'Pain, misery' and defeat: DC insider exposes GOP's private midterm funeral

President Donald Trump at the Republican National Midterm Convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., September 10, 2026. REUTERS/Jessica Koscielniak

Republicans are doing their best to put on a "brave face" heading into a potential midterm wipeout, but according to one D.C. insider, behind closed doors, they have been overtaken by "pain, misery and disillusionment" as November has started to look more and more like a funeral.

Tara Palmeri is an independent journalist with a long track record as a prominent Washington, D.C., correspondent, once described as among the most powerful reporters in the nation's capital. On Sunday, she returned from a bout of illness to deliver her findings after attending the GOP's unprecedented midterm convention and the extremely revealing and "eye-opening" private talks she encountered.

While noting that she was kicked out of the convention proper after trying to enter with Epstein survivors, she was able to get into a party event at a bar, where she described the tone as more like an "Irish wake." The event, hosted by Donald Trump Jr., took place at a bar in Dallas called The Rustic, and featured "a lot of Trump allies and operatives having a good time, drinking heavily, seeming to have a great moment and enjoying each other from a distance." Up close, however, Palmeri said their conversations were quite different.

"When I got closer, like within earshot, I heard stories about pain, misery and disillusionment," Palmeri explained. "Literally everyone I spoke to said that they could see a catastrophe coming. They thought that everyone else was clearly delusional. Perhaps they were just putting on a brave face for each other. But when I spoke to these sources, these Trump allies, these Republican operatives, it really turned into a therapy session."

She continued: "I mean, I heard anger, sadness [and] defeat from grown men, and one Trump ally pulled me aside as if to tell me, 'You heard it from me first. It's going to be a tsunami. Total wipeout. Anyone who says we're going to hold the Senate, it's not going to happen. They're delusional. It's going to be a wipeout. Get ready for impeachment. Everyone needs a lawyer.' Then, across the room, another party operative said, 'What are we even doing here? We are all going to lose. The operatives have known this all for two months. It's over. I guess we're just supposed to party until then.'"

Another anonymous source lamented how much Trump had seemed to "morph" into exactly the kind of corrupt elite figure that he railed against in his presidential campaigns. The same person also "got even more existential" when opining about the future of the Republican Party.

"They said, JD Vance, has he gotten too close to Trump's cronies?" Palmeri continued. "Has it ruined his viability for 2028? This person pointed out that JD Vance was just hosted at a fundraiser at the Hamptons home of Omeed Malik, a partner in the 1789 investment fund with Donald Trump Jr., and they're thinking to themselves, what is JD Vance from Appalachia, you know, the guy who could explain the Trump phenomenon from the working class, doing in the Hamptons with one of Donald Trump Jr's friends? Has the cronyism started to spread onto him? Does he see it coming?"

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