A number of Senate Republicans are concerned that Donald Trump has become a liability for the GOP ahead of the crucial midterm elections.
Multiple Republicans in the upper chamber told The Hill that it is extremely difficult to defend some of the 80-year-old president’s policies to voters, such as the proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” slush fund and attempts to use taxpayer money to fund Trump’s White House ballroom project.
There is concern among some GOP senators that Republicans across the country will need to distance themselves from Trump and his policies in order to improve their chances in November’s races.
Others have said that Trump’s influence has become so poisonous that incumbents in solidly red states, such as Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, are facing tougher re-election races than they otherwise would.
“That’s the perception in the room,” one unnamed Republican senator told The Hill when asked whether other lawmakers considered Trump a political liability.
The GOP is widely expected to lose control of the House—where it currently has a razor-thin majority—in the midterms, as the party in power historically suffers major losses in the lower chamber.
Intense backlash to Trump’s second term means the Senate could also be in play in November, with Democrats needing to flip at least four seats to retake control.
Polling shows Republican candidates trailing in GOP-leaning states such as Ohio, Iowa, and Texas, as well as the swing state of North Carolina.
Some GOP senators fear other incumbents, such as Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio and Alaska’s Dan Sullivan, are also at risk of losing their seats in November.
South Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his term in January, said colleagues are frustrated that they are having to deal with the backlash to Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund to compensate people who claim they were wrongfully persecuted by the Biden and Obama administrations.
“I want this yoke off of the members who are up for election in November because there’s no way to explain it, no way to explain it whatsoever,” Tillis told The Hill.
“This is going to lend credibility to the Democrats hanging this on the necks of Republicans who are up in November,” Tillis added. “Why we’re not taking this off the table—it’s not helping the president’s popularity; it’s not helping our candidates who are up for re-election. Nothing good is coming from this.”
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, who is not up for re-election this year, also said GOP senators are frustrated by Trump frequently attacking members of the upper chamber over issues such as failing to pass the president’s SAVE America Act.
“I’ve been out there a good bit in the various battleground states, and I think ... most Americans think that Washington, including but not limited to Congress, is dysfunctional anyway,” Kennedy said. “It doesn’t help. And I wish there was some way to lessen the president’s frustration.”
On Monday, the forecast model from FiftyPlusOne—the successor to FiveThirtyEight run by polling and data journalist G. Elliott Morris—gave Democrats a 55 percent chance of winning the Senate in November and an 85 percent chance of winning the House.
“President Trump is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party who is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majority in Congress. In just over one year, the president has made our country greater than ever before with the most secure border in American history, the largest middle-class tax cuts ever, and the lowest murder rate since 1900,” White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said in a statement to The Hill.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment.
