Were the midterm elections held today, Republicans would absolutely lose the United States House of Representatives and, increasingly, could lose the United States Senate.
Democrats, most polling averages show, are less popular than President Donald Trump, but he remains deeply unpopular. Some competence from his team could help him.
A majority of Americans support deportations of undocumented immigrants, but a majority of Americans have deep reservations about how Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem handled deportations.
Mass roundups that risk arresting and detaining American citizens is anathema to Americans, but it has happened.
Many of Trump’s supporters refuse to acknowledge the reality, but it is now well documented that American citizens of Hispanic ethnicity have been arrested and detained. Americans, unlike other nations, have a constitutional right to travel unimpeded and without need to show identification.
Trump’s Cabinet choices have proven to be subpar
Credit: Erick Erickson
Credit: Erick Erickson
On the Epstein files, Attorney General Pam Bondi would rather you know the Dow hit 50,000 than that she has failed to indict anyone related to the files.
Bondi is the woman who opened the door on the Epstein files. She told Fox News’ John Roberts that she had the Epstein list on her desk. Then she organized a group of social media influencers at the White House, giving them white binders filled, she claimed, with the files.
The information was old, mostly redacted, and nothing new. But it fired up Trump’s base, which demanded all information be released.
Secretary Noem and Attorney General Bondi have been spectacularly incompetent at their jobs. Still, Trump stands behind them. Secretary Robert F. Kennedy of Health and Human Services, on a near weekly basis, spouts more misinformation and lies about health care, further undermining trust in public health.
Measles is spreading after years of Kennedy of amplifying bad data and conspiracy theories. Now, as the man in charge of public health, he refuses to encourage vaccinations, which are a miracle of modern medicine.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Adding to Kennedy is Dr. Casey Means, the president’s pending nominee for U.S. Surgeon General. Means, before the United States Senate, refused to advocate for vaccines, including for measles, but has previously championed hallucinogenics, acid and witchcraft. Means has written about channeling moon magic.
She wrote on her website that she “worked with a spiritual medium who helped [her] try to connect with [her] spirit guides for support and guidance.” She also practiced the “Silva method,” which is pseudoscience nonsense developed by an electrician convinced his daughter had psychic abilities.
President turned his back on his first-term successes
Then there is Trump’s tariff policies. Many congressional Republicans, too cowardly to stand up against the tariffs, had privately hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would save the president from himself. The court did, but then the president reimposed tariffs under different statutes, some of which his legal team had argued before the Supreme Court were not applicable for what the president wanted.
The erratic nature of Trumps’ governing style has festered incompetence around him. Because he is loyal to anyone who gets criticized by anyone Trump perceives as an enemy, his employees have no reason to become competent. His base will defend them. He will protect them. The incompetence does not get better.
Border Czar Tom Homan is a rare bright light. With Secretary Noem sidelined after her handling of federal agents killing nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Homan intends to continue carrying out deportations, but in a principled, logical, and targeted manner.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
It is a travesty of the present age that Homan and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been vilified for much of what the Border Patrol actually has done. Trump’s pivot back to Homan, from Noem, is a good thing. But Trump needs to do more.
As both a Republican and a conservative, I would prefer it if the Republicans keep the House and Senate. As much as I might criticize Trump, I prefer most of his policies to what a Democrat would offer.
I realize if Democrats sweep in November, Trump’s presidency will be effectively over because he will be impeached constantly, as will his cabinet secretaries. But I also think Trump has neither demanded nor received the best advice, best work and most competent operations from those he chose to represent him, and that is on him.
Compounded with his lack of discipline and his belief that 19th century mercantilist economic policy is the solution to 21st century free markets, it is easy to understand why the public has turned on the President.
According to Gallup, the last time a majority of Americans felt good about the American economy was in January of 2020, just before COVID hit.
Trump was president and the economy was roaring. Now, six years later, the president has rejected his own first-term economic policies and the competent stewards who carried out those policies, and Americans are about to reject him because of it.
Erick Erickson is host of the nationally syndicated “Erick Erickson Show,” heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on WSB radio. He is also now an opinion contributor to the AJC.
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