This is an adapted excerpt from the June 3 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”
As the midterms come into view, basically every major problem Donald Trump has caused remains unresolved.
The war with Iran is ongoing and, despite claims of a so-called ceasefire, there are strikes basically every day. The Strait of Hormuz remains under Iranian control. As a result, gas prices remain high, with the constant risk that they could go even higher. And Trump is completely uninterested in doing anything about the larger issue of affordability. All of which is eroding his popular support.
There is this interesting paradox we are seeing: Trump’s revenge tour against Republicans he thinks aren’t loyal enough is actually making him weaker.
According to the latest Economist-YouGov poll, a record 61% of Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling his job as president. Right now, he is much less popular than he was at this point during his first term, before the 2018 midterm elections.
This is why Republicans are so spooked about the upcoming midterms. You can see it in how they are acting now in Congress. There is this interesting paradox we are seeing: Trump’s revenge tour against Republicans he thinks aren’t loyal enough is actually making him weaker.
Let me explain. Trump has a strong grip on Republican primary voters — though his preferred candidate did lose the gubernatorial primary in Iowa on Tuesday, so maybe that is slipping a bit — so he was able to unseat Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, as well as Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. He also basically forced Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina into early retirement, because he almost certainly would have lost a primary challenge to a MAGA opponent.
But here’s the thing. All of those guys are still in Congress until next January. They don’t just disappear when they lose their primaries or announce their retirement. And right now, they are not very pleased with Trump.
Despite being deeply conservative politicians, I don’t think any one of them is particularly eager to bail Trump out in Congress — especially when it comes to the most egregious parts of this president’s agenda.
Like his slush fund for Jan. 6 rioters, which the acting attorney general now says is dead. Cassidy and Tillis have both been outspoken against it, with the latter using a particularly novel turn of phrase to describe it. “I’m not going to be an attorney and judge its legality, but I think it’s stupid on stilts,” Tillis said of the fund.
And now, after losing his primary last week, Cornyn has conveniently found his own backbone. The Texas Republican shared a quote from a piece by The Wall Street Journal editorial board on X, encouraging lawmakers to vote down such a proposal. “The way to ensure the fund is more than mostly dead would be for Congress to put a stake through it,” the post read.
Of course, Trump being Trump, as soon as he appeared to back away from the slush fund, he brought forth another equally ridiculous proposal.