All posts tagged "midterms"

Trump slip-up reveals he's willing to drag GOP down in latest 'delusion': columnist

President Donald Trump blurted out an "extraordinary quote" this week that was a stunning admission, a political columnist said on Thursday.

In a new episode of "The Daily Blast" podcast from The New Republic, Greg Sargent described why Trump's statement during the Cabinet meeting at the White House on Wednesday — "I don't care about the midterms" — was so revealing, especially as the Republican Party has started to signal panic about the fall elections.

"In discussing what just happened in Texas, where the MAGA extremist will now be the GOP nominee in the Senate race, Trump accidentally revealed that he’s still under the delusion that he and MAGA are popular," Sargent said.

"Meanwhile, three different indicators in the polling contain terrible news for Trump and the GOP. And new reports say that Republicans are growing more alarmed about the midterms. Some of them are plainly afraid to say so. So how much longer can they stand by while Trump drags them down?"

Sargent described what Trump might actually think, despite fears among GOP leaders.

"I think this is quite literally true," Sargent said. "He doesn’t care what happens to Republicans, really. He really doesn’t give a s---. And it’s also true that Trump’s war is absolutely tanking their chances."

Sargent's guest on the podcast, The New Republic contributing editor Felipe De La Hoz, viewed Trump's comments as equivalent to throwing his allies under the bus.

"I think it could be interpreted as him saying that this is an indication of the strength of his brand, which I think is mistaken," De La Hoz said.

"We saw something similar play out in 2018 and 2022 with his MAGA candidates winning primaries and then getting slaughtered in the general," De La Hoz added.

Trump's endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to challenge longtime Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn might have left him feeling more confident after Paxton's victory in the runoff in Texas on Tuesday. But it also gives Democrats a path to potentially flip the deep red state's Senate seat blue with candidate Rep. James Talarico (D-TX), which De La Hoz argued could be possible.

"I think in my lifetime — presuming that we maintain the same sort of electoral political system — I think that it’s entirely conceivable, and I would say even likely, that at some stage a Democrat will win a statewide race in Texas, just given the demographics, given what we’ve seen," De La Hoz said. "I don’t know if it’ll be Talarico, but it could be. I don’t think that this is a crazy pie-in-the-sky idea."

But it won't be easy for Democrats, Sargent argued.

"It’s going to be a big lift for Talarico to get there," Sargent said.

"It’s not impossible though. And even if he loses, he’s probably going to end up forcing Republicans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to save Texas, which could impact the rest of the map. Just want to clarify though — Talarico could win. It’s possible, just very hard," Sargent added.

Lindsey Graham 'sweating bullets' after Paxton's MAGA landslide: Charlie Kirk show

Ken Paxton didn't just beat John Cornyn in Tuesday's Texas Senate primary — he may have put Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on notice.

That was the takeaway on the Charlie Kirk Show Wednesday, where hosts Andrew Kolvet and Blake Neff broke down what Paxton's crushing victory means for the broader MAGA movement — and which Republican senators should be worried heading into 2026.

Kolvet didn't mince words when the conversation turned to Graham, who faces a June 9 primary despite holding Trump's endorsement.

"If I'm Lindsey Graham, I am, in the words of Jeremy Carl, sweating bullets today," Kolvet said, "because the base has an instinct of who actually represents the America First principles that we all ascribe to and espouse. And they can smell a fraud."

Carl is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and a former Trump Interior Department official.

Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX), a 119th Congress class member and guest on the show, argued that the Paxton race sent a clear message about what MAGA voters actually want — politicians who fight the same way in private as they do in public.

"If you're going to support the Save America Act but not support a talking filibuster, both publicly and behind closed doors, that's not good enough anymore," Gill said.

Graham has long struggled to convince the GOP base that his conversion from McCain-style maverick to Trump ally is genuine. He was booed at a Trump rally in his home state, and his job approval sat at 38% among South Carolinians as of late last year.

Kolvet acknowledged that Trump's endorsement is powerful but argued it wasn't the decisive factor in Texas.

"I actually believe that Paxton would have won without Trump's endorsement," he said. "The base will come out if you give them a reason to in midterms."

Neff was more blunt in his thoughts about Cornyn: "He's a fossil."

Graham's primary is June 9.

Internet mocks Trump for saying 'I don't care about the midterms': 'The GOP does'

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was in no rush to make a deal with Iran, claiming that despite the country's attempts to coerce him into securing negotiations ahead of elections "I don't care about the midterms" — something the internet disagreed with him about.

