White House · Donald Trump · Republicans · Wired
‘It’s the President’s Fault’: The White House Blame Game Starts Early Ahead of the Midterms
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Trump White House aides have started to cast about for a scapegoat to offer the president in the event of bad midterm election losses, as Republicans stare down brutal predictions in key House and Senate races, say.
Key facts
- Even accounting for the Iran war, the redistricting gambit was supposed to bring roughly 10 to 15 pickups for Republicans in the House
- Blair's efforts included a marquee plan for certain states to redraw congressional maps early, which looked likely—though not certain —to yield favorable House seats for Republicans, so long
- The result has been an unusually early effort to find a scapegoat, and sources say eyes have fallen on deputy chief of staff and political strategist James Blair, who organized the Trump 2024
- The redrawn map for Florida's 25th congressional district south of Fort Lauderdale, for instance, is now characterized as "Lean Democrat," and the outlook is so bad that the Congressional Leadership
Summary
Republican political operatives say privately that the real blame lies with Trump for starting the Iran war in an election year, causing higher prices across the board and prompting a nationwide voter backlash, the sources say. “Clearly it's the president's fault,” one operative tells Inner Loop. But Trump aides also know, for obvious reasons, they cannot say publicly or tell the president behind closed doors that his own policy decisions are at fault as they contemplate losing not the House majority, but possibly the Senate.