DC insider warns Trump is sealing the fate of 'GOP losers' this year

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts as he delivers remarks at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, U.S., May 22, 2026. REUTERS Kylie Cooper

Legendary veteran GOP strategist Karl Rove says President Donald Trump is failing Rove’s party by limiting the spigot on his enormous war chest and adopting a campaign strategy that’s sure to lose voters in November.

“With less than eight weeks until Election Day, we’re in the midterms’ final phase,” Rove told the Wall Street Journal. “Absentee ballots are already being mailed, while four states begin early in-person voting in less than two weeks, and nine more within the next month. It’s time for each party to put down big bets on what in these last days could bring victory.”

But Trump’s campaign strategy for Republicans is woefully short of what’s needed to sell the party message in a hard year with the party facing uphill polls. Rove said it’s “good news” that Trump plans to spend up to $500 million from his political-action committees now and keep the balance for the 2028 election, “but it’s already late and could prove too little.”

“This close to Election Day, advertising airtime sells at a premium. While candidates and party committees by law can buy ads at the lowest unit rate a TV station charges for any nonpolitical client, a PAC has to buy what the market will bear. If Mr. Trump’s MAGA Inc. plans to spend $10 million on the Texas Senate race across the next two weeks — as its Federal Election Commission filings indicate — Mr. Talarico can probably match it by spending $4 million to $6 million,” said Rove.

Team Trump would have to invest $100 million or more just in Texas for the remaining weeks to offset Talarico’s predicted ad buy. But with more than half a dozen key Senate races and nearly 40 important House races on the line, the cost will “add up quick,” Rove said.

“If instead the president insists on keeping $500 million for after the midterms and Republicans lose important races for lack of resources, donors will be irritated. So will GOP losers in close races,” Rove said.

Additionally, Rove notes that Trump apparently assumes that “making the election about him is the GOP’s path for victory,” by planning to campaign aggressively in October. He’s already in rally mode, said Rove, by speaking “back-to-back nights at the Republicans’ first-ever midterm convention, in Dallas this week.”

“The bigger his presence in the campaign, White House thinking goes, the more votes he’ll attract from the 77.3 million who supported him in 2024,” said Rove. But he added that “the president is unpopular, and there’s little he can do to juice his approval numbers before Election Day.”

“But the White House is apparently determined to focus on puffing up Mr. Trump’s accomplishments of the last 1½ years rather than on describing the GOP’s goals for the next two years,” Rove said.

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