President Donald Trump's midterm election in 2018 came at a time when his approval rating wasn't all that bad (49 percent). And things are very different this time around. Trump, who doesn't seem to know how bad things have become, is looking for ways he can put himself on the ballot for Republicans in 2026.
The New Republic's Greg Sargent and The Bulwark's Mona Charen on Thursday discussed a new strategy coming from Trump ahead of the November election: making ads to support Republican candidates.
They also new reports about Trump aides feeding him the claim that the only reason his polls are down is that Americans don't know what he's done in the past two years.
The increasingly insulated president is being told what he wants to hear rather than the reality behind his bad approval ratings. Sargent noted that the White House is pointing to the stock market, lower fentanyl deaths, border enforcement and manufacturing as proof that Trump's record should be popular.
"Mona, that’s funny. I mean, maybe the border is a fair one, but stock market highs and manufacturing jobs have declined," said Sargent.
But Charen found that laughable and called it a "sleight of hand."
The political “hopium” is further isolating the president inside the Washington bubble. She said that the aide's narrative is confusing selective indicators with what voters experience in their lives. Manufacturing output may rise, for example, but automation means that does not translate into the mass return of factory jobs Trump promised.
"The fact is that manufacturing output is up, but manufacturing employment has lagged. And for a while, it was in steep decline. Now it’s ticked up a little bit, but it’s nothing like a boom," she explained.
She went on to compare it to a "mad king" from medieval times: nobody can tell the ruler the truth, so everyone tiptoes around his ego and offers reassurance.
She later made the point that the bubble has become even more insulated as Trump reduces the number of people in his inner circle to loyalists, “yes-men and toadies and lackeys” who filter out bad news. They specifically mention Natalie Harp, the 35-year-old aide known for printing off things Trump must read. Harp's affection for the president only reinforces Trump's image of himself.
Trump's solution is not to recalibrate or allow vulnerable Republicans to distance themselves from him. Instead, he reportedly wants scores of new TV ads centered on him and his record. Charen calls his "Titanic ego” a “ball and chain” for the Republican Party. GOP candidates would prefer an election about local issues, Democratic overreach or anything other than Trump; he wants it to be a referendum on himself.
That is especially problematic because Trump is toxic with swing voters and independents who will cast ballots in 68 days. So, while candidates are fighting for their political lives, Trump is starting a new trade war with Canada and doing more to harm ranchers. In the past several months, Trump's opinions on the economy have been so far removed from the daily lives of Americans that Democrats are even gaining ground in polls.
Sargent and Charen agree that Republicans will never escape the president’s political drag while he remains sealed inside a fantasy world, insisting that everyone in the GOP campaign on his alleged successes.
