Republicans are secretly angry with President Donald Trump because he sounds “detached and noncommittal” ahead of a potential midterm election disaster, according to White House insiders who spoke to the Washington Post.
Republicans hold an anxiety-inducing ultra-slim majority in the House. This, coupled with the lack of direction from Trump, his slumping approval ratings and signs of a Democratic rally in performance, has rankled some in the West Wing, sources told the Post.
The sources said this has not yet translated to public condemnation, but some on Trump’s team are privately bristling.
The reported angst comes from the fact that Trump, 79, has a $300 million-plus war chest, but has yet to approve a spending plan, nor has he endorsed GOP challengers in some key battleground states.
Because of the latter, donors have had to bankroll expensive primaries in states like Texas and Georgia. When challenged, Trump “can sound detached and noncommittal,” one insider told the Post. Another source close to the White House said that, on some days, the president quite simply “seems not to care.”
One official said that losing the House majority doesn’t ruffle him as much because he has already faced a Democrat-led impeachment process twice, in 2019 and 2021. But this laissez-faire attitude doesn’t translate to his team, the Post reported, citing weary aides.
As a result of Trump’s reluctance to endorse, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has been drawn into a nasty, and expensive, primary challenge with MAGA fave Ken Paxton. In September last year, Team Cornyn rolled out an ad campaign coloring his scandal-prone fellow Republican as crooked. Months later, and Trump has not endorsed Cornyn or the Texas attorney general who is hoping to oust him.
“There’s only one person in the world who’s going to make that decision and we can’t wait,” Cornyn told the Post.
If Paxton were the Republican nominee, it would take a lot more money than usual to keep that Texas Senate seat. People involved in the race estimate it would cost about $100 million extra, because Paxton would need heavy advertising to stay competitive.
Internal polling, the Post reported, showed Cornyn leading Paxton. Paxton, crucially, is also lagging behind Texas state Rep. James Talarico and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett on the Democratic side. Talarico or Crockett winning a general election would be a costly misstep caused by Trump’s inaction, if it were to come to fruition.
And, despite a $50 million cash injection, Cornyn has established no definitive lead over either Paxton or GOP Rep. Wesley Hunt in the three-way battle.
Republican Senatorial Committee chair Tim Scott of South Carolina tried to warn his colleagues at the Republican Senate caucus on Tuesday that disaster could be looming, the Post reported. He presented Fox News polling that suggested the Dems have a 6-point advantage in House races. This would leave all nine Senate battlegrounds open, compounded by the Democratic Party’s fruitful fundraising charge. Voting opens later this month, with the primary in early March. A runoff election will be held on May 26 if no candidate receives a majority.
Senate leader John Thune has come closest to showing exasperation with Trump’s sloth-like approach to endorsing. “I’ve had many conversations about why I think that makes the most sense to get behind John Cornyn,” he told reporters last week. “I don’t have any inside knowledge of when or what that might look like or when it might happen.”
Senator Thom Tillis, who has recently “gone rogue” by attacking Trump sycophants, was more direct. “I do think it’s a real problem when Senate Leadership Fund is on record supporting Cornyn and Cassidy, and President Trump is either silent or in opposition,” Tillis said, referring to the main super PAC supporting Senate Republicans.
“We’re literally going to have Republican-on-Republican money being spent and that makes no sense leading up to a general [election] where we’re going to have headwinds.”
Last month, Trump recruited and endorsed a challenger to Sen. Bill Cassidy in Louisiana. A White House official who spoke to the Post said this was a petty swipe based on the fact that Cassidy voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6 attacks in 2021.
Despite the concern, a spokesman for Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., said the president will spend in waves. “MAGA Inc. will have the resources to help candidates who support President Trump’s America First agenda,” Alex Pfeiffer said.
The White House pointed to Trump’s upcoming bumper domestic itinerary as evidence that he is focused on kitchen-table issues.
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