'Massacre': Texts reveal Republicans panicking about midterms

President Donald Trump has resorted to desperate measures to avoid losing the 2026 midterm elections, from attempting to rig them to weaponizing one candidate's past child abuse against her. Yet no matter what he has done, Republicans have continued to struggle in the polls and at the ballot box — and a new report indicates that they are panicking in private.

"Republicans are starting to privately worry the midterm elections are turning into a blue wave," reported Mediaite's Sean James on Tuesday. "Mark Halperin revealed three GOP strategists told him Election Night is going terribly for President Donald Trump’s party, with one telling him it is turning into a “blood bath” for Republicans."

James added, "“This is going to be a massacre,” another strategist told him, according to an X post Halperin shared at 7:55 p.m. ET. “Donald Trump asked voters to vote as if he was on the ballot. They did.”"

Mediaitei's journalist continued, "A third strategist grimly said, “It’s worse than anyone thought. The assumptions on the percentage of Republicans that would vote Republican was wrong.”"

According to James, "Halperin then listed several reasons why it was “obvious” things are going south for the Republicans: “Inflation, diesel, Iran, Israel, Epstein, data centers, ballroom, Trump family deals.”"

Even though Trump has struggled with all of those issues during his second term, many Republicans assumed that he could rally his base to vote in the 2026 midterms and thereby help Republicans retain their thin majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. Yet outsiders argue that the Trump movement cannot grow beyond its current parameters because it more closely resembles a cult.

Dr. Steven Hassan, a cult expert, told AlterNet In August that "a key point in my BITE [Behavior, Information, Thought and Emotional] model of authoritarian control is information control. I emphasize how these destructive groups, like the Trump movement, are lying all the time. And part of the appeal is really about using emotionally leading rhetoric to scare people, to create "the other," to demonize. I'll quote Eric Hoffer's 1951 book, "The True Believer." He said, "The strength of a mass movement is proportionate to the vividness and tangibility of its devil." We know that, evolutionarily, we're going to overreact to anything that's a perceived danger or threat to us. So "owning the libs" means that they are a danger, and he's going to save people from them."

He continued, "A lot of his messaging was, "I'm doing this for you.""