FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS

GOP Insider Warns of Trump’s Downhill Course: ‘Republicans Better Buckle Up’

Rick Wilson said Trump’s efforts to assuage economic concerns were a swing and a miss.

A GOP insider warned that Donald Trump’s presidency is on a downward trajectory—and Republicans should brace for impact.

Rick Wilson, a former Republican strategist and outspoken Trump critic, wrote on his Substack Against All Enemies on Wednesday about the president’s mess of a rally at a casino in Pennsylvania the night before, which was aimed at easing affordability concerns among Americans.

“Issue tours are supposed to bridge the president’s message to the lives of real people,” Wilson wrote. ”This one just reminded America that Donald Trump’s favorite issue, his only real issue now and for eternity, is Donald Trump."

“And if that was the high point of this little affordability roadshow, Republicans better buckle up for the downhill run…because it’s coming fast," he concluded.

Recapping the highlights (or lowlights) of Trump’s speech, Wilson analyzed the administration’s efforts to “reset the narrative” of poor economic performance and twist it into “fool’s gold.”

The political consultant, referring to Trump as the “worst President in American history,” said his mojo was gone, and efforts to garner support in the wake of plummeting polls by going back onstage in front of constituents were ill-advised.

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“It doesn’t work if the first year of your second term saw you put a maximum effort into tossing America’s struggling billionaires a multi-trillion dollar tax cut and slamming economy-killing tariffs on farms, small businesses, and consumers,” Wilson wrote.

Wilson slammed the president’s attempt to address economic concerns, calling attention to Trump’s use of divisive rhetoric and monotonous slogans to deflect criticism.

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He noted Trump’s escalation of racialized attacks against Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, whom he told to “get the hell out” of the country—behavior that “he always deploys when he’s flailing.”

Though that behavior may rile up his base, Wilson argued, it doesn’t work with suburban voters looking for a return to normalcy.

“If you’re a Republican running in a Biden-won district in 2026, you watched that performance and felt the icy hand of doom on your shoulder,” he wrote.

Trump’s return to the stage on Tuesday night in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, saw the 79-year-old president continue his assault on affordability—calling it a “hoax” despite widespread concern across the political spectrum.

The president’s speech strayed from complaints over the issue he sought to assuage and turned into a racially-charged rant against Omar, a Somali refugee who became a U.S. citizen in 2000.

Trump went on to resurrect his previously denied phrase of “s--thole countries”—referring to nations like Haiti, Afghanistan and Omar’s native Somalia as “hellholes.”

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“Send us some nice people, do you mind? But we always take people from Somalia—places that are a disaster, right?“ he said. ”Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime. The only thing they’re good at is going after ships.”

Omar fired back at the president in a post on X.

“Trump’s obsession with me is beyond weird. He needs serious help,” she wrote. “Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead. He continues to be a national embarrassment.”

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Vic VerbalaitisNight Breaking News Reporter

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