Republicans Panic Over ‘Insane’ Trump Sideshows
The president’s own party is frustrated with his nonstop antics.
Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS
Republicans are sounding the alarm as President Donald Trump continues to act increasingly scatterbrained ahead of a monumental midterm election.
Rather than rallying their base around key issues, GOP candidates have been forced to address one Trump administration controversy after another as Nov. 3 inches ever closer.
With only weeks remaining until the midterms, the Trump administration announced and subsequently canceled a livestreamed military execution, hired and fired a new White House press secretary, and made a deal with Vladimir Putin to scorn Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, among other bonkers decisions.
Trump has thrown Zelensky to the wolves while buddying up to his old pal Putin.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
The 80-year-old president has also made a habit of attacking fellow Republicans who stray from his MAGA agenda, which has further sowed division in a party desperate to maintain its congressional majorities.
Trump targeted Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton for rejecting a daylight saving time bill, while also blasting Texas Sen. John Cornyn and veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove for criticizing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The president’s unpredictability has made an already challenging election season even more arduous.
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“We’re learning about a lot of these things at the same time that the voters and the Democrats and everybody else is, and that just makes it a lot more difficult to navigate,” a senior GOP operative told Politico. “You’re caught flat-footed a lot of the time, and you’re expected to react to things in real time.”
A GOP operative described the president as "distracted."
Kent Nishimura/AFP via Getty Images
“He has constantly been distracted,” a GOP operative told the outlet, “and not focused on what the voters care about. It’s insane.”
Some of the issues plaguing the administration, such as the forced resignation of U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle, are unlikely to influence the average voter, Politico added.
Guilfoyle was asked to resign by the White House following a series of reports alleging her misconduct.
Kevin Lamarque/REUTERS
But others, such as Trump using taxpayer money for political ads hyping up the administration, have made the president’s Republican base upset.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 86 percent of Americans, including 80 percent of Republicans, consider the administration’s use of taxpayer money for TV ads of Trump to be “inappropriate.”
Some Republican Senate candidates in tight races have even spoken out against the president’s deal to import diesel from Russia, including Iowa’s Ashley Hinson, Michigan’s Mike Rogers, and Alaska’s Dan Sullivan.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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