‘All he’s doing is hurting Republicans’: Some strategists beg Trump to stay in White House and not campaign
Por Joe Sommerlad — – World RSS Feed
‘All he’s doing is hurting Republicans’: Some strategists beg Trump to stay in White House and not campaign
President Donald Trump’s presence in the field not universally popular, with some GOP operatives wishing he would keep a lower profile this midterms cycle
Joe Sommerlad Wednesday 21 October 2026 17:01 BST
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President Donald Trump’s decision to hit the road to campaign ahead of November’s midterms has been met with a mixed reception from political strategists, with some wishing he would keep a lower profile.
“He should stick to the White House; he should just stay there,” a frustrated GOP operative in Georgia told The Washington Sun after Trump’s visit to Dalton last week. “All he’s doing is hurting Republicans.”
Conversely, a rival Democrat from the Peach State, gloating over the president’s divisive presence, told the same outlet: “If Trump could come to Georgia every week, we’d invite him.”
Another Democrat reached the same conclusion after watching the president’s speech in Park City, Kansas, Monday, at which he was heckled by protesters: “If Trump wants to stay in Kansas for the next two weeks, I wouldn’t mind!”
The president has been mired in dire approval ratings for months thanks to the ongoing affordability crisis and his unpopular Iran war, which have conspired to leave the public deeply frustrated over his failure to lower inflation and deliver the “golden age” he once promised.
open image in galleryThe latest pre-midterms poll from Reuters/Ipsos put Trump on just 31 percent, a record low for either of his two terms that CNN data analyst Harry Enten described as “a five-alarm Trumpster fire.”
The polling around the president has been so toxic this fall he has been left out of many Republican candidates’ midterm TV spots, quietly dropped from their websites and even asked not to stump for them.
Beyond the president, the national mood is pessimistic generally, according to another recent survey from Economist/YouGov, with only 23 percent of respondents saying they feel optimistic about the future and just 19 percent saying they felt the U.S. was “under control.”
An unnamed Trump aide recently admitted to CNN they expect the midterms to be “f***ing rough” for the GOP as a result and the president himself came close to admitting that a voter backlash was likely in the Oval Office Tuesday, a reckoning that threatens to cost his party its majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate.
“The president always loses, for whatever reason, the midterms,” he grumbled. “If I can get my voters, MAGA Republicans, whatever you want to call [them], if they get out to vote, we’ll win in a landslide.
open image in gallery“But they have to want to get out to vote, and if you’re not on the ballot, it’s a little harder.”
Questions are already being asked about how Trump might react should a blue wave come to pass, whether he will attempt to dispute the results as in 2020 or seek to pin the blame on members of his inner circle and start swinging the ax.
For now, the president is continuing to tour the country, turning his attention towards stoking voter turnout in red states and firing up his base as predicted, rather than trying to intervene and make the difference in tight battleground contests.
“I’m doing something different,” he told a crowd in Greenville, North Carolina, Tuesday. “I’m working like a dog, and I love being with you.”
Trump’s itinerary takes him to South Carolina Wednesday and then on to Iowa, Florida and Georgia before he does visit a battleground – Michigan – on Sunday, after which he will ride down to Texas early next week, where Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton is struggling against Democrat James Talarico.
open image in gallery“The rallies are working for the people that they need to work for: the base,” Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist and the host of the War Room podcast, told the Sun, noting the president’s strength as a campaigner.
Ron Bonjean, another GOP strategist, added that the best way to deploy Trump right now is in whipping up MAGA enthusiasm for the fight, rather than attacking selected Democrats or defending his own record.
“If [his supporters] feel better about going to the polls because they heard from President Trump directly, then that’s a win,” he said.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle previously told The Independent: “President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and he is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress.
“The choice has never been more clear: doubling down on President Trump’s winning, commonsense agenda or the Democrats’ extreme liberal policies and obstruction.”
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Donald TrumpmidtermsRepublicansDemocratsSteve Bannon
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