President Donald Trump will not be on the ballot in November’s midterm elections. But in a recent White House strategy meeting, he reportedly decided that as Election Day approaches, he’d like to spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting himself. The tone-deaf strategy serves as yet another example of how Trump’s self-adulation is frequently the source of his biggest strategic mistakes.
According to The Atlantic, citing “three people familiar with the meeting,” Trump gathered his political advisers to figure out how he should spend the $400 million in funds available to his super political action committee, MAGA Inc. He reportedly settled on trying to “lean into the Democratic strategy of focusing on himself” and ordered “a series of television advertisements about his own record that will serve as a backdrop to the hundreds of individual House and Senate contests.” Trump apparently wants ad makers to “mine his own on-camera statements” for these ads, and focus on his tax breaks, the stock market’s rise and his failed war on fentanyl, among other things.
This reported ad spend decision underscores Trump’s conviction that he alone can carry Republicans to victory at the polls this fall. Last week at a rally for Sen. Darline Graham Nordone, R-S.C., Trump pleaded to the audience, “What I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot.”
But Trump himself is indulging in make-believe.
There’s a great deal of evidence from political scientists demonstrating midterm elections function as a referendum on the president and his management of the economy. Given those trends, the Republican Party is poised to fare poorly in November. Trump’s approval ratings are at or near the lowest point of his time in office; even some of his most loyal supporters are wavering. And a big part of this decline is tied to dissatisfaction with the cost of living, exacerbated by Trump’s foolish misadventure into Iran. Polls conducted in July indicate that about two-thirds of Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy and believe that his policies have worsened economic conditions in the country.
The president is teeing up the narrative that it is only the rest of the party that can be blamed for any midterm losses.
At this point, a judicious president would show restraint in their messaging, allowing lawmakers in battleground districts and states to try to distance themselves from the president while making their case to voters.
Republican candidates have already shown signs of seeking out that space. For example, Ralph Alvarado, a Trump-backed Republican House candidate in Kentucky, recently removed a photo of him with Trump from his website and changed his branding from “America First Fighter” to “Independent Leadership.” At the Michigan GOP’s recent convention, the party’s nominees studiously avoided mentioning Trump, opting instead to discuss the narrative of Democratic extremism as their midterm strategy. And vulnerable Iowa Republicans have been wary of referring to the president and tried to keep their message localized.
But Trump has long refused to admit error — both in public and to himself. So it’s not surprising that, according to The Atlantic, he believes “the poor polling reflects the fact that the voting public still does not know about many of his accomplishments.” In other words, the president is teeing up the narrative that it is only the rest of the party that can be blamed for any midterm losses.
If Trump fills the airwaves with ads about how the midterms are about nothing other than his record, he could easily nullify GOP candidates’ attempts to present themselves as independent-minded politicians intent on going to Washington with an agenda distinct from Trump. And focusing on the stock market or his ineffectual and illegal campaign against the fentanyl trade could eclipse those candidates’ efforts to keep the messaging focused on issues voters care more about, like the cost of living.
Now it’s not clear if the Republicans who have sought to keep Trump at arm’s length would have succeeded at doing so, given how much the president defines the GOP’s reputation. But Trump appears to be ensuring they may never be able to find out.
The post Trump wants to make the midterms all about himself. That will backfire. appeared first on MS NOW.
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