Trump in 'distress' over midterms — despite faking 'indifference': NYT analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump caused a great deal of anxiety among GOP strategists and Republicans in Congress when, during a Cabinet meeting in late May, he declared, "I don't care about the midterms." But New York Times opinion columnist Frank Bruni believes that Trump's "indifference" to the 2026 midterms is merely an act. In reality, Bruni emphasizes, Trump is suffering acute "distress" over the possibility of Republicans losing the U.S. House of Representatives in November.

"Ever the performer, President Trump has lately been putting on a show of indifference," Bruni argues in the New York Times. "The congressional elections on Tuesday, November 3? Farthest thing from his mind…. Trump's imperial airs, blasé banter and self-indulgent decisions — such as his endorsement of (Texas Attorney General) Ken Paxton, who is now the Republicans' hugely vulnerable nominee in the crucial U.S. Senate race in Texas — create the impression of a president unshakably confident and blissfully unconcerned about voters' looming judgment. Don't be fooled."

Bruni continues, "He may be too arrogant and insulated to fret as much as he should, but there are reasons for his public nonchalance. There are also plenty of exceptions to it."

Bruni lays out a variety of ways in which Trump, according to the Times columnist, is showing how worried about the midterms he really is.

"The most obvious evidence of his intense interest in the midterms is how hard he has tried to stack the deck in Republicans' favor," Bruni explains. "The rash of Republican gerrymandering over recent months — with redrawn congressional districts in Texas, North Carolina, Florida and more — didn't just happen organically, with state-level Republicans beseeching him to support the effort. He ordered them to undertake it. Bullied them, in fact. And he brutally punished any insubordination, as the Indiana Republicans who recently lost their primaries to Trump-endorsed challengers can attest…. And why insist so furiously on new voting rules nationwide?"

Trump, Bruni warns, is making a concerted effort to "depress Democratic votes."

"When he talks now about his willingness to suffer whatever political price he must to eliminate Iran as a nuclear threat," Bruni writes, "that's not high-minded, farsighted, selfless leadership…. It's damage control."

Trump, Bruni notes, warned fellow Republicans that if Democrats retake the House in November, he will likely face a third impeachment.

"That doesn't sound like denial," Bruni writes. "It sounds like distress…. Beneath all that bluster and makeup, he's sweating."