On Friday, the midterms officially kicked off as North Carolina mailed out its ballots, and in the face of bad Republican polling numbers and historically low approval ratings, President Donald Trump is “distracted” with his vanity project “obsession” and musing about life after he’s “gone.” This is according to CNN Senior Political Reporter Aaron Blake, who writes that Trump has become the Nero of his time, “fiddling with his ballroom plans while the Republican Party’s midterm hopes burn.”
“What’s clear is that Trump and his administration aren’t going to course correct any time soon,” says Blake. “The last 24 hours have been a case in point. And the last couple weeks have been inauspicious for anyone who hoped Trump might suddenly focus on the political task at hand.” The first ballots are now in the mail, and “despite a bevy of polling showing Americans want Trump to focus on affordability and the economy, he appears preoccupied with anything but.”
Blake notes that on Thursday alone, there were several clear examples, writing, “We learned the Trump administration has hired a new pool contractor to clean up the mess he made of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, announced the start of construction on Trump’s 250-foot ‘triumphal arch’ and launched a series of arcade-style video games, including one that allows users to arrest undocumented immigrants. The White House is also reportedly launching a reality show-like competition for entrepreneurs, just weeks after Trump’s ‘Patriot Games’ flopped and after an actual reality show from the Department of Transportation was released… By Friday morning, two big stories — from the New Yorker and New York Magazine — detailed what can only be called Trump’s obsession with his ballroom and other construction and beautification projects in Washington, DC.”
For the New York Magazine piece, Trump even found time to give an interview and tour of the construction. According to Blake, “In perhaps the most eyebrow-raising scene, Trump actually agrees with Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s contention that he’s building monuments to himself because he doesn’t think others can be counted on to do it. ‘That’s true,’ Trump said. ‘Nobody will do it once I’m gone. When I leave here, nobody will.’ The fact that Trump would say this out loud is stunning. Ossoff meant this as a dig.”
The article also notes that much of Trump’s daily schedule is committed to construction planning, and “how Trump in his public appearances often seems distracted by his construction projects as he’s attending to much more serious business.” As Blake explains, “And that’s really the problem with all of this, at least if you’re a congressional Republican staring at a concerning midterm election. It’s not just that Trump is distracted; it’s that he’s focused on things that polls show Americans view as frivolous and don’t want — at the expense of things they really want him to do (i.e. lowering prices and ending the war with Iran).”
And Americans have noticed the distraction. According to Blake, “CBS News polling has recently shown 78 percent of Americans said he’s not focused enough on lowering prices, and July CNN polling shows around the same percentage (73 percent) said he hasn’t paid enough attention to the country’s most important problems.” What’s more, “The CNN poll in July contained another telling finding. Fully 66 percent of Americans said Trump did not put the good of the country above his own personal gain. That included 76 percent of independents and 30 percent of Republicans. And more than a month later, with the 2026 general election truly kicking off, it’s as if he’s bent on proving those people right.”
