The 2026 midterms officially began on Friday as North Carolina mailed out its ballots — and amid weak Republican polling numbers and historically low approval ratings, President Donald Trump is "distracted" by what critics call a vanity-project "obsession," musing about life after he's "gone," according to CNN Senior Political Reporter Aaron Blake.

North Carolina's Friday launch is the traditional opening bell of a midterm cycle in which mail voting windows now routinely begin six to eight weeks before Election Day, meaning impressions formed in September can harden well before November. For the party holding the White House, midterms have historically been a referendum on the president: the president's party has lost House seats in almost every midterm since World War II, and control of Congress in 2026 will shape the final two years of Trump's term.

Blake writes that Trump has become the Nero of his time, "fiddling with his ballroom plans while the Republican Party's midterm hopes burn."

"What's clear is that Trump and his administration aren't going to course correct any time soon," Blake says. "The last 24 hours have been a case in point. And the last couple weeks have been inauspicious for anyone who hoped Trump might suddenly focus on the political task at hand."

With the first ballots now in the mail, Blake notes that "despite a bevy of polling showing Americans want Trump to focus on affordability and the economy, he appears preoccupied with anything but."

Thursday alone offered several clear examples, Blake writes: "We learned the Trump administration has hired a new pool contractor to clean up the mess he made of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, announced the start of construction on Trump's 250-foot 'triumphal arch' and launched a series of arcade-style video games, including one that allows users to arrest undocumented immigrants. The White House is also reportedly launching a reality show-like competition for entrepreneurs, just weeks after Trump's 'Patriot Games' flopped and after an actual reality show from the Department of Transportation was released… By Friday morning, two big stories — from the New Yorker and New York Magazine — detailed what can only be called Trump's obsession with his ballroom and other construction and beautification projects in Washington, DC."

For the New York Magazine piece, Trump even found time to sit for an interview and give a tour of the construction. According to Blake, "In perhaps the most eyebrow-raising scene, Trump actually agrees with Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff's contention that he's building monuments to himself because he doesn't think others can be counted on to do it. 'That's true,' Trump said. 'Nobody will do it once I'm gone. When I leave here, nobody will.' The fact that Trump would say this out loud is stunning. Ossoff meant this as a dig." Ossoff, who faces his own reelection contest in 2026 in a state Democrats view as competitive, has emerged as one of Trump's more prominent Senate critics.

The reporting also notes that much of Trump's daily schedule is devoted to construction planning, and that "Trump in his public appearances often seems distracted by his construction projects as he's attending to much more serious business."

As Blake explains, "that's really the problem with all of this, at least if you're a congressional Republican staring at a concerning midterm election. It's not just that Trump is distracted; it's that he's focused on things that polls show Americans view as frivolous and don't want — at the expense of things they really want him to do (i.e. lowering prices and ending the war with Iran)."

Americans, Blake notes, have noticed the distraction. "CBS News polling has recently shown 78 percent of Americans said he's not focused enough on lowering prices, and July CNN polling shows around the same percentage (73 percent) said he hasn't paid enough attention to the country's most important problems."

The July CNN poll contained another telling finding. "Fully 66 percent of Americans said Trump did not put the good of the country above his own personal gain. That included 76 percent of independents and 30 percent of Republicans. And more than a month later, with the 2026 general election truly kicking off, it's as if he's bent on proving those people right."

With ballots already circulating, the question for the weeks ahead is whether Trump recalibrates toward the kitchen-table issues voters cite in polling, or whether the construction projects and media ventures documented in the New Yorker and New York Magazine reporting continue to dominate his schedule through Election Day.