Top GOP donor floats 'sacrificing' Trump to 'protect the Senate at all costs'

President Donald Trump keeps getting brutal polling numbers, and the latest polling averages at both FiveThirtyEight and Real Clear Politics show the president losing to Democratic rival Joe Biden by roughly 10 points.

While many Trump-backing Republicans haven't totally given up hope, they're starting to contemplate alternate electoral strategies that don't involve holding onto the White House and instead keeping the Senate as a way to obstruct anything Biden proposes should he win the White House.

"I hope the polls have it wrong," Dan Eberhart, a top GOP donor, tells the Associated Press. "But Republicans... need to develop a campaign strategy committed to protecting the Senate at all costs, even if it means sacrificing the Oval Office."

Former George W. Bush Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, who is a reliable defender of the president, tells the AP that he fears Trump is leading his party to a total wipeout where no clever strategy for maintaining the Senate will suffice.

"He’s in trouble, there’s no question," he said. "By every traditional measuring stick, this looks like a Biden landslide. It’s hard to predict what will happen in Congress, but anytime there is a large-scale victory, it has the potential to create tides to sweep people out."