The underlying problem for Republicans come November COULD be Donald Trump ‘s shitty poll numbers from his TERRIBLE money grabbing second term in office combined with a War nobody wanted and want even less NOW…
Donald IS after his OWN party people….
He does NOT seem to care about much more than THAT and putting up Real Estate in Washington D.C.
Lord known he’s got Lousy Foreign Policy cooking…
Trump ran on a platform of lowering costs, securing the border, and cracking down on immigration. But after a year and a half, it’s clear that’s not really why Trump ran for a return to the White House. We know he doesn’t give two shits about lowering costs. He says “affordability” is bullshit and calls the massive gas price spike “peanuts.” He obviously hates immigrants and enjoys the cruel and unconstitutional mass deportation. But Trump’s true passion — his top priority, the reason he gets out of bed in the morning — is to exact revenge on his enemies. (His home renovation projects, like the ballroom, might be a close second.)
The Trump Administration has spent a ton of wasted effort over the last year trying to prosecute Trump’s enemies. They have tried and failed to indict Adam Schiff, Jerome Powell, Letitia James, and Fed Governor Lisa Cook. Trump did succeed in bullying his Justice Department into indicting former FBI Director Jim Comey for threatening him with a seashell photo. But the Comey case seems highly likely to be tossed by any sane judge….
…
Yes, the incumbent President can influence primaries in his own party. And yes, Trump is getting rid of the people he believes wronged him. But spending nearly $20 million to defeat a Republican in a district Trump won by 35 points is not the flex people think it is.
At best, this is a Pyrrhic victory — and Trump’s revenge tour is a big problem for the GOP moving forward….
…
Short Term Wins, Medium Term Problems
The message to Republicans from Kentucky, Louisiana, and elsewhere is crystal clear — buck Trump and lose your job.
The problem for Republicans on the ballot this fall is that the best way to keep their job might be to buck Trump.
Trump’s approval rating is under 40%. He is embroiled in a deeply unpopular war. Voters hate the economy and blame Trump’s economic policies. The voters who made up his winning coalition have abandoned him.
Trump is a massive drag on his party, and to win, many Republicans will need to show some independence from the deeply unpopular President.
Trump won’t let them do that. Cross him, and he could turn on you. It’s too late for Trump to run a primary challenge against someone now, but he could attack them on social media, depressing turnout among the MAGA base, or cut off funding from his array of well-heeled Super PACs.
We are seeing this dynamic play out in the Senate, where Trump is trying to force Republicans to take the politically suicidal step of spending upwards of a billion taxpayer dollars on his asinine ballroom vanity project.
A smarter, savvier, less megalomaniacal leader would give his party the room to do what they need to win.
Trump is incapable of doing so, and the GOP will pay a price for it.
Ronald Reagan is remembered as a conservative but big-tent Republican who welcomed the support of working-class Reagan Democrats, who would not have agreed with him on issues like Social Security or the minimum wage.
He famously said, “My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy.”
Which for most of us encapsulated a basic reality in practical electoral politics and coalition-building.
***
But for Donald Trump (about e.g. the Cheneys, Bill Cassidy and Thomas Massie), the guiding principle is:
“My 97% friend is my 100% enemy.”