I’ll be the first to admit to having had strange delusions or fantasies. (No, I didn’t obsess over getting to spend time at Hef’s Playboy Mansion in its heyday) However the overwhelmingly dominant one that had consumed fifty years of my life DID come true in 2016 (the Cubs didn’t just make it to the World Series which was all I’d dared to wish for but won it!) so anything’s possible. LIKELY is another thing entirely however. Even Trump knows the GOP House Majority is in deep trouble come November. Even the Senate could flip although that’s still a tossup at best. However RNC Chair Joe Gruters says they’ve got “Secret Weapon” ready to deploy that will ensure GOP victory in the midterms. Trump. I kid you not.
First of all, a weapon isn’t “Secret” if you go bragging that you’ve got it. Same with “deploying” it. Second, if your political (ahem) weapon is about the level of quality of an old Yugo that’s been sitting in a repair shop for years I wouldn’t go betting the farm it will drive you to the Promised Land. Still, according to Fox News Gruters is convinced that Trump will lead the Republican Party to a ‘bigly’ win when the midterms come around in November. I can’t help but wonder if he’s been using Ronny Jackson as his doctor. (Or supplier. Jackson was after all known as Dr. Pill Popper) I can’t help but wonder if Gruters has even talked to, much less listened to elected Republicans. On Capitol Hill or at the state level.
Sure, there are some die-hards in deep, deep DEEP red places that would welcome Trump showing up on the stage with them at a campaign event. Or appearing via video. Most however are working on how to avoid exactly that! Moses Mikey Johnson in particular can put on a brave face and parrot the line of b.s. that Trump is awesome and any GOPer would be lucky to have him show up to campaign for them. However even he knows better! Still, according to Gruten Trump, despite his bottom of his fake gold toilet ratings will save the day. You know, the rational part of me knows how stupid it is to use drugs to escape from reality but some days I wish I had a dose of whatever the hell these asshats are taking.
Trump’s approval has steadily declined. Even on immigration which was the main issue that propelled him to office he’s now underwater. And that was BEFORE Renee Good was shot and killed by his ‘ICEstapo.’ Yep, a poll had been taken just prior and the results were released that very same day that showed even in his signature issue Trump was drowning. I think it’s safe to say his actions since won’t get even his head, his ugly nose and fat mouth above water on it.
Then their are his MAGAs. The ones who were solidly Republican are still with him as polling shows. Believe it or not for self-identified Republicans he’s still got solid approval (in the eighties) support. However, it’s not the ninety-plus percent Trump surely thinks it should be. And, if he was doing things like in his first term likely would be! However the GOP only makes up a third of the electorate. Democrats make up another third. And Independents make up the final third. As you’d expect Trump has abysmal ratings with Democrats, but his tanked polling numbers are because INDEPENDENT voters who were willing to give him a chance grew to regret their votes during 2025.
As with Trump’s MAGAs they are pissed off about the Epstein files being mostly hidden. They are also pissed off by Trump’s apparent willingness to send U.S. troops into combat in Venezuela and even Iran. There’s also an increasing ‘WTF is he thinking?” about his threats to take over freaking Greenland. It’s exactly the kind of foreign intervention Trump has long railed against yet know seems almost casual about engaging in. Finally, there’s the economy. Trump’s broken his promises to them on that too. He can brag about the cost of gas being down (not by much, if anything in most places), or that eggs don’t cost as much. However everything else at the store does. Inflation hasn’t gone down and indications are it’s inching UP.
I could write several articles about all the promises Trump made and hasn’t kept. The important thing though is that Trump is demanding Americans ignore the evidence he’s lying to them and accept the bullshit version of reality he’s trying to sell them. Democrats of course always knew Trump was playing his MAGAs, what passes for moderate Republicans and most importantly Independents as “suckers and losers.” Well, Independents came to realize that. I’m betting even more will, especially when health care insurance premiums jump as they are starting to do. MAGA is still solid for now but there have been cracks in its armor and they could turn into fractures.