Trump was speaking to his cabinet during a meeting at the White House when he made the comment.

He mentioned that he thinks Tehran has tried "to put pressure on America by stretching out negotiations while Republicans are hurt politically from the negative economic impact of the war," according to The New York Times.

“They thought they’re going to out wait me,” Trump said.

"I don’t care about the midterms," he added.

On social media, people responded and mocked his remarks.

"A comforting remark from Trump for all Republicans seeking re-election in the midterms... DJT has repeatedly demonstrated that he doesn't give a s--- about the overwhelming majority of individuals, both in the U.S. and around the world..." political commentator and self-described business consultant DeSota, who has more than 11,000 followers, wrote on X.

"He doesn’t care bc he’s not on the ballot in 2028–the golden dome coupled with the ballroom/bunker will be a nice resting place after 1/20/29," Mason, a self-described fund manager and Iraq war veteran who frequently comments on politics, posted on X.

"Comparing the Republican primaries to the midterms is dumb af," Alex Cole, a progressive news commentator with more than 327,000 followers wrote on X.

"Trump: Elon will rig them, we’ll keep doing crimes, world keeps on spinning. Have we talked about the ballroom yet?" Chris Robinson, a political commentator, wrote on X.

"He may not, the GOP does," Chris Panza, co-author of "Ethics for Dummies," wrote on Bluesky.

Trump: "I don't care about the midterms" pic.twitter.com/5te5Q5Ced1
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 27, 2026

CNN chief data analyst shocked as Trump's polling numbers take another 'tremendous drop'

CNN's chief data analyst was shocked to see how much confidence in Trump's ability as president has dropped in just a few years amid renewed health concerns.

"The numbers are truly shocking in terms of the movement that we're seeing in terms of believing that Trump is, in fact, physically capable to be president," Harry Enten said on CNN.

Enten pointed to polling from 2023 that showed 64 percent of respondents believed Trump is in "good enough" health to be president. A more up-to-date poll shows only 44 percent still believed that to be true.

"That's a tremendous drop," Enten said. "The American people are seeing what they're seeing on their screens. They're passing judgment on this."

Trump isn't running for reelection like former President Joe Biden was when his health concerns and age became points of criticism. However, Enten said those polling numbers still matter ahead of a midterm.

"I think a lot of voters are saying, 'Hey, do we want to continue to give Republicans power who will help, of course, to empower the president of the United States?'" Enten explained. "And Trump's numbers on his physical health on starting to look an awful bit like Joe Biden's were going into the 2024 election, and that is not a comparison you want."

Republican lambasted in hometown paper after ‘vile’ out-of-state attack

A Republican was criticized for racist remarks in an opinion piece published by the GOP lawmaker's hometown paper and written by Virginia's Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi Friday.

In her op-ed for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Hashmi, who is a Georgia native, called out Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) for his "vile, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim attack on his X social media account targeting Virginia state Sen. Saddam Salim, D-District 37. Rhetoric such as Clyde’s is never harmless; it perpetuates violence, scapegoats entire communities and is antithetical to the core principles of our democracy."

Clyde wrote the following on May 15: "Saddam Azlan Salim, who immigrated from Bangladesh, authored Virginia’s new unconstitutional gun ban. Attempting to naturalize those who hold beliefs that are incompatible with our Constitution is a recipe for disaster—in this case, disarmament. Denaturalize. Deport. Defend 2A."

Hashmi cited why Clyde's messaging was so damaging in the wake of a fatal shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego last week where two extremist teens had attacked a mosque housing a school with children and left a security guard and two community members dead.

"Rep. Clyde is not a constitutional attorney. If he were, he might know that citizenship in the United States is not treated as conditional based on partisan politics. We are allowed to disagree with one another on matters of policy without facing threats of deportation," Hashmi wrote.

She described how Salim, who Clyde spoke about in his social post, has focused on gun violence prevention and common-sense gun laws in Virginia.

"Why do I care what Clyde has to say about one Virginia state senator? I know that Clyde would never have made such racist and bigoted comments about the other state senator who was the actual author of the law (Senate Bill 749) that finally puts basic regulations around deadly assault weapons in Virginia," she wrote.

She urged Georgia voters to take a stance against Clyde in the upcoming midterm elections.

"I care about what Rep. Clyde has to say because his efforts to target this particular Virginia state senator harm all Georgians, my fellow Virginians, and our values as Americans," Hashmi wrote. "Clyde’s ugly rhetoric attempts to divide us and to scapegoat hundreds of millions of immigrants who are devoted to America and raising their children to be proud of both their heritage and this country — just as my parents raised me."

