Controversial recent statements by Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have handed critics of the Trump administration fresh material — Vance invoking the "End Times" in an expression of solidarity with far-right fundamentalist evangelicals, and Lutnick claiming that data centers "don't use water." According to the i Paper, such comments from Trump's "band of clowns" do more than make the administration look bad; they also make things worse for Republican candidates heading into the midterms — the contests that will decide control of both chambers of Congress for the second half of Trump's term.

"With exactly two months to go before the U.S. midterm elections," reporter Simon Marks explains in the UK-based i Paper (i Paper report), "Donald Trump is no longer the only member of his administration squandering the opportunity to win over voters and making clownish headlines for all the wrong reasons."

Lutnick aggressively defended data centers during an interview with CNBC's Joe Kernan, telling the host: "One of my favorite things is when people talk about data centers using water. The number-one product in America that uses water is cattle … I mean, data centers don't use water."

Marks notes, however, that "in fact, data centers consume several million liters of water daily to cool servers and generate electricity." The remark comes as the rapid buildout of AI infrastructure has made data centers' water and energy demands a growing subject of public debate in communities across the United States.

Although Vance is a convert to Catholicism — not an evangelical Protestant — he raised the "End Times" (a major focus of some far-right evangelical fundamentalists) during an interview with Christian podcaster Bryce Crawford. Vance told Crawford: "We are committed to doing as much as possible to try and make the world the kind of world that God wants it to be. What I'm trying to focus on is doing as much of God's work as possible right now, and if that leads to the End Times, OK."

Marks also argues that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was being "clownish" when he blamed Ukraine for rising prices around the world. Bessent told Fox News: "Ukraine has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets and refined products, so that is creating upward price pressure on a global basis."

GOP strategists are hoping to save their party from a blue wave in the midterms, and Marks stresses that these comments from Trump administration officials are only making that harder. Historically, the party holding the White House has lost congressional seats in most midterm cycles, a pattern Republicans are trying to buck as they defend narrow majorities in both the House and Senate.

"As the summer winds down and Americans prepare to cast their verdict on Trump's return to power," Marks observes, "a slew of his top lieutenants are now competing with one another to demonstrate that their own grip on reality is loosening."