Republican operatives and White House allies are privately resigned to the fact they may lose the Senate, and fear the House is all but gone too as President Donald Trump's relentless self-sabotage makes an already difficult midterm environment nearly impossible to navigate, Politico reported Wednesday.
“Everything is made more difficult by the nonsense coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” one Republican operative close to the White House told Politico.
The latest self-inflicted wound came on Wednesday, when Trump torpedoed his own Tax Day messaging, designed to tout middle-class tax relief, by threatening again to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell during a friendly Fox Business interview. The outburst overshadowed a carefully orchestrated White House push featuring Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler.
"The road to victory runs through a consistent economic message," said Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign and staunch MAGA supporter on CNN. "Unfortunately, President Trump ignores the road map."
Just 38 percent of Americans support the Iran war, according to a new Politico poll. More than half — 53 percent — have a negative view of Trump. Even 20 percent of self-identified MAGA voters think Trump is spending too much time on foreign policy.
"Everyone is focused on doing what we can to hold the Senate because people are very worried about that," a second GOP operative told the outlet. "It’s crazy,” the person added, that there is serious concern about the Senate now.
Conservative radio host Erick Erickson warned that Trump's Jesus post and pope feud are accelerating his lame-duck status and threatening his ability to drive the midterm agenda.
"If he wants to minimize people looking to 2028 past him, he can’t do stuff like this. It minimizes the ability to keep the focus on him and his policies as people finally get tired of it. That’s bad for the midterms and bad for his ability to advance his agenda,” he said.