Republican operatives are venting their frustration with President Donald Trump as he spends the final two weeks of the midterm campaign on distractions and attacks on his own party.
GOP candidates want to talk about the tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump accounts for children and the administration’s push to lower prescription drug prices, but instead, they told Politico, they’re stuck answering for a since-scrapped plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of the Fort Hood shooter, taxpayer-funded ads promoting the president, and a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to bring down diesel costs.
“He has constantly been distracted,” one GOP operative working on multiple midterm races told Politico, “and not focused on what the voters care about. It’s insane.”
Trump has also turned his fire on fellow Republicans. He went after Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) over her ad criticizing his immigration policies and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) over a daylight saving time bill. On Thursday, he attacked Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and strategist Karl Rove, blaming them for hurting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign.
A Texas-based GOP consultant called the attacks “counterproductive.”
“Not only are they turning off our voters but they’re also p---ing off all of us,” the consultant said.
The chaos comes as Republicans face the prospect of losing Senate seats in GOP strongholds like Alaska, Iowa, Kansas and Texas, and as House Republicans grow increasingly despondent about keeping their majority. Trump’s approval ratings are at or near their lowest ever, and voters are angry about the war he started with Iran and the higher gas prices it caused, Politico noted.
“We’re learning about a lot of these things at the same time that the voters and the Democrats and everybody else is,” said a senior GOP operative working on House and Senate races. “You’re caught flat-footed a lot of the time, and you’re expected to react to things in real time.”
Some of Trump’s moves have clearly broken through with voters. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll, 86 percent of Americans, including 80 percent of Republicans, said the taxpayer-funded ads featuring the president were inappropriate. The Russian diesel deal was toxic enough that three GOP Senate candidates came out against it: Mike Rogers in Michigan, Dan Sullivan in Alaska and Ashley Hinson in Iowa.
Before Trump called him out, Rove said Republicans would normally count on the White House to set a message. “Look at each day last week. What was the message from the White House? Little of it was constructive.”
The White House has been consumed with internal turmoil in recent days, as well. Press secretary Katie Zacharia left her post Friday after just five days on the job, and even chief of staff Susie Wiles, long seen as untouchable, has come under fire.
Trump’s allies insist the president is a net positive who can drive turnout. RNC press secretary Natalie Baldassarre dismissed the criticism, saying “Republicans can walk and chew gum at the same time.”