The Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post has suggested that Donald Trump is hurting the GOP by focusing on his personal obsessions.
The editorial board of the Post, which Trump has previously described as his favorite newspaper, said the 80-year-old president risks “hamstringing himself” and Republicans ahead of the midterms by focusing on the wrong priorities.
The board questioned why Trump is still fighting to get the SAVE America Act passed—a bill that would require proof of citizenship for voter registration and largely ban mail-in voting—even though it is clear the measure does not have enough support in Congress.
Trump has become so fixated on passing the SAVE America Act that he derailed the confirmation process for Jay Clayton to become director of national intelligence unless the bill is included in efforts to renew the controversial surveillance authority, FISA.
“Demanding what he’ll never get has Trump hamstringing himself by refusing to sign a bipartisan housing bill and holding up key nominations,” the board wrote.
“He’s even been sparring with critics over algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Sorry, that won’t help Republicans hold the House and Senate in November.
“Yet the wins that the prez and Republicans have racked up will earn votes. Or, rather, will earn them if the White House focuses on reminding voters about all Trump and the GOP Congress have achieved for regular Americans,” it added.
The board suggested several areas Trump should be highlighting ahead of November’s elections, including his hardline immigration policies, efforts to purge “toxic DEI agendas,” and the creation of a newborn investment savings initiative known as “Trump Accounts.”
“These are terrific triumphs the prez ought to keep boasting about—not burning energy and attention on side issues and nonstarters,” the board added.
The Post also desperately argued that Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent could get a better grip on the economy before the midterms. Republicans are facing an electoral wipeout in November as voters remain unhappy with the president’s dire handling of the economy and inflation.
“Bessent says economic growth can get back to 3 percent within months—while Democrats offer no more ideas for getting the nation booming again than they did in the stagnant Biden years,” the board wrote.
“That deserves far more attention than the impossible hope of passing the SAVE America Act, however much the president believes in it.”
In response, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales told the Daily Beast: “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.
“President Trump will continue to draw a sharp contrast with his commonsense agenda and the radical Democrats in Congress who allowed millions of illegal aliens to flow through the border, unanimously opposed the Working Families Tax Cuts, and are soft-on-crime.”
