President Donald Trump’s boast that the United States is making a fortune from the Iran war — even as Americans face high gas prices — has fueled a provocative theory from The New Republic’s Michael Tomasky.
Writing ahead of next week’s high-stakes midterms, Tomasky argued that Trump may actually want his party to lose control of Congress.
“Inside that aging, creaking, mildewed mind, so well lubricated by the venom he spews at enemies near and far, is unquestionably a secret and perverse desire for the Republicans to lose,” he wrote.
Tomasky pointed to Trump’s remarks at a Georgia rally Saturday, when the president said his advisers had urged him to highlight oil industry profits while people were paying more at the pump.
“But I said, ‘I don’t give a damn, I’m gonna say it: We’re making a frickin’ fortune,’” Trump told rallygoers.
Tomasky built his case with three reasons to support his theory. First, he argued that Trump could use Republican losses to claim the party cannot win without him on the ballot.
Second, he suggested that Trump would relish a fight with Democrats if they regained control of Congress and began investigating his administration.
His third concern was that Democratic victories would allow Trump to make baseless claims that the election was stolen.
“So there’s no reason to be surprised that Trump said what he said Saturday,” Tomasky wrote.
“It communicates to the MAGA-brained that Trump and Trump alone is the swashbuckling Quixote, brave enough to speak the unconventional truths that those timorous ninnies advising him would never utter,” the analyst concluded Monday.