Earlier this year, as President Donald Trump and his top advisers stared down increasingly grim polling for Republicans, they devised a strategy for staving off losses in the midterm elections: Put Trump front and center.
The president appeared in taxpayer-funded campaign ads that showed him and U.S. forces in the Iran war, created a new midterm convention to star in, and crisscrossed 20 states to appear in 30 rallies in the campaign’s final weeks.
Democrats would make the elections about him anyway, his advisers reasoned, and at least this way the president could motivate his core supporters to get to the polls in a way no other Republican could.
🚨 UPDATE: After the midterms, Donald Trump just posted that he was elected to do politically difficult but necessary things
"Securing the border is ugly."
"Fighting Iran is costly."
"Backing AI scares people."
"Republicans paid the costs. The benefits will be with us for many generations."
47 himself said at the White House the morning after the shellacking that he’d DO IRAN ALL OVER AGAIN because they can’t have a nuke
Trump obliterated Iran’s nuclear program, and now he’s figuring out how to achieve total victory and get us out. Pray for his swift success 🙏🏻
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 5, 2026
