Laura Ingraham has issued a blunt demand to President Donald Trump’s political machine: double its already massive midterm spending.
Trump’s super PAC MAGA Inc. and affiliated super PACs have reserved more than $130 million in advertising for the midterms since early September, according to AdImpact data reported by the Associated Press.
“For the party, it’s a relief,” Georgia Republican strategist Jason Shepherd told The Washington Post.
Ingraham, however, called for an even bigger investment. “They should double that number,” she wrote on X.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
This follows MAGA Inc.’s first major midterm investment this month, putting $10 million into the Texas Senate race to support Republican Ken Paxton against Democrat James Talarico.
Trump’s super PAC reported another $5 million in spending on the contest on Saturday.
The group had more than $415 million in cash saved up at the end of August.
It comes as polls show Democrats pulling further ahead as the midterms approach.
Democrats currently hold a 5-point advantage on the generic congressional ballot, leading Republicans 50 percent to 45 percent in the latest NBC News survey.
That is largely due to Trump’s deeply unpopular war in Iran, which has seen prices spike.
AAA puts the national average for regular gasoline at about $4.48 a gallon, up from $4.14 over Labor Day weekend, while diesel has hit a record $6.49 a gallon.
Trump has responded with several efforts to strengthen Republican support, including blaming former President Joe Biden for inflation and proposing a $5,000 payment to every adult American if Republicans retain control of Congress. The plan could add an estimated $1.35 trillion to the national debt.
He has also made his own record central to the GOP’s advertising strategy, despite his tanking approval rating.
In the latest American Research Group poll, Trump’s approval hit 29 percent—the lowest it has ever been.
Still, according to The Atlantic, the president has decided to use money from his super PAC for “a series of television advertisements about his own record that will serve as a backdrop to the hundreds of individual House and Senate contests.”
But Republican strategists are questioning whether Trump’s personal involvement is helping the party—or turning voters away.
“Donald wants to spend money on himself,” Doug Heye told CNN last week. “He doesn’t want to give things away. He wants Republicans to earn it, so we still have The Apprentice playing out here, to some extent… The other issue is then what Donald Trump talks about, whether he’s off topic or not, or when he’s on topic, he tells voters, ‘We’ve never been hotter or richer,’ and voters don’t feel hot or rich right now.”
The polling suggests his concerns may have merit.
A Financial Times/Focaldata poll found 46 percent believed he was making GOP candidates’ campaigns harder. Nearly half of independents said his endorsement would make them less likely to vote for a candidate.
That figure rose to 48 percent among likely voters in a CBS News/YouGov poll, with just 21 percent saying Trump’s backing would help.
The latest NBC News survey delivered another warning: 52 percent said they would be less likely to support a Trump-endorsed candidate, while 43 percent said their vote would oppose the president.
