White House leaks expose 'sleepwalking' Trump’s 'physical and cognitive decline'

White House aides are desperate to keep President Donald Trump focused on issues that actually matter to American voters, but warn he has become “extremely distracted.” According to leaks from within the White House, Trump’s inability to stay on task suggests the alarming degree of his “physical and cognitive decline," with the Daily Beast reporting that these are not casual rumors: “These aides are speaking out because they fear Trump is almost literally sleepwalking into a midterm disaster.”

This information comes via Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House strategic communications director during Trump’s first term. Speaking with CNN on Wednesday, she revealed that “the president continues to seem extremely distracted. White House advisers — I talk to many of them — they simply want him to focus on the economy, yet he will not do that.”

“For some reason, he wants to talk about virtually everything but the economy and lowering the cost of living,” she continued. And because of his inattention to the economy, she predicted, “the midterms don’t look great for Republicans,” adding, “I think it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that the House is going to flip.”

As the Daily Beast notes, “A CNN poll, released the same day, shows Trump’s approval ratings have plummeted to an astonishing 34 percent. That’s the lowest number, the network notes, since the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, at the end of his first term. A litany of scandals, controversies, and blunders have driven that number steadily down over the past 18 months. None more so than his handling of the economy, with a staggering two-thirds of respondents saying the president’s policies have ‘worsened economic conditions in the country.’”

While polls have consistently shown not only that the economy and cost of living are Americans’ foremost concerns, but that they are the very reason voters took a second chance on Trump in the first place, he has repeatedly claimed that affordability is a Democratic “hoax” created to make him look bad.

“It was a word, you know, made up by the Democrats: affordability,” Trump declared at a rally earlier this month. “They said, affordability. I said, I've been here one day. Don't worry, I'll take care of it. And we're taking care of it.”

It’s not the first time he’s made such an assertion. “It’s a con job. I think affordability is the greatest con job,” he said in December. Then later the same month, he ranted, "They use the word 'affordability,' and that's their only word. They say, 'Affordability,' and everyone says, 'Oh, that must mean Trump has high prices.' No, our prices are coming down tremendously. They have a new word. They always have a hoax. The new word is 'affordability.'"

But the numbers don’t agree. According to tracking by NBC News, grocery prices have marched up steadily or remained stubbornly high over the course of his second term. Gas prices have exploded since Trump launched war with Iran, hitting an increase of over 30 percent as of late July. Because of these and other factors, consumer sentiment has plunged to an all-time low.