(CNN) — President Donald Trump just made some of his most flippant comments to date about his party holding onto power in November.
In an interview released Friday, Trump denied not caring about the GOP’s fortunes in the midterms. But he didn’t actually dispel the idea that he’s not terribly interested in being a team player and doing the things his party needs.
In the interview with Punchbowl News, taped on Thursday, Jake Sherman asked Trump about the narrative that he doesn’t really care about Congress and holding the GOP’s majorities in 2026.
“It’s not right,” Trump said, adding: “We’re gonna fight hard,” and, “it’s very important to the country that we win.”
But then he said a bunch of other stuff.
The president suggested that he’s doing Republicans a favor both by potentially spending some of his war chest on them — “I could spend it on pretty much anything I want,” Trump said — and by taking time out to occasionally take his message on the road.
“I didn’t have to be away in Nevada yesterday, I didn’t have to be in Los Angeles yesterday making speeches,” Trump said. “I didn’t have to be supporting all the people. I have a busy schedule.”
Trump added that he recently told someone that he had already won his own campaign, so “I’m not campaigning.”
Then came the comment that should really make Republicans pull their hair out: that their problems are of their own making, not his.
“The question is, will [people] vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you,” Trump said, adding: “They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me.”
This is, to put it lightly, not accurate.
Trump is historically unpopular, with as many as two-thirds of Americans disapproving of him. Those are numbers we’ve really only seen around this point of a presidency from Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.
Recent polling makes clear that disillusionment with Trump looms large over the midterms. Perhaps the most telling recent data point: A Pew Research Center poll showed 81% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said their midterm vote would be a vote against Trump, but just 44% of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents said theirs would be a vote for Trump.
And even if the president only meant that his base voters are angry with Republicans rather than him, that’s still not accurate. Recent polling, including from CNN, shows widespread dissatisfaction among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents with many of the things Trump has done — often 30%, 40%, 50% or more.
And that’s the other key point here. Even as things like tariffs, the Iran war and Trump’s efforts to slap his name on things and renovate Washington, DC, poll very poorly, he has shown no appetite for backing off to help his party politically.
In fact, Trump has recently decided to pile on some issues that are hugely divisive for his own party — like insisting on getting rid of the filibuster and pushing through the “SAVE America Act,” which doesn’t appear to stand any chance of passage.
And all the while, he keeps saying glib things that suggest he cares little about the 2026 campaign.
Back in May, when asked whether Americans’ economic concerns were motivating his push for a peace deal with Iran, he said, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”
A week later, he added: “I’m in no hurry. You never think, ‘Oh, the midterms. I’m in a hurry.’ I’m in no hurry.”
Then, another week later: “I don’t care about the midterms.”
Trump in an interview with Fox News earlier this week also suggested his goal was actually to try to win the Iran war rather than just end it — despite victory seeming an extremely distant possibility at this point.
When host Trace Gallagher asked Trump when he might decide to cut bait and stop trying to negotiate (given how unreliable the Iranians have been on that front), the president suggested that point wasn’t necessarily any time soon.
“I have plenty of time,” Trump said. “You know, people talk about the midterms. For the midterms, they want to see winning.”
But the GOP doesn’t have plenty of time, politically. High gas prices from the prolonged war are proving to be the moldy cherry on top of a very unpalatable sundae for voters.
These kinds of comments from Trump make some strategic sense. If you want Iran to make concessions, you don’t telegraph that you’re in a hurry to get out because of the midterms. That hurts your leverage.
But Republicans might want to start asking themselves whether Trump, in his heart of hearts, means it — and that he doesn’t care what the Iran war might cost his party come November.
And Republicans have got to be furious that he’s suggesting it’s them — rather than the war and all the other unpopular things he’s done — that’s jeopardizing their majorities.
The-CNN-Wire
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