Senate Majority Leader John Thune pushes his glasses up as he speaks to reporters outside his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., October 14, 2025. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
Republicans in Washington "desperately" want to start addressing the issues voters care about heading into the midterms, but according to a new report from Punchbowl News, the party is now reeling after President Donald Trump admitted on camera that he does not "care" about the midterms.
Trump held a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday where he made the "startling" admission about his mindset heading into the rest of the election cycle, citing the victory of his endorsed candidate in the recent Texas Senate primary.
“I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump told reporters when pressed about the elections in relation to his negotiations to end the war with Iran. “Look what happened last night. That was a preview of the midterms."
As Punchbowl noted in its Thursday morning report, Trump appears to once again be downplaying voters' frustrations over the state of the economy, which an increasing number of them blame directly on the president. According to sources that spoke to the outlet, this state of affairs "alarms" GOP leaders in Congress, who view Trump's cratering economic approval as an "absolute disaster" for the party.
"Yet what Trump doesn’t seem focused on enough is restoring Americans’ faith in the U.S. economy," the report explained. "And that’s a huge political problem for both GOP congressional leaders and vulnerable Republicans as they try to save their endangered majorities. Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune don’t say it publicly. But privately, it alarms the Republican leadership. Trump’s poll numbers on the economy — by far the top issue this year — have collapsed. Some recent polls had him under 30 percent, an absolute disaster for Republicans."
It continued: "Consumer confidence has hit record lows as well. Americans are cutting back on spending as they struggle with rising gas prices and interest rates, even as Wall Street notches record highs. The number of Americans struggling to put food on the table is growing. Trump and Republicans will get more critical news on the inflation front today. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the April 2026 personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index data this morning — the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation."
This is not the first time that Trump's comments about what he cares about heading into the midterms have roiled Republicans gunning for reelection. Earlier this month, when similarly pressed about the Iran war negotiations, he admitted that he does not care about the financial hardships that voters are currently facing.
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,” Trump said two weeks ago. “I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing — we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
