Donald Trump’s sojourn to Kentucky on Wednesday, where he used his bully pulpit to attack Rep. Thomas Massie (R) in his home territory, led to questions over whether the president is his own worst enemy.
Massie, a far-right Republican, has been a thorn in Trump’s side not only on the Jeffrey Epstein files, but also with his attacks on the president for not living up to his promises to the MAGA supporters.
That led “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough to question whether the president has lost his connection with his supporters and to suggest he has turned his back on the people who handed him a second term.
“Can I ask, just open table here and I'm not being facetious here, does he care anymore?” he asked his panel. “Does he does he care what happens to the Republican party? Or has he decided we're going to lose, I know we're going to lose, I'm going to do whatever the hell I want to do. Are we at that stage, John Lemire?"
“Some of his aides have actually tried to get him to be less pessimistic about the midterms," co-host Lemire replied. “I mean, yes, there's a sense that he feels the House is likely gone, right? They think the Senate can be can can still be kept. He knows that's bad for him. He does not want that, right, if the Democrats take the House.”
“He looks at the polls and he sees that the numbers are just heinous,” Scarborough pointed out. “All these off-year elections have been heinous for Republicans. Is he just getting to a point where he just doesn't care anymore?”
“He's even said in his public remarks a couple of times now; ‘Oh, history tells you that the party out of power does well in the midterms.’ Like sort of suggesting he sees sort of seeing a loss on the horizon,” Lemire stated. “And this is also a particularly tough one in Kentucky. First of all, it's a state where voters pride themselves on independence. There's a Democratic governor in Kentucky, as much as it is a red state. And also his ability to sort of dictate who he wants to win Republican primaries. Though he still has a very good record, he's not undefeated anymore. He's taken a few losses, including recently, so there's not any sense here that this could work.”