House Republicans have felt more optimistic about the midterm elections in recent weeks following a series of legal victories that have facilitated a gerrymandering blitz in GOP-controlled states, but behind closed doors, the leader of the GOP – President Donald Trump – appears to have already “resigned to losing,” The Wall Street Journal reported Friday night.
“At times, the president has seemed resigned to losing, pointing out that the party in control almost always suffers in the midterms,” The Journal’s report reads. “Privately, Trump has occasionally told aides that he doesn’t care about the outcome, according to people familiar with the comments.”
Trump’s alleged private remarks – that he’s indifferent to the outcome of the midterm elections – come in the wake of his controversial remarks on Tuesday expressing indifference to another matter: Americans’ “financial situation.”
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” Trump said when asked whether “Americans’ financial situations” motivated him to end his deeply unpopular war against Iran, which has sent prices skyrocketing.
Trump has an enormous war chest to potentially help bolster Republicans’ election prospects in November, though some GOP lawmakers and candidates have grown increasingly anxious that the president may withhold the $347 million his super PAC has in its coffers.
“Some Republicans have privately questioned if Trump will unleash any of the $347 million that has poured into MAGA Inc., the super political-action committee aligned with the president, suggesting he will want to hold on to it for other things,” the Journal’s report reads.