President Donald Trump 正在為即將到來的期中選舉打造另一批 MAGA 「buffoon」候選人，但根據他昔日的傳記作者所說，他不在選票上，反而正在為 11 月的共和黨災難創造條件。

Michael Wolff 是資深記者與作家，以廣泛報導 Trump 的政治生涯而聞名，並寫過幾本關於 Trump 混亂第一任期的書。他在 Daily Beast 播客最新一集《Inside Trump's Head》中表示，他認為許多選民在期中選舉時根本不會出來投票，原因是總統不在選票最上方，讓他那支「buffoons」大軍失去了他們「ultimate buffoon」的支持。在期中選舉的環境下，這一點很重要，因為投票率通常低於總統選舉，而與 Trump 立場一致的候選人可能必須更依賴地方熱度與政黨忠誠，而缺少相同的全國號召力。

“There's an interesting pattern of men who won’t admit to their wives that they are voting for Donald Trump, and then they vote for Donald Trump,” Wolff said. “The dynamic is different in this midterm election because he’s not on the ballot. So, you know, the buffoons who are running in his name don’t have the luxury of being the ultimate buffoon, as it were... You might like to vote for the greatest buffoon of all time. But the mini-buffoons, you don’t really want... Ken Paxton. Do you really want to vote for Ken Paxton ?”

Wolff 的共同主持人 Joanna Coles 提出了另一種解釋，說明為什麼 Trump 在 2016 年與 2024 年的表現都超出預期：許多人不願向民調員承認自己支持他。Coles 認為，這種模式未必也能幫助那些偏向 MAGA 的背書，因為這類選戰通常同時受制於知名度、投票率與候選人素質，而不只是政黨標籤。

“I think a lot of people don’t want to admit that they support Donald Trump,” Coles explained. “They don’t want to admit they like his party, so they don’t admit it. And then, right up in their final run to the privacy of the voting booth, they can finally admit they do like him. Yeah, no, they would prefer him to the other candidates.”

Wolff 後來表示，Trump 在期中選票上的不同存在方式，對共和黨將是淨負面，因為他所稱的選民對總統領導方式的不滿正在增加。

“Donald Trump is not on the ballot, but Donald Trump is all over the ballot,” Wolff said. “He is the subject... We’re in a situation where the specter of Donald Trump is on the ballot, and that’s a negative, rather than Donald Trump in person being on the ballot, which turns out, inexplicably, to be a positive.”

Trump 本人也承認，當他自己在選票上時，自己的存在會影響投票率；據報導，他對這種看法相當認同，即使這也讓共和黨在沒有他時顯得失去方向。他最近敦促選民把今年當作他也在選票上一樣來投票，但這些呼籲究竟能產生多大效果，仍不明朗。