Analyst says Trump is putting Republicans in a difficult midterm position
Key Takeaways
- •Trump is pressing Republicans to cancel the Senate recess to advance the SAVE America Act, even though the bill has no apparent path to passage in the Senate.
- •Senate Majority Leader John Thune would face pressure from Trump either way, since complying would still likely end in defeat for the bill while refusing could anger Trump.
- •Stein said Trump is not moderating his message for a difficult midterm environment and continues to describe the economy in highly positive terms.
- •Polling cited by Stein shows Republicans are less eager than Democrats to vote in the midterm, and some Republicans are even considering voting for Democrats.
- •Stein said Trump and his MAGA allies have hundreds of millions of dollars available but are not using it to aid the party, which could help Democrats increase their margins.
President Donald Trump is facing a major problem heading into November, The Bulwark’s Sam Stein told MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire on "The Moment" on Wednesday.
Stein said the challenge is made worse by Trump’s inability to course-correct in the way many candidates might when their party is facing backlash.
Trump is currently pressing Republicans to cancel their Senate recess in an effort to push through the SAVE America Act, a voting-restriction bill he has become fixated on despite having no path to passage in the upper chamber.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Stein said, is "in a weird spot" because any attempt to follow Trump’s demand would still end with the bill failing, which would make Thune look "feckless" while also drawing Trump’s anger.
Stein said the broader problem is one that parties in power often face in midterm elections, when voters tend to judge the governing party more directly and when messaging can matter as much as legislative ambition.
"Every party in power in the midterm has to deal with this type of equation," Stein said. "Usually you want to sort of downplay how great things are, because you don't want voters to feel like you're out of touch or leaving them behind. But Trump is incapable of doing that. He continuously talks about this being a 'golden age' and how everyone's 401k is skyrocketing. So there's crosscurrents there."
He added that the issue is compounded by Trump and his MAGA allies sitting on a war chest of hundreds of millions of dollars while doing nothing with it to help the party, which polling suggests is headed for trouble.
"What you're seeing in the polls is that Republicans are, by and large, much less enthusiastic than Democrats to vote in this midterm election," Stein said, adding that some Republicans are even threatening to vote for Democrats. "That is real poison for the Republican Party," he said, because the turnout advantage Trump typically brings when he is on the ballot appears likely to disappear.
Stein said the result of Trump’s refusal to adopt a more defensive message, his lack of spending, and the "general malaise" is that Democrats "could really run up the numbers."