Red flag raised over alleged GOP effort to boost controversial Dem's candidacy

A Democratic candidate who said she wants to turn an ICE facility into a "prison for American Zionists" was prompting outrage among Democrats who are scrambling to figure out how to isolate her amid allegations that a Republican-linked group could be funding her campaign, according to an Axios report on Wednesday.

Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist running for Texas' newly-redrawn 35th Congressional District consisting of eastern San Antonio, wrote in a long campaign Instagram post last weekend that she would make Karnes County Immigration Processing Center "a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers."

Democrats have voiced their concerns about Galindo's candidacy as questions have surfaced about who has funded her campaign. Some lawmakers have urged the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to block her nomination and Axios reported there is "private pressure" to spend money to push back on her run for office.

"A mysterious PAC is spending hundreds of thousands to boost Galindo, which Democrats allege is a Republican attempt to ensure the GOP candidate in that district faces a weak opponent in November," Axios reported.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Suzan DelBene (D-WA) released a statement Tuesday taking a stance on Galindo's comments.

"House Republican leadership must immediately cease propping up this antisemitic candidacy," Jeffries and DelBene said.

Two lawmakers — Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) — have warned that if elected, they have a plan to try and force her out of Congress.

"If, for some reason, Maureen Galindo wins ... as soon as she is sworn in, we will force a vote to expel her every day she is here," the two Democrats wrote in a joint statement.

"Maureen's insane, antisemitic views — including putting Americans in concentration camps — have no place in our Party or country," Gottheimer and Moskowitz said.

Galindo, who finished first in the Democratic primary, will be in a runoff election on May 26 with Sheriff's Deputy Johnny Garcia, according to The Texas Tribune.

Blindsided Republicans panic that Trump just cost them the Senate: report

Republicans are worried that Trump's latest endorsement will cost them control of the Senate, according to a new report.

A Republican familiar with Texas politics told NOTUS that Trump's endorsement of the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton could cost the GOP its Senate majority in the upcoming midterms, according to a report.

Trump endorsed Paxton on Tuesday instead of Sen. John Cornyn ahead of the Texas runoff for the Republican Senate nomination.

"As late as Monday afternoon, Senate leaders believed Trump was going to stay out of the race," a source told NOTUS. "Especially with the runoff just a week away."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on Tuesday it would be harder to win the Senate seat with Paxton as the nominee, according to NOTUS.

"I think Paxton can win, yeah, but I think it'd be three times more expensive," Graham said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) agreed, telling reporters, "We've got to raise a lot more money now," and that the endorsement "complicates" the GOP's effort to keep its Senate majority.

"The fact that the president would choose to endorse not Sen. Cornyn, but a candidate who probably is going to struggle mightily in the general, is a problem," Murkowski added, according to NOTUS.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) had been trying "to sway Trump toward endorsing Cornyn or, at the very least, staying out of the race," an aide told NOTUS.

Trump told Thune in a phone call on Monday that "he was planning on endorsing Paxton but stopped short of saying it outright," a senior Republican aide said to NOTUS. "Thune left the conversation with little clarity about what Trump would do."

Ex-GOP senator predicts 'great migration' as GOP lawmakers turn backs on Trump

Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) had a warning for Republicans on Tuesday, suggesting that the Department of Justice's $1.8 billion fund that could give Trump supporters compensation will create a serious backlash for the GOP in midterm elections.

Flake told CNN anchor Brianna Keilar on Tuesday that he expects to see Republicans flee Congress as a result of the decision and expected that more conservative lawmakers would need to take a firm stance on the Trump DOJ's announcement.

"If I were a Republican, I would run so far and so fast away from this and condemn it, because it's going to come back to haunt Republicans and this White House and anybody who's associated with it," Flake said. "The way the president has already directed the Department of Justice to go after his political enemies. And now we'll use this to reward his political friends. This is something that if you're a Republican, you don't want to be anywhere near."

With midterms months away, and President Donald Trump pushing for revenge against Republicans who have challenged him and targeting primary races in battleground states, Flake suggested it could cost GOP lawmakers in the long-term.

"After this election, I mean, the president will be a lame duck," Flake said. "There's already going to be after the filing deadlines are done, after the primaries are complete and certainly after the midterms, you'll see a great migration of Republicans away from some of the president's policies, certainly on tariffs and on the war and some other things that they want to distance themselves from. But if there's something like this that that just smacks of corruption — directing money toward your political allies. That's something that Republicans not just for this election, but for future elections, and just because it's not a good thing, to stand up, for the republic. I mean, they're going to want to distance themselves from this. This is a bad deal."

