President Donald Trump opened an Oval Office event on Thursday by lamenting that the measure he was announcing to reduce drug prices would probably not lift his political prospects in November.
“By itself we should win the midterms, but it doesn’t work that way unfortunately,” he said. “It doesn’t work that way.”
Trump did not specify what was bringing him down, but it was not hard to guess. On Monday, his Labor secretary stepped down in scandal, the third Cabinet secretary to go since March, breaking his effort to avoid the churn and turmoil that dominated his first term.
On Tuesday, Virginia voters approved four more left-leaning congressional districts, canceling out the gains in other states from Republican land grabs that Trump had instigated.
That night, Trump indefinitely and unilaterally extended his pause on bombing Iran as that country’s officials stood up U.S. negotiators and both countries continued to block oil tankers trying to leave the Persian Gulf. Average U.S. pump prices this month have pushed above $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022.
On Wednesday, the official nominally overseeing the U.S. blockade on Iran, Navy Secretary John Phelan, was forced out over clashes with other Pentagon leaders.
On Wednesday night and Thursday, new polling showed voters preferring Democrats on the economy, with Trump underwater even among Republicans.
And on Friday, the administration gave up its effort to investigate Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell, bowing to pressure from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who had refused to allow Trump’s nomination of Kevin Warsh to replace Powell as chair to move ahead until the investigation ended.
Trump went on to spend 12 minutes of Thursday’s event going “off subject” to discuss his plans to install new granite pavers along the White House colonnade and clean the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. Democrats are building a large part of their midterm message around criticizing Trump for focusing on such pet projects rather than delivering on his campaign promises to bring down prices and stop foreign wars. A White House official said the president was celebrating beautifying the capital for the country’s 250th birthday.
“Midterm elections are about anger management and failed expectations. Right now, Republicans don’t feel like their expectations are being met because what’s taking place in the Middle East is not necessarily viewed as an America First strategy by the base,” Paul Shumaker, a longtime Republican strategist in North Carolina, said.
“There’s a whole lot of voters who supported Republicans in ’24 with the expectation that we were going to fix the economy and curb inflation, and you don’t see that taking place right now.”
A Fox News poll released Wednesday found most voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the economy, inflation, Iran, foreign policy and immigration. Only 37 percent said Trump cared about people like them, down from 44 percent in 2024. And for the first time since 2010, more voters said the Democrats would do a better job than Republicans on the economy.
“It’s a brand new thing,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said. “He’s just really failed on the economy, and even without really offering a clear alternative, the Democrats are ahead on it.”
Disapproval of Trump’s job performance is creeping into his own party. Just 48 percent of Republicans in a Marquette Law School national survey approved of Trump’s handling of inflation and the cost of living, down from 70 percent last July.
“That’s the first time we’ve seen Republicans below 50 percent on any issue,” the poll’s director, Charles Franklin, said. Approval on inflation among independents sank to 7 percent from 23 percent in May. On Trump’s handling of the economy more generally, 64 percent of Republicans approved, which Franklin called “not terrific.”
Trump’s overall approval rating has stayed steady, but low, this year, at 38 percent now versus 40 percent in January, according to a Washington Post average of high quality polls. Republicans still approve overall by 82 percent, compared to 84 percent in January.
John McLaughlin, a longtime pollster for Trump, acknowledged that Republicans face particular challenges with independent voters and said the GOP needs to turn the focus back toward Democrats.
“Right now the Democrats have us on defense,” McLaughlin said. “And their one strategy is to attack President Trump, and rather than playing defense we need to go on offense with them.”
The Fox poll found rising dissatisfaction among Republicans who don’t identify with Trump’s Make American Great Again movement — and more Republicans are now identifying that way. About 32 percent of self-identified Republicans considered themselves non-MAGA in the Fox News April survey, compared to an average of 26 percent across Fox’s eight national surveys in 2025 and nine in 2024.
On Monday, Trump said polls are “rigged.”
Democrats are eager to press their perceived advantage by competing deeper into red territory. The main super PAC supporting House Democrats announced plans to go on offense by reserving airtime in contested districts in states including Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Montana and Tennessee. Republicans called the announcement a stunt because the reservations can be changed. The House Majority PAC said it’s had record fundraising and plans to spend significantly more than the $220 million it spent in 2024. Republicans maintain a major cash advantage in national committees and flagship super PACs.
“It’s a special kind of political incompetence when Republican attempts to rig the midterms end up creating more paths in more parts of the country for Democrats to win in November,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Viet Shelton.
Trump has acknowledged that the stakes of the midterms, include freezing his policy agenda and possibly a third impeachment. But a person close to the White House said he has lately sounded less concerned about near-term political consequences than his legacy, a factor in his willingness to tolerate economic shock waves from trying to end Iran’s nuclear program. The White House official said Trump makes the best possible decision for the country, sees it through and isn’t deterred by critics.
That goal remained elusive amid the stalemate in negotiations, despite Trump’s earlier claim that Iran already agreed to give up its highly enriched uranium. Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, were set to return to Pakistan on Sunday for lower-level talks, without Vice President JD Vance or Iran’s top negotiator, parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. The White House official said the blockade and sanctions are cutting off Iran’s income and its oil storage will soon fill up, forcing its wells to be shut in.
“The President is focused on negotiations to ensure the short- and long-term threat posed by a nuclear Iran is removed for good,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in an email. “The President has been clear from the beginning that these are short-term disruptions — but once all of these actions conclude, our economy will bounce back even better than before, and the entire world will be safer and more stable.”
In the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump declined to tell Americans how long they could expect the conflict to last.
“You’re such a disgrace,” he told the reporter who asked. “How many years was Vietnam?”
He also declined to specify how much longer drivers would have to pay higher gas prices.
“For a little while,” he said. “And you know what they get for that? Iran without a nuclear weapon.”
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said: “President Trump has been very straightforward with the American people all along about the temporary, short-term disruptions stemming from the necessary Operation Epic Fury to deny the Iranian terrorist regime a nuclear weapon — a position he proudly campaigned on and has held for decades. At the same time, President Trump remains laser focused on lowering costs for working families and is committed to maintaining Republicans’ majorities in Congress to continue delivering on his commonsense agenda.”
Scott Clement contributed reporting.
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