Longtime Republican strategist Karl Rove is warning that President Donald Trump is making drastic “mistakes” that will result in the GOP losing its power in Washington in the 2026 midterm elections.
In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday titled “Alarm Bells Ring, Are You Listening?” Rove said Trump’s demeanour towards the cost-of-living crisis and his sinking polls on voters’ approval of his handling of the economy should be a warning sign for the GOP.
“Mr. Trump despises Joe Biden, yet he’s making the same mistake his predecessor made,” Rove wrote, adding, “Telling voters not to believe their own lying checkbooks was politically insane. Mr. Trump is doing the same thing.”
Trump’s approval rating on the economy has fallen drastically in recent weeks. A poll from AP-NORC released last week found just 31 percent of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the economy.
Trump’s advisers have attempted to get the president to focus more on affordability and the economy, but Trump has rallied against even the word “affordability,” calling it “a hoax that was started by Democrats” and “a Democrat scam.”
Rove also pointed to Trump’s recent MAGA rally in Pennsylvania, which was supposed to focus on affordability, but instead featured Trump rambling about past grievances for 100 minutes. During that speech, the president also claimed Americans could cut back on costs if they didn’t buy so many pencils.
Rove wrote that “The president did say he has ‘no higher priority than making America affordable again,’ but seemed uninterested in offering further changes.”
“Perhaps if during the rally the president had stayed on the issue at hand, he would have eventually offered something genuinely reassuring to voters. Instead, he spent most of his time on how he’s ended eight wars, deployed the military to destroy drug runners, and cracked down on illegal immigration,” Rove said.
Rove, who worked in George W. Bush’s administration as an adviser, noted there is time for the Trump White House to turn things around ahead of next year’s elections, but said Trump’s current actions “chew up valuable time that should be spent winning over tepid supporters or persuading anyone open to voting Republican.”
“The presidents’ grotesqueries have to stop. His team has 10.5 months before voters decide the shape of his final two years as president. Every day matters,” Rove wrote.
“It doesn’t look good for the GOP next year. The White House is on the wrong track,” he wrote, adding. “Time’s a-wasting.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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