Trump’s war and the resulting economy are a gift for Democrats in the midterms

This is an adapted excerpt from the June 10 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes.”

We are over 100 days into the war that Donald Trump started for no good reason, and he still has no good way out of the mess he created. 

On Thursday, the United States and Iran continued to trade strikes, with the president promising “bigger” and “more powerful” attacks to come. That comes after the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter this week as the worst “ceasefire” in the history of war continues on and on with no magic Trump “deal” to end it in sight.

Here at home, the consequences of this debacle are wearing on Americans. It’s clear they hold the president responsible, and we are starting to see how that is translating into election action across the country: Trump’s war and the resulting Trump economy are terrible politically for the president and Republicans.

Earlier this week, there was a lot of hand-wringing and some reasonable concern about Maine Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner. The oyster farmer is not a perfect candidate, and he has got more baggage than a lot of Democrats would prefer. 

But he also has what voters clearly think is a strong message. Platner has centered his campaign around a narrative of personal redemption, as well as a posture of ironclad resistance toward the Trump administration.

And the material conditions up in Maine are not great. Trump’s Big Ugly Bill has been a nightmare for rural communities. Hospitals are closing left and right. His reckless war with Iran — plus his tariffs — have made everything more expensive, especially the price of gas, which is up dramatically from this time a year ago.

On Tuesday, the confluence of all of that paid off for Platner. After effectively running the state’s incumbent governor out of the race, he won an overwhelming victory in the state’s Democratic Senate primary.

Right now, with 94% of the vote in, he is sitting at about 72%. He earned more raw votes than the last Democratic challenger to Republican Sen. Susan Collins got in her primary.  And when all is said and done, he will likely have a larger margin of victory as well, against a better-known and better-funded opponent. 

The general election race against Collins will be tough. She is a shrewd and formidable campaigner with a history of overperforming in a blue state.

But the committee in charge of electing Republicans to the Senate has been very clear-eyed that it thinks Platner has a real shot at winning, writing in a memo Wednesday, “It is a fatal mistake to assume Platner is too damaged to win.”

Sure, some of that is fear-mongering to the base to help raise funds, but Republicans really are worried about Platner’s victory. Trump tore into the Democrat during an event in the Oval Office on Wednesday, calling him a “thug.”