Exasperated Ex-GOP lawmaker lays full blame for November at Trump’s feet

U.S. President Donald Trump dances at a rally to kick off the Great American State Fair in celebration of the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 24, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

President Donald Trump was accused of sabotaging the Republican Party’s midterm prospects on Wednesday by a former GOP congressman.

“The SAVE America Act can't pass the Senate, and even if it did pass the Senate, they couldn't implement this law before the election. This has been an ongoing problem for House Republicans, where they simply don't have — they can't pass a rule," former Rep. Charles Dent (R-PA) told MS NOW’s Katy Tur. "I've lost track of how many rule votes have failed in this Congress. This should never, ever happen. That means you cannot advance your own agenda, and this is the problem Republicans are facing in this midterm.”

He added that Trump’s signature legislation, the One Big Beautiful Bill, “just isn’t going to cut it” in terms of convincing voters that Trump has tangibly helped them. Even worse, Trump has focused less on voters’ needs and more on “vanity projects that most Americans disapprove of and frankly think are completely detached from the economic realities that they face every single day,” Dent told Tur. “So if you're a Republican right now, you just kind of have to figure out what you want to talk about between now and the election. I don't think transgender issues will be the issue.”

When Tur asked Dent what Republicans could do to convince Americans to keep GOP in control of the legislature, the ex-lawmaker had little to offer.

“That's why I think Republicans are failing right now — because they don't have a really coherent message to take into the midterm,” Dent told Tur. “They know it. They know they're on the wrong side of a lot of issues, and that's why you're starting to see Republicans hoping that they can make an issue of these Democratic Socialists, or, you know, transgender women in sports, all sorts of issues that really probably just aren't going to be able to resonate. So they don't have much they can sell right now. They know it, and that's why they're failing, particularly in the House.”

MS NOW political analyst Basil Smikle then pointed out that Democrats can reclaim Congress by pointing out how Republicans are seemingly indifferent to Americans’ economic concerns. He cited Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) echoing Trump’s line that Americans are not in fact suffering economically, which Nehls justified by pointing to his own economic situation.

“I'm going to get me a couple of lobster tails, I'm going to get me some nice ribeyes, I'm going to sit in my backyard with my family, my neighbors, the American people,” Nehls told reporters at the Capitol, speaking on his summer plans. He added that he was "okay with the increase in fuel, because you knew it was going to happen with — with oil, the Strait, and everything. But it's temporary, it's a temporary issue.”

When Nehls was asked by a reporter whether the 60 percent of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck can afford lobster and ribs, he replied “Maybe not, maybe ... maybe that 60 percent of America don't work as hard as I do.”

“That's why you vote for Democrats,” Smikle told Tur.

Despite Nehl’s apparent nonchalance, Republican lawmakers in general have expressed alarm that Trump’s actions could cost them in the midterms. Dent himself has observed this as far back as November and reiterated the point earlier this month.

“If I wanted to lose a midterm election, I would do the things the President is doing,” Dent said at the time. “I would steal defeat from the jaws of victory on this Housing Bill. I would obsess over a ballroom. I would obsess on a pond — the reflecting pool — and an arch. I would say ‘I don't care about Americans’ financial condition. I mean it's as if he's trying to deliberately undermine his own party's electoral prospects.”

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