So, if RNC Chair Grutens thinks trotting Trump himself out there to rally folks will happen, and that it will lead to not only holding majority status but increase it you have to wonder what the hell he’s smoking! Yet he’s convinced Trump is the answer:
The GOP is also dealing with a low propensity issue: MAGA voters who don’t always go to the polls when Trump’s name isn’t on the ballot.
But Gruters noted that Trump’s made stops in recent weeks in three key midterm election battlegrounds and said that the president’s “going to barnstorm the country with our candidates.”
“Barnstorm the country?” Really? Trump didn’t have anywhere near as many of his rallies during the 2024 campaign as before. The ones he did were almost always in smaller venues (which even then he couldn’t always fill with supporters) and for all his wisecracks about ‘Sleepy Joe Biden’ Trump himself seemed low-energy. Yes, he could ramp up into a few minutes of old-style ranting here and there in his rambling speeches but rallygoers left early. Sometimes in droves. Since returning to office he’s often literally dragging one leg as he shuffles along, has to lean heavily on podiums, and when he tries to ‘bust a move’ his dancing has gotten even MORE pathetic. For the most part, he speaks in a monotone that’s sometimes downright whiny.
Yet Grutens tell us this is the RNC’s Secret Weapon. Well, since you told us it’s not exactly a secret dude. Also, you’re assuming a lot thinking Trump will be out their ‘barnstorming’ all over the country. He’s simply not up to it. How much is he diminished physically? Correct me if I’m wrong but even his golf outings seemed to have slacked off! I for one thing Grutens is not just wrong but STUPID wrong on two counts. The first is that Trump will be out there making lots of campaign stops to promote Republican candidates. Most them don’t want him and a simple “Don’t worry sir, I’ve got this and we need YOU in DC doing what you do.” Trump will eat that flattery up like a huge slice of ‘beautiful chocolate cake’ with not two but three scoops of ice cream.
Second, even if some of our candidates lean towards dumbassery they will tie Trump around their GOP opponent’s neck like an anchor. The best thing Trump can do is to just STFU and while that’s not in his DNA his declining health (both physical and mental) will force him to be what is also in his DNA – lazy! He can’t help most Republican candidates but he sure as hell can hurt damned near all of them:
“One year into his second term, Donald Trump has made one thing unmistakably clear: He doesn’t care about everyday Americans — he only cares about himself and his billionaire donors. As working families struggle to afford groceries, utilities, and health care, and worry about finding a job, Trump is busy meddling in foreign countries and palling around with executives, failing to address Americans’ top concerns on the economy,” DNC Rapid Response Director Kendall Witmer argued in a statement.
And pointing to November’s midterm elections, Witmer predicted, “Voters won’t forget Trump’s betrayal come midterms — and Republicans will have to answer for it.”
Part of me hopes Gruters is right about Trump hitting the campaign trail and/or getting seriously involved. Many have said and I agree our best weapon against Trump is Trump himself. MAGAs who are becoming disaffected over Trump’s broken promises (not a lot but enough now that it could turn into five to ten percent of them) would never, ever vote for a Democrat. However it’s quite possible if not likely that enough would vote third Party or just stay home to make a huge difference. Simply put, the MAGA vote will not a Majority make.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
“For the most part, he speaks in a monotone that’s sometimes downright whiny.”
“Sometimes?” “SOMETIMES?”
Even in 2016, there was not one single Drumpf speech that could NOT be described as “whiny.” Hell, I’d never heard so much whining even when he was speaking at louder volumes. The man is not, and never has been, a public speaker. Even his “trademark” slogan from TV was delivered in a boring manner (and that was before it became his “trademark”); the man was supposed to be a corporate CEO but if he actually told one of his REAL employees they were fired in the tone he did on “The Apprentice,” they be asking if he was joking. If anything, his current speaking is even MORE whiny than before.
Trump is their ‘secret weapon’ ?
I guess bows and arrows in a gunfight are too.
And likely as effective.
The secret weapon is voter suppression. ICE is already working in it under the pretense of giving a shit about immigration. But don’t count it out. They will go to any lengths they think they need to, including murder if they believe it’s necessary.