Tag: 2018 mid-term elections

“Insanity,” “Furious,” “On His Own”: Trump’s Post-Midterms Blues are Vexing His Staff and Roiling the White House

Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

He’s lashing out at aides and press and foreign leaders, and threatening to roll West Wing heads—but at least he didn’t get his hair wet at the Belleau Wood memorial.

As Donald Trump’s West Wing careens through one of the most turbulent weeks of his presidency, White House officials are struggling to understand the source of the fury fueling the president’s eruptions. “This is a level of insanity I’ve never seen before,” one former West Wing staffer told me. Current and former officials are debating different theories for Trump’s outbursts, ranging from his fears over his son Don Jr.’s legal exposureto the prospect that House Democrats will unleash investigations in January. “He’s under a tremendous amount of mental stress,” one prominent Republican close to him told me.

What’s surprising to some advisers about how bad the past week has been is that Trump initially seemed to take the midterm losses in stride. Last Tuesday, he was in high spirits as he watched election returns come in with about a hundred friends at the White House. Trump told people that his barnstorming rally schedule had mobilized his base and held Republican losses to historical lows, while increasing Republican gains in the Senate. “He really thought he won the midterms,” a prominent Republican who spoke with Trump said.

But by Wednesday, after hours of commentary about the suburbs’ distaste for him and with seat after undecided House seat slipping toward the Democrats, his mood slid, too, hitting bottom in a bizarre and combative press conference. “He was furious about the narrative. He said, ‘Look, I went to all these states and now people are saying Trump lost the election,’” the Republican who spoke with him recalled. Within hours, Trump forced out Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replaced him with Matt Whitaker, who’d been a frequent cable-news critic of the Robert Mueller investigation. Next, Trump directed his press office to revoke CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press pass, something he’d wanted to do for months but had been talked out of by aides. “This is a matter of the president now being on his own without any countervailing force whatsoever,” a person close to Trump said. “It’s just 100 percent Donald Trump doing what Donald Trump wants.”

View the complete November 14 article by Gabriel Sherman on the Vanity Fair website here.

If G.O.P. Loses Hold on Congress, Trump Warns, Democrats Will Enact Change ‘Quickly and Violently’

The following article by Michael D. Shear was posted on the New York Times website August 28, 2018:

President Trump during a prayer at a dinner for evangelical leadership in the State Dining Room of the White House. Credit: Doug Mills,The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump warned evangelical leaders Monday night that Democrats “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently” if Republicans lose control of Congress in the midterm elections.

Speaking to the group in the State Dining Room of the White House, Mr. Trump painted a stark picture of what losing the majority would mean for the administration’s conservative agenda, according to an audiotape of his remarks provided to The New York Times by someone who attended the event.

“They will end everything immediately,” Mr. Trump said. “When you look at antifa,” he added, a term that describes militant leftist groups, “and you look at some of these groups, these are violent people.”

View the complete article here.

Trump Claims Election Night Credit. It’s Not That Simple.

The following article by Michael D. Shear was posted on the New York Times website August 8, 2018:

President Trump bragged about “a big turn for the better” in Troy Balderson’s House campaign after the president held a boisterous get-out-the-vote rally in Ohio on Saturday night. Credit: Al Drago, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — In President Trump’s mind, he has become the indispensable man, the political force singularly responsible for the narrow lead that Troy Balderson, the Republican candidate, clings to in a heavily conservative Ohio House district and that Kris W. Kobach maintains in the Kansas governor’s primary.

But the presidential braggadocio that followed Tuesday’s election night squeakers ignores another reality that the White House is loath to acknowledge: Mr. Trump — and his chaotic, controversy-laden tenure in the Oval Office — is largely responsible for the toxic political climate that is undermining the Republican candidates he is trying to save.

Economic growth topped 4 percent earlier this year. Unemployment is low; stock prices are high. Yet Republicans speak darkly of the awful environment their candidates face in midterm elections 90 days away.

View the complete article here.

Trump did play a big role in the result in Ohio — but not the one he wants you to think

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website August 8, 2018:

President Trump praised Republican Troy Balderson at a rally in Lewis Center, Ohio, on Aug. 4, ahead of the special election for the state’s 12th District. (The Washington Post)

It took President Trump very little time to assume credit for Republican Troy Balderson’s apparent victory in Tuesday night’s special election in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District.

“When I decided to go to Ohio for Troy Balderson, he was down in early voting 64 to 36. That was not good,” Trump wrote on Twitter a bit after all the precincts were counted. “After my speech on Saturday night, there was a big turn for the better. Now Troy wins a great victory during a very tough time of the year for voting.”

Most of that is obviously untrue. The early vote was always expected to favor Democrat Danny O’Connor by a wide margin; he won it by about 27 points despite ending the night down a point in the overall vote. No turn for the better in that regard, given that Trump claims the margin was 28 points when he arrived. (It’s not clear how the votes actually broke down. Ohio only offered data on the party composition of the voters returning ballots.)

View the complete article here.

Want to Know More About … OH13 and the Midterm Elections

John Berman: “The Marquee Race Is In Ohio In What Should Be A Strong Republican District. Republican Troy Balderson Is Clinging To A Razor-Thin Lead Over Democrat Danny O’Connor. President Trump Won This District By 11 Points Back In 2016.”

JOHN BERMAN: “New election results coming in, too close to call and way, way too close for comfort for Republicans this morning. A big, flashing, glaring, major warning sign for the midterm elections. The marquee race is in Ohio in what should be a strong Republican district. Republican Troy Balderson is clinging to a razor-thin lead over Democrat Danny O’Connor. President Trump won this district by 11 points back in 2016. But as you can see there it is very very close.” [New Day, CNN, 8/8//18; Video]

Ryan Nobles: “Make No Doubt, President Trump Went All In On This Race In Ohio.”

RYAN NOBLES: “And Make no doubt, president Trump went all in on this race in Ohio. He held a rally here, over the weekend, he tweeted his support of Troy Balderson yesterday morning, and he is already starting to spin his influence on this race, claiming in a series of tweets overnight that if he hadn’t come in to help out Troy Balderson he likely would not have been victorious. And make no mistake the president is claiming victory already.” [New Day, CNN, 8/8//18; Video]      Continue reading “Want to Know More About … OH13 and the Midterm Elections”

Women and independents drive advantage for Democrats ahead of midterm elections, Post-ABC poll finds

The following article by Scott Clement was posted on the Washington Post website January 22, 2018:

A Post-ABC poll released Jan. 22, found Democrats have an advantage ahead of 2018 congressional elections. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

Strong support from women and independents is fueling Democrats’ large early advantage ahead of this year’s congressional elections, a sign that two groups that have recoiled from Donald Trump’s presidency will play a decisive role in November, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The ongoing government shutdown and rising economic optimism are just two factors that could shuffle preferences over the nine months before Election Day, with Republicans hoping to take more credit for economic growth and cast Democrats as anti-Trump obstructionists. Continue reading “Women and independents drive advantage for Democrats ahead of midterm elections, Post-ABC poll finds”