Ex-Trump official lays out why former boss is so toxic to GOP candidates

In the 2026 GOP midterms primaries, President Donald Trump has unseated a long list of Republican incumbents he was angry with — from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana). But Republican primaries and the general election are two different things. And according to former Trump administration official Miles Taylor, many GOP candidates in swing states and swing districts are desperately trying to distance themselves from Trump between now and November 3.

Taylor served as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the first Trump administration, but he is very much a Never Trump conservative now. And Taylor emphasizes, in an article for the UK-based i Paper, that Trump is growing increasingly toxic to GOP candidates as November approaches.

"It's closer to a prayer than a slogan: I wish he would disappear," Taylor, in his iPaper piece, says of Republican views on the president. "The reference is to Donald Trump, of course. Never before have Republicans had to campaign under the banner of such a weak figurehead, nor one so insistent on stapling his toxic brand to the party, whether the party likes it or not."

Taylor was serving in the first Trump administration when, in the 2018 midterms, Democrats enjoyed a major blue wave in the U.S. House of Representatives. But according to a "prominent" media Republican who Taylor recently spoke to, the GOP is even more worried in 2026 than it was in 2018.

"I recounted a story from the last time GOP candidates had to survive a Trump-era off-year election, in 2018, when I was inside the first Trump administration," Taylor explains. "As the midterms approached, I remember friends on then-House Speaker Paul Ryan's team sharing a blunter plea whenever Trump's name was brought up: 'Please go the f– – away.' 'Yeah, they're sayin' that,' the GOP media personality sighed, 'but it's worse this time.'"

Taylor continues, "He’s right, and the numbers prove it. If you compare Trump's standing right now to 2018, you see a tale of two presidencies, electorally speaking. In the summer of 2018, Trump's approval ratings hovered in mid-forties; by Election Day, exit polls put him at 45 per cent. Today, he sits at around 34 per cent, with some recent surveys showing him bottoming out at 30, and with a stunning disapproval rating of around 60 per cent — worse than even Joe Biden's dismal standing at this point in 2022. By nearly every measure, my former boss enters this midterm election as the weakest president in the modern polling era."

Taylor recalls that when Democrats "flipped 41 House seats" in 2018,Trump's "numbers were far better than they are today."

"The last thing endangered Republicans want is stage time with the beleaguered president," Taylor emphasizes. "They worry the whole affair will look and feel like a presidential convention — a coronation of the man dragging them underwater — at the exact moment they need him to keep his distance. The only solace Republicans have is that they probably won't lose 41 seats this time, but not because voters are happier. Realistically, there aren't that many seats to lose. The mid-decade gerrymandering spree Trump demanded (starting in Texas) has shrunk the battlefield to a sliver. The Cook Political Report rates just 18 of 435 House seats as genuine toss-ups, with analysts saying that redistricting has 'eviscerated' competition. The seawall Trump built against the coming wave may be the only thing that saves his party from him."