Republicans heading into November have a problem they can’t say out loud: they’re terrified of being seen anywhere near Donald Trump.
That was the blunt read on Wednesday from John Heilemann, national affairs analyst for NBC News and MS NOW, on Nicolle Wallace’s show, “Deadline: White House,” where he argued the only thing that halts a slide toward authoritarianism is the ballot box.
And the ballot box has been unkind to the GOP this year.
Heilemann pointed to the damning results, calling the last 17 months “an unbroken string of Democratic advances and Republicans in retreat.” Democrats, he said, have shown up in special and off-year elections and turned Trump’s 2024 margins around, “not just exceeding them, not just turning them back, but blowing them out of the water.”
“Donald Trump is doing nothing to turn that around. He has done nothing. He’s done the opposite of nothing to turn that around. He’s made it worse systematically!” said Heilemann.
That overperformance, he argued, has left Republicans privately panicking.
“Every Republican who’s in his or her right mind right now is freaking out and does not want to see Donald Trump in their district or state in a million years between now and November,” Heilemann said, calling it a “huge” story.
He imagined the message GOP candidates are quietly sending the White House: “Thanks but no thanks, Mr. President. Why don’t you just skip my district or my state because you’re nothing but bad news for me?”
Wallace, drawing on her own Republican background, agreed. With Trump’s approval hovering around 30%, she said, “it’s hard to land Air Force One anywhere other than” the reddest district or state, because a presidential visit “saturates the local news.” She called Trump “a political loser right now,” adding, “that is undeniable.”
Even Fox News, noted Media Matters President Angelo Carusone, is straining to carry Trump’s narrative through the 2026 cycle.
“They just can’t do it anymore,” he said.
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