Trump is preparing for defeat before a single midterm vote is cast

Donald Trump has been musing on the prospect of defeat at the midterm elections. Interviewed by Punchbowl News, he admitted: “I think we are going to win but you know… even good presidents, they tend to lose the midterms.” Trump feels frustrated. He can’t pass the legislation he wants on voting reform because an awkward squad of Republican lawmakers is defying his will. He knows why. He turned his Maga dogs on them in bloody primary battles and got them deselected so they cannot run again. Now they’re out to punish him. “I don’t regret it, you do what you have to do,” Trump said. “Just so you understand, they voted to impeach me… In all fairness, you think that I’m going to support somebody that voted to impeach me?” This is Trump at his most authentic: if he isn’t dishing out payback, he’s not happy. Whatever it costs, whatever it takes, he thinks going after his enemies is worthwhile. But all his dastardly plans for revenge are going wrong. When he’s not punching at his enemies, he’s glorifying himself with grandiose building projects in Washington. The farrago over the Reflecting Pool in Washington combines both his obsession with renovation and revenge. From the hubris of wanting it swimming pool blue in time for America’s 250th anniversary to the humiliation of trying to pin the blame for shoddy work on passers-by who mocked the visibly peeling paint – it’s the gift that keeps backfiring on him. On Thursday, criminal charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn were dismissed by a judge after Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News presenter who became US attorney for Washington, DC, admitted contractors had botched the job. Trump has been furious with her all week – and still can’t let the saga go. “She said there was no vandalism. There was tremendous vandalism,” Trump told NBC News. “So, she made a terrible mistake. I don’t understand why she did such a stupid thing.” Somewhere in the Trump’s brain there ought to be room for the kitchen table concerns of voters on the economy, inflation, fuel prices – the stuff of everyday life. They’re feeling crowded out by his petty fixations. Monthly job figures have just been revised downwards, there has been no sign of a promised World Cup hospitality and leisure industry bump, and the Iran war has passed the five-month mark. According to a Quinnipac poll, 68 per cent of voters think Trump is not focused enough on addressing their problems. This hasn’t deterred Trump from getting into a huff over a report that he berated war secretary Pete Hegseth about rapidly dwindling US missile and interceptor stocks. Everything about the story was fake, he fumed. True or not, however, he posted: “The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!” We’ll see if this goes any better than his retribution campaign against the Reflecting Pool “vandals”, but it’s not going to miraculously revive missile stocks nor alter the fortunes of the Iran war. Emulating Trump, Republican Senators have been on a revenge spree of their own. They have been frantically searching for a means to prosecute Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden during the Covid pandemic. Summoned before Congress, the eighty-five-year-old pleaded the “fifth” (the right to remain silent) which didn’t cover him in glory, but denied them an excuse to throw him in jail. On Thursday, the Senate Homeland Committee voted to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress and referred his case to the Justice department – in the hope that they can still keep on persecuting him. It’s all a ridiculous waste of time. Fauci was preemptively pardoned by President Joe Biden, knowing Republicans were hell-bent on revenge for the Covid lockdowns that began under Trump. Fauci is no more likely to be locked up than former FBI chief, James Comey, who has been charged with threatening Trump after he posted an Instagram picture of seashells arranged in the formation “8647” – supposedly slang for killing the 47th president. Asking Trump to stop his petty behaviour is like asking him to stop breathing. His thirst for revenge has previously served him well in business and politics. The Maga movement loves him for it. “I am your justice… I am your retribution,” he vowed during his campaign to take back the White House. But the Midterms are a chance for voters to say “what about us?” They will be asking if the US is heading in the right direction two years into Trump’s presidency. Judging from his interview with Punchbowl News, Trump thinks he might not like their answer. Don’t worry, though – he has an excuse ready. “They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me,” he said. Nothing is ever his fault.