Donald Trump’s aides have privately admitted that he stands little chance of salvaging his party’s prospects going into the midterm elections.
The 80-year-old president’s advisers believe the coalition of voters that helped him sail back to office in 2024 has fractured and that he is unlikely to bring independents and swing voters back into the fold before Nov. 3, CNN reports.
“It’s obviously going to be f---ing rough,” one source with knowledge of the current atmosphere at the White House told the network on Monday. They added that losing the House is now generally seen as a foregone conclusion, though there remains hope, however slim, of retaining the Senate.
Trump’s team is now pouring its resources into putting the president everywhere it thinks he might be able to squeeze more participation from committed Republicans during the final run-up to the election.
Aides, directed by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, have mapped out an intensive October schedule for both the president and his vice president, JD Vance, 42. Their itinerary includes Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Ohio, with an emphasis on friendlier areas.
White House strategy is now aimed more at galvanizing the president’s existing supporters than persuading fence-sitting voters to back Republican candidates, according to CNN. “It’s all a turnout game,” one source said. “From day one, the campaign committees and the president’s political operation have been sharing data to make sure we’re hammering the exact people we need to turn out.”
Still, campaign officials also recognize that putting Trump front and center is a gamble that risks achieving the opposite effect: motivating Democratic supporters to fight even harder against the candidates he’s backed on the ballot.
The president’s approval ratings have steadily plummeted throughout his second term. Some pollsters now put him at a meager 32 percent, even lower than where he stood in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot at the tail end of his first term.
That downward trend has accelerated as Trump has failed to put an end to the “few week” war he started with Iran in February, now approaching its eighth month. The conflict has driven up gas prices and inflation across the country, with voters now ranking cost-of-living concerns among their chief anxieties going into the November vote.
Democrats currently hold an almost 8-point lead ahead of the midterms. One White House adviser, asked whether there was anything the GOP could do to dent that lead, told CNN: “Go back in time and never start the war with Iran.”
Asked for comment on this story by the Daily Beast, spokesperson Davis Ingle said: “No one can dispute the fact that President Trump has created one of the most robust coalitions in political history with the MAGA movement, and the President understands how to communicate with them. President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and he is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress.”
