Republicans are bracing for a bruising midterm, and President Donald Trump’s top political adviser, James Blair, is shaping up as a likely fall guy.
According to a new report by The Atlantic, insiders say he’s starting with a strike against him that has nothing to do with politics.
“As a rule, Trump prefers men with full heads of hair,” The Atlantic reported Thursday. One Trump ally guessed that the president believes such men are “genetically superior,” and a second person “laughingly — but seriously — concurred.”
The 37-year-old Blair keeps his head “shorn shiny,” the outlet noted, and is “brash and intense.” He doesn’t fit the “garrulous operatives with big personalities” that Trump usually likes, but a White House official said Trump has come to value Blair’s “candor and political savvy anyway.”
The president once called him “a wet blanket” with “no personality” before deciding he was “a tough guy,” and he has since upgraded Blair’s nickname from “Little James” to “Brilliant James.” “Hail to the Chief” plays whenever Trump calls Blair’s phone.
That goodwill may be tested soon. Republicans now face an “almost-certain” loss of the House, as Democrats lead the generic ballot by nine points, and Senate races in Texas, Kansas and Iowa have tightened.
GOP operatives have already started the “post-election second-guessing,” reported The Atlantic, and they’re asking whether ad spending should have started sooner, whether Trump should have endorsed Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), and whether the “Trumpapalooza” midterm convention “that no one wanted” could have been avoided.
“If the election goes poorly for Republicans, who will Trump choose to blame?” the magazine asked. “The one thing everyone expects: The president will not blame himself.”
Blair’s critics call him “imperious, smug, and in over his head," and some suspect he wants to run a 2028 presidential campaign.
The high-flying aide has also handed his detractors ammunition, according to The Atlantic.
After leaving the White House this spring to run the outside spending operation, he took on private clients, including Meta, and in October, he and Chris LaCivita made a paid trip to the pro-Russian Republika Srpska to advise officials on spotting fraud on Smartmatic voting machines. The trip “infuriated Republicans” and drew a rare public rebuke from Trump, and the two agreed to donate the fee to Trump’s presidential library.
Blair seems to know what’s coming. Two weeks before the election, he answered his critics on X with a line from Isaiah, “Here am I; Send me.” The verse comes from a passage about cities “laid waste.”
He’s still on offense, though. He’s telling Republicans to get ready for another redistricting push next year to take advantage of a Supreme Court ruling that weakened the Voting Rights Act. He has also assured allies that if Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) becomes speaker, it will be for just one term.
“The president likes guys who bring him victories,” former Trump aide James Braid told The Atlantic.