Trump allies panic as president follows eerily similar path to historical gaffe: report

A number of President Donald Trump’s supporters are growing “increasingly aware” that the president is on course to “tank Republicans’ chances in the midterms,” Semafor reported Tuesday, and in a manner eerily similar to a past crisis that sank the reelection bid of former President Jimmy Carter.

“Let me refer you to Jimmy Carter,” a person “close to Trump” bluntly told Semafor on the condition of anonymity, referencing the bind the president had gotten himself into regarding his deeply unpopular war against Iran, which has sent oil and food prices soaring.

Assuming the presidency in 1977, Carter was already facing elevated gas prices due to an oil embargo implemented in 1973 by the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, imposed on countries that supported Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw Iranians overthrow their government that was imposed on the nation in a 1953 U.S. and British-backed coup, further inflated oil prices.

Carter’s botched handling of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis only further cemented his eventual election loss in 1980. And now, Trump backers fear Trump, who’s unsuccessfully sought an exit from his war with Iran, may be on a near-identical path.

“We can’t get the good news of this administration on the front page, and we cannot get the bad news of this administration off the front page,” the person close to Trump told Semafor. “Why would the press suddenly want to cooperate?”

Another insider, who Semafor described as a person “close to the White House,” argued that Trump’s best bet was to simply “lower the public’s interest” in the conflict, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott wrote.

“If Iran becomes background noise instead of daily front-page news, [the] midterm impact will be much less than if there’s constant whiplash and escalation,” they said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.