Trump’s midterm malaise: endless war and high prices could spell doom for Republicans in November

‘Complete unraveling’ of Trump and Republican project reflects attitude of not caring at all about governance He was always one step ahead. Donald Trump won the US presidency as a wildly unlikely outsider in 2016 and staged an astonishing comeback to win it again in 2024. Even his foes grudgingly called him a political savant with an intuition for exploiting grievances that left so-called experts floundering. But now they are asking if the dark genius has lost his touch. Trump is trapped in the quagmire of an unpopular war, obsessing over monuments in Washington and looking for a new spokesperson after his White House press secretary quit. If the 80-year-old was deliberately trying to sabotage his Republican party in November’s midterm elections, it is not clear what he would do differently. “He’s always had a reptilian political instinct for public opinion that has served him well,” said Charlie Sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster. “You’re not seeing that much any more. You’re not seeing his ability to read the room. He seems tone-deaf on issues like the cost of living, the war, and the optics of gilding everything in sight and enshittifying Washington a