The boy in the bubble
By Mr. Donald Trump wishes to announce that the coming bloodbath in the midterms will have nothing to do with him:
President Donald Trump said voters may seek to punish Republicans — but not him — in the November midterm elections, as GOP lawmakers sweat that affordability concerns and the war in Iran could mean Democrats flip the House and perhaps even the Senate.
“They’re angry at Republicans,” Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News that aired Friday. “But they’re not angry at me. They’re not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.”
[…]
“I said to somebody, ‘Wait a minute, you don’t understand, I won,’” Trump said, referencing his 2024 presidential election victory. “I’m not campaigning.”
The biggest issue for Republicans this year? That Trump himself is not on the ballot, he said.
“If I don’t run, will those people go out and vote? And that’s the one thing I can’t tell, I’m going to ask them to,” he said.
There is actually a small grain of truth floating on this river of delusion. Trump’s ability to mobilize sporadic voters can make up for a lot of negatives, but Trump clones running in midterms don’t get the same advantages. And this is a side to, say, the Michigan Senate race that some people are neglecting. El-Sayed might be further from the median voter than is optimal on some issues, but the same and worse goes for Rogers, who is running as a completely generic Trump fanboy in a context that figures to be something like D +7.
And Trump’s approval numbers are, in fact, genuinely dismal:
If Trump had just not invaded Iran, the Senate probably wouldn’t be in play. But as it is, the hard floor that used to prop up Trump’s approval ratings has collapsed.