THEN AND NOW

Kaitlan Collins Reveals Stunning Difference in Trump Tactic

The president’s final midterm push looked nothing like it did in 2018, Collins pointed out.

Kaitlan Collins has laid bare a stark shift in how Donald Trump is closing out his midterm campaign this year compared to his previous efforts.

On Monday’s The Source, the CNN anchor turned back time to the eve of the 2018 midterms, when President Trump, 80, was still barnstorming the Midwest.

The final Monday in 2018 looked nothing like the one in 2026, when Trump’s closing pitch was folded into a meandering speech about reopening the Reflecting Pool, “We fixed the leaks. We resurfaced the bottom,” Trump said proudly to a small crowd gathered at the event.

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Collins was quick to point out the difference between Trump, who was 72 in 2018, and the 80-year-old now.

“The last time the president was facing a midterm election, of course, when he was in office was 2018,” Collins said. “On the Monday before the midterms that year—look at this—the president had held three rallies in three states.”

Collins said Trump spent that day pushing “a red meat message that was designed to motivate his MAGA base,” then aired a supercut of Trump’s comments from the rallies.

“Democrats are inviting caravan after caravan,” Trump told the 2018 crowd in Cleveland, Ohio.

Then, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he added, “If you want strong borders and safe communities, no drugs, no caravans, vote Republican.”

And in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, his final stop, he warned that “Democrats are openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws and violate our borders.”

Collins then bluntly put it, “That was 2018. This is 2026,” before playing a clip of a tired-looking Trump in the final days of this campaign.

“I’m closing the sucker down,” Trump told supporters in Salina, Kansas, on Sunday night. “I’m getting out of here. I got to get a little sleep. I’ve been doing a little too many of these.”

Then came Monday’s election-eve speech, delivered not at a rally but in front of the freshly reopened Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

“For some reason, the sitting president doesn’t win the midterms,” Trump said. “But we gave this a very strong shot.”

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Collins pointed out that, by CNN’s latest count, more than 57 million people had already voted.

When asked Sunday why he chose the pool for his last speech instead of a rally in a swing state, Trump replied serenely: “Just to show how beautiful it is.”

Trump headlined 28 rallies in October alone, according to NBC News, more than the 23 he held across October and November in 2018, by Washington Monthly’s count.

The pace has taken a toll. His voice has been described as hoarse, and last week, he complained that “God didn’t make your vocal cords to do a rally every day.”

He also briefly canceled his weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas, insisting he felt “perfect” when a reporter asked about his health, then reinstated his appearances.

According to a CNN analysis, Trump has done most of his rallies this election cycle in deep-red states he carried comfortably in 2024, while he has kept his distance from Republicans in swing states.

It’s a far cry from his September promise to campaign for vulnerable Republicans in “every one of those 35” swing states. NPR analysis shows that during his 2026 rallies, he campaigned in less than a third of them.

Still, the 2018 blitz didn’t save his party. Democrats picked up a net 40 House seats that year and took control of the chamber, though Republicans padded their Senate majority by two.

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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