In an attempt to stem the bleeding away of support from Republican women who are abandoning President Donald Trump in extraordinary numbers, the White House is attempting to change the optics in his public appearances.
That's according to Doug Sosnik, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, in a new memo aimed at the Democratic leadership shared with Politico Playbook.
Sosnik argues that if Republicans lose both chambers of Congress in November, it will knock the wind out of Trump's sails within the party.
"This election will mark the end of the [Trump] era as the bailing wire that held this political structure together will begin to unravel," Sosnik wrote. "Immediately following the elections, attention will shift to selecting the next president of the United States."
A Financial Times poll released last week put Trump's approval among Republicans at just 72 percent, while a new NBC News poll found his "strong approval" with the GOP base has "cratered 11 points" since the spring, falling from 52 percent to 41 percent — the first time it's dropped below half in that poll's history.
A survey from Bellwether Research found a full quarter of Republican women who voted for Trump now disapprove of his job performance, part of "a broader slide" that's seen his numbers among women sink across multiple polls this summer.
According to Sosnik, "Driving much of this decline is the defection of Republican women. Republicans are clearly
aware of this vulnerability, as evidenced by efforts to surround Trump with women voters on both nights when he spoke at their convention."
