claimed to have an approval rating of 64%.