GOP lawmaker who beat Trump warns president's latest win will lead to 'very hard November'

A conservative lawmaker cautioned that President Donald Trump's political attacks on Republicans who have challenged him could tank GOP candidates in midterm elections this fall.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), who has opted not to seek re-election in 2026 and will retire at the end of his term in 2027, described his thoughts about Sen. Bill Cassidy's (R-LA) loss to a Trump-endorsed challenger in the primary race during a conversation with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer on Monday.

"The president has a lot of leverage in the primaries," Bacon said. "There's no doubt he did come after me in 2022. I was able to prevail. But for the most part, the president has had a tremendous success in the primaries. The problem is it doesn't translate one for one anyway. In the general election right now, I saw polling today where he's at 37% and the generic polling showing the Democrats are up about 11 points. That is a recipe for a very hard November for my party."

He warned that Republicans could face backlash over Trump's revenge campaign, citing how Cassidy had voted to convict Trump during one of his impeachment hearings in the president's first administration over the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. That led to Trump endorsing a challenger, Julia Letlow, who will now face off against John Fleming, Louisiana's state treasurer and a former Trump administration official, in the runoff election on June 27, according to The Associated Press.

"And what I think most voters want is they like a lot of the president's policies, but they don't want a rubber stamp," Bacon said.

Bacon said that Americans want to see checks and balances under the Constitution.

"And right now they're not really seeing that checks and balance," Bacon said. "They're seeing sort of a 'yes man' mentality. And I think that will hurt us. You know, Sen. Cassidy, I have a lot of respect for. I hated to see him lose. I also know Julia Letlow. I think she's a great congressman [SIC] from Louisiana. But I do think the president wants blind loyalty in Congress from Republicans. He's not the only president to have demanded this in the past, but I don't think it works for him in the long run. Some independent thinking and feedback would make him stronger. And I believe if Congress would step in more on tariffs and on Ukraine, our favorables would be much higher."

'Republicans are toast': GOP insiders reportedly quietly mull throwing Trump overboard

President Donald Trump has put Republicans in a tough spot ahead of midterm elections — and GOP insiders are starting to acknowledge it behind closed doors, according to reports on Friday.

In a new episode from The Daily Blast, The New Republic's podcast from host Greg Sargent, he reported new polling results have revealed that Trump "is literally the most unpopular U.S. president ever when it comes to gas prices" as questions about the president's corruption have come into the public eye.

"NBC News is reporting that some House Republicans privately admit that Donald Trump and MAGA are now a serious liability in the midterms," The New Republic reported. "They’re in a trap. Republicans can’t decide whether to rely on Trump to turn out his supporters—voters that Republicans very much need—because that risks tying them too closely to the ailing, unpopular president."

Now, Republicans are growing increasingly worried about whether to stand with the president.

"That GOP trap—whether or not to run with Trump—perfectly captures how the GOP’s uncritical embrace of the president is backfiring in just about every way," according to The New Republic.

Sargent cited how the soaring gas prices could determine how Republicans perform in November's midterms, referencing comments from right-leaning economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin from a Washington Post report earlier this week.

"He said that people inside the White House, Republicans in and around the White House, are growing anxious," Sargent reported. "He said, 'They’re very worried.' And then he said this: 'I think there’s no way to sugarcoat that if we don’t get the price of gasoline down, Republicans are toast. It’s really simple.'"

The Bulwark's Mona Charen, host of The Mona Charen Show, added her insights — and whether she thought Republicans could recover from the crushing polls.

"Well, I mean, barring some sort of miracle, it doesn’t seem likely," Charen said. "They always say that prices go up like a rocket and come down like a feather. And so it is hard to get prices down quickly enough. The conventional wisdom is that people make their voting decisions by August of an election year, and pretty much after that it doesn’t much matter—they’ve made up their minds. So we’re in May. Could something happen to bring prices down by August? I’m not going to say it’s impossible. I just think it’s exceedingly unlikely."

She also described how Democrats could use this to their advantage — and how the fight against authoritarianism is far from over.

"As for whether Republicans are toast, I would just say this," Charen added. "In all likelihood, they’re going to have a bad year. Democrats should be doing everything possible to make it a terrible year. But this is going to be a long-term struggle that we are in against illiberalism and quasi-fascism. And it ain’t going to be over in November."