Trump's deterioration is blowing up his midterms scheme: historian

U.S. President Donald Trump attends an event to honor "Angel Families" who have lost family members to crimes committed by people in the country illegally, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 23, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

University of Oxford history professor Timothy Snyder is confident President Donald Trump is working to steal the 2026 midterms.

But this does not mean he’s doing it well.

Snyder’s take on the “Jim Acosta Show” was preceded by a reference to Trump’s recent speech in support of the so-called “Save America Act” and the untruths Trump unloaded during his speech. One included his false claim that he won his last election only because his vote difference was “too big to rig,” despite Democrats “cheat[ing] at this election too.”

“They can't win on policy: Men in women's sports,” Trump said in what Snyder described as a low-energy tone. “We have a new one, though: Voter ID. I think that's as crazy as They won't approve voter ID. They won't approve proof of citizenship. They won't approve no mail-in ballots, even though they know it's crooked as hell, where the ballots are sent to, in many cases, Democrats. Republicans don't get theirs, and they're calling frantically to get their ballot. A Democrat will get three, four, five, six, and even seven ballots. And then we're supposed to win.”

“Jim Acosta Show” host Jim Acosta asked Snyder if he believed Trump could get any traction by undermining the legitimacy of the upcoming midterms, but Snyder couldn’t get past Trump’s sluggish delivery in trying to do so.

“Yeah, before I get to that can I just comment on the quality of that propaganda that we just watched?” Snyder asked. “I mean, I just abroad for the last 10 days or so and I was watching other people's TV and other people's leaders. And when you do that and then you come back and you watch our TV and our leaders it takes some adjustment, right? Like, that person that we were just watching, he does not seem well, in any sense.:

“I realize if you watch it day after day after day, it kind of maybe seems normal,” continued Snyder, “but when you contrast it to people who can actually finish sentences and people who can stay on the topic and people who are perhaps sharing the same reality as you, it is really striking. I mean, that guy — just abstracting from the fact that he's the president of the United States — he does not … He just doesn't look well.”

“And that propaganda was not actually delivered well,” Snyder said. “I mean, just aside from anything else, it just wasn't very convincing.”

Snyder went on to demand which Republican was going to be the first one to “say something” about Trump’s obvious decline.

“There are a lot of people on our side who are that little boy. The emperor is wearing no clothes — or in this case, he's off his rocker,” Snyder said. “ But who's going to be the first person on their side? There's a risk of being the first person because then everybody shouts you down. But there's also a risk of being the last person. If you're the last person on the Republican side to say it, well, then your career is over, too, because somebody else made their move before you did.”

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