Damned if they Trump; damned if they don’t ... That’s the Republican quandary in midterms homestretch

With about a month left before the Nov. 3 midterms, President Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail, urging voters to act as though he were on the ballot. The Independent reports that Republicans face a bind: keeping Trump at a distance risks depressing turnout among his loyal base, while embracing him ties candidates to a president whose standing is at a low.

Associated Press-NORC surveys put his job approval under a third of Americans, and The Wall Street Journal found the weakest showing for a sitting president ahead of midterms in decades. Trump dismisses the polling as fake. He has also launched a multimillion-dollar, taxpayer-funded advertising push that the White House describes as public service announcements, and he reportedly intends to hold as many as seven rallies a week.

Operatives told Politico the mood inside the party is mixed. One said Trump's team phoned four times about visiting a safely Republican district and was turned down; another warned that a New York stop could doom the state's House Republicans. Meanwhile, Republicans must spend in districts Trump carried easily in 2024, while Democrats post strong online fundraising.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Independent’s reporting. Read the full story at The Independent →