Reporters say Republicans are cringing privately when asked their response on President Donald Trump’s effort to upset the November midterms.
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Semafor reporter Dave Weigel and New York Times reporter Tyler Pager stell MS NOW anchor Katy Tur that Republicans know Trump’s behavior is wrecking their chances in November, but they are powerless to either stop him or distance themselves from him, despite how much damage he does to them in the general election.
The problem for Republicans are more centrist voters facing them in the general elections, which are utterly unlike the hyper-conservative minority that delivered them through the Republican primaries.
Trump’s most recent example of publicly trashing his own reputation with independent November voters includes his sleepy rejection of the highly popular housing bill, which he has blocked to force a vote on his hyper-partisan SAVE Act, which will impose onerous new restrictions on voters.
“I don’t know. I think it’s so unimportant, when compared to the SAVE America Act,” said Trump in an Oval Office interview. “Compared to the SAVE America Act just about everything is a big yawn.”
“Republicans who would hope that President Trump would give them something to run with ahead of the midterms, are starting to realize it’s not going to happen, and it isn’t just Trump calling the largest affordable housing bill in a generation ‘a big yawn’. It’s his insistence that affordability is a ‘Democratic hoax,’ or his declaration that he loves inflation. It’s his admission that he doesn’t consider Americans’ financial situation as a factor in reaching a deal with Iran,” said Tur. “As the New York Times reports, for the GOP, a creeping panic is starting to set in.”
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“This is not a new phenomenon that Republicans are concerned about the President and his impact on their electability. They feel that they’re often caught because of how popular he is among the Republican base,” Pager told Tur. “They need his support and his endorsement to win their primaries and turn out their voters, but they’re also concerned that he hurts them with independent voters, and particularly at this moment. I think it’s best encapsulated by the housing bill.”
“This was a bill that members of Congress were standing on a stage bragging about, saying that this was their effort to tackle the affordability crisis that both parties are talking about,” Pager added. “Trump, as that press conference is going on, waiting for him to arrive, cancels it and says ‘you are not passing the SAVE America Act legislation’… so I’m not signing this housing bill. And then we see these images of them literally taking apart the stage that this press conference and signing ceremony was supposed to be held on.”
“This is a dynamic I’ve seen when I’ve talked to Republicans who are closer to the grassroots, is that it’s not effective to run the election on ‘look at these amazing things we did for you in 2025,” said Weigel.
Rather than touting his victories, Weigel said Trump is harassing Republicans to fight harder for his failures, like the SAVE American Act, and in the process, he’s discouraging Republican voters from being enthusiastic about their own party leaders.
“[They don’t need to hear] that you are not working things that Trump wants you to work on. Why aren’t you not working on it? That’s what you start to hear from the kind of people they need to go knock on doors to donate money to,” said Weigel.
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