A senior official in President Donald Trump's administration said Friday that the president's "politically dire" situation has continued to deteriorate, voicing fear that Trump could soon reach an unprecedented low point in his presidency.

The assessment came in an analysis published Friday by Asawin Suebsaeng of Zeteo, the subscription news outlet founded by journalist Mehdi Hasan. Suebsaeng, a veteran political reporter who covered Trump's first White House for The Daily Beast, noted that Trump's job approval has hovered in the low-to-mid 30s throughout his time in the White House, with one exception: a Pew survey that found the president at 29% approval shortly after the January 6 Capitol riot.

"No matter how unpopular Trump has grown since early 2025, conventional wisdom has held that he likely has a floor in the low-to-mid 30s, willing to stick by him through practically anything," Suebsaeng wrote. "Not that many months ago, it was hard (even for someone like me) to imagine Trump ever again hitting the 20s in a high-quality poll."

A slide into the 20s would place Trump among the least-approved presidents of the modern polling era. Gallup's lowest recorded marks belong to Harry Truman at 22% in 1952, George W. Bush at 25% in late 2008 amid the financial crisis, and Richard Nixon at 24% on the eve of his 1974 resignation over Watergate.

The official, who spoke with Suebsaeng on the condition of anonymity and whom Suebsaeng described as a source "close to Trump" in a position "of influence," said even the president's closest allies fear the commander in chief may soon hit a new historic low.

"He keeps saying he doesn't want to become Herbert Hoover but then can't stop acting like he wants to be Herbert Hoover," the official told Suebsaeng. "He really could sink to the high 20s, I think. I would not have thought that last year."

The reference is to the 31st president, whose term spanned the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression and who lost his 1932 reelection campaign to Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide — making "Herbert Hoover" a longstanding byword in American politics for presiding over economic catastrophe.

Suebsaeng expressed frustration at having to conceal the identity of his source, joking that the person might be sent to Siberia if identified, and said he was genuinely shocked by the blunt admission from someone holding a senior position in the Trump White House.

"I was genuinely surprised they'd cop to it! It drove home just how politically dire the situation is for them right now, in a way that may go well beyond what we already expect in November," Suebsaeng wrote. "Despite his fascistic bullyboy tactics, this president is in a uniquely vulnerable position, and we need to be ready for that dam to finally break."