I’ll try to make this short and sweet. And yes it is sweets news. Team Trump has undertaken an effort to boost Republican’s enthusiasm and new polling shows it hasn’t worked. In fact, the effort might be doing more harm than good!
That’s the takeaway in this short article from Raw Story. For all his bluster about how the GOP will continue to hold the House and Senate this fall he knows damn well his own polling has tanked. Worse, his approval among Republicans has dropped. It’s still seemingly high – I heard the high 70s this morning on MS NOW but it used to be around 90% give or take a point or two. A ten percent falloff, and his flailing on the war in Iran, controlling the cost of living and yes, a certain renewal of Epstein stuff might well drive that number down even more. Oh, and it doesn’t help that even many elected Republicans and operatives see his trashing of mail-in voting as likely doing more to harm their Party than Democrats!
Nothing Trump tries seems to be working and deep down he knows it. Personally I’ve thought that his talk of going for a third term was due to an assumption that during what would be his ‘lame duck’ last two years of term two he’d have a compliant GOP on Capitol Hill running cover. Instead he’s looking at an onslaught of investigations and not just from the House. Odds are even that we will retake the Senate too and in addition to their own investigations Trump can kiss his ability to get people confirmed to important positions, AND judges will be gone! With District and Appellate Courts increasingly fed up with him SCOTUS won’t be able to help as much as he’d like either.
That’s why this summer Trump has tried various things to somehow steer through the increasing political/electoral headwinds facing the GOP. Denial of things like the cost of living being a problem for Americans (or calling it fake news), distractions with all his vanity projects, attempted (and failed) prosecutions of political enemies etc. wasn’t working so a new strategy was developed. It’s not working either:
Republicans have been pushing several policy positions in hopes of getting their base to turn out for the midterms, such as increasing voter identification requirements, fighting back against a billionaire tax proposal in California, and addressing the rising cost of living. President Donald Trump has also pleaded with voters to pretend he’s on the ballot in state races to boost turnout.
But Mike Madrid, a long-time GOP strategist, warned in a new Substack essay that recent polling shows these attempts are falling flat.
At this point Trump is both telling voters (Republican ones at least) to forget about him and concentrate on House and Senate candidates, yet also saying to pretend he’s on the ballot. Sometimes both in the same speech! He’s throwing everything at the wall and nothing is sticking as the poll numbers continue to show:
“Ouch!” Madrid wrote about the falling poll numbers. “Initially viewed as a ‘turnout tool’ for Republicans because they needed something to goose GOP voters to show up and vote in a time when even the most MAGA are depressed about their President, the measures dropping support levels may actually be a drag.”
Trump’s always been his own worst enemy. Even Republicans are tired of his antics. Like you and others reading this they increasingly are just wanting a little normalcy. The best thing Trump could do is for the most part shut up. However we all know Trump wants to constantly be the center of attention and talk about ‘grand’ things he’s doing. OF COURSE he wanted voters to pretend he’s on the ballot! I don’t see him changing on that. In fact lately on things like gas and grocery prices he’s even told Americans it’s their duty to ‘suck it up’ for a while. That’s gone over like a lead balloon!
So keep talking Trump. Shoot off that fat mouth. The more you do the more damage you’ll do to yourself and your Party. Even the operative cited earlier thinks so, saying voters are turned off by Trump’s positions:
“Once voters find out this is a GOP tool that Trump supports, voters run from it like a measles outbreak,” he noted.
Let’s hope the Democratic Party overall but especially our candidates make a point of noting all that’s wrong with Trump BUT pivot and talk more about what we will do to address the things voters want. If we do Trump will be in for the longest two years of his despicable life.
As Obama has said, “please proceed.”