A prominent Republican strategist has delivered a brutal assessment of Donald Trump’s midterm strategy, accusing the president of putting himself ahead of the Republican candidates fighting to hold Congress.
Appearing on a special edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Doug Heye was asked how he viewed the GOP’s chances in November.
“Look, they’re bleak, and they’re bleak because history tells us that this is what happens in midterm elections. They’re also bleak because of where the president’s numbers are.”
Heye then pointed directly at Trump’s campaign spending.
“Republicans know that their back is against the wall,” Heye continued. “The Trump campaign has not been spending money to help Republican candidates like it needs to.”
When Collins asked why, Heye did not hold back.
“Donald wants to spend money on himself,” Heye responded bluntly. “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 Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump has increasingly positioned himself at the center of the Republican midterm campaign, despite his tanking approval rating.
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.”
MAGA Inc. has also made its first major midterm investment, putting $10 million into the Texas Senate race to support Republican Ken Paxton against Democrat James Talarico. The group had more than $403 million in cash saved up at the end of July.
It comes as polls show Democrats pulling further ahead as the midterms approach.
A Financial Times/Focaldata poll showed Democrats now hold a 7.5-point lead over Republicans among registered voters asked which party they are likely to support in November, up from five points just one month ago.
The poll of 1,914 registered voters found just 33 percent approve of Trump’s performance.
That is his lowest rating since the FT began tracking the measure in May—and down three points from the previous month.
Even among Republicans, Trump’s numbers are slipping. His approval among GOP voters has dropped more than two points to 72 percent, another low in the FT survey.
That is significant because while Trump is not on the ballot for the midterms, the elections are widely seen as a referendum on his leadership.
But polls increasingly suggest his leadership is what’s putting voters off.
In the Financial Times/Focaldata poll, 46 percent said he was making it harder for GOP congressional candidates to win, while 47 percent of independents said a Trump endorsement would make them less likely to support a candidate.
