Donald Trump is reportedly resigned to projected Democratic victories in midterm elections and has allegedly told aides he doesn’t care about the outcome.
The president has also vented in private that the Republican party hasn’t passed major parts of his agenda, including a set of strict new voting restrictions, insiders told The Wall Street Journal.
“The message is simple: if Republicans hold Congress and keep delivering on President Trump’s agenda, American families will have more money in their pockets, secure borders, lower prescription drug prices, better economic growth, and energy dominance,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to The Independent.
“Democrats have consistently exposed their radicalism to the American people, from voting in favor of a $4 trillion tax hike on working families to trying to block violent illegal aliens from being deported to shutting down the federal government and inflicting massive harm on Americans for no good reason,” he said.
In public, meanwhile, the president has brushed off a major concern heading into 2026 election: a mounting affordability crisis.
Asked earlier this week whether he was considering Americans’ finances amid ongoing inflation because of the Iran war, the president said he isn’t even thinking about it.
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation — I don’t think about anybody,” Trump told reporters. “I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
On Friday, the president doubled down on the stance.
“I’d make it again,” Trump told Fox News of his “perfect statement” about the war.
Democrats quickly seized on the comment, painting the president and his party as corrupt and out of touch at a time of skyrocketing gas prices.
“Of course Trump, the narcissist in chief, doesn’t think about the financial situation of Americans,” Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote on X this week.
“To Trump, it doesn’t matter that the working class is struggling economically,” he said. “What matters to Trump is that his family got $4 billion richer since he was elected. That’s it.”
But the president and his Republican allies have some advantages heading into midterms.
MAGA Inc., a Trump-aligned super political action committee, has $347 million heading into election season, adding to the Republican National Committee’s $116 million cash on hand it disclosed at the end of March.
The courts have also boosted the GOP in ongoing redistricting fights across the country, which the president kicked off last year by urging allies in Texas to add more Republican-leaning seats.
In recent weeks, the Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana congressional map, narrowed the Voting Rights Act, and rejected an attempt from Virginia to reinstate one of its recently redrawn maps.
Combined, critics say these actions will further gerrymandering meant to dilute the political power of Democrats and people of color.
The president also looks set to keep on baselessly challenging the validity of U.S. elections, vowing in a social media post last week to send an “Election Integrity Army” to every single state for the 2026 midterms.
Trump has also not ruled out sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents or National Guard troops to polling sites.
Despite the president’s considerable financial war chest and ability to influence politics from the bully pulpit, voters are increasingly turning against him on key economic issues.
Between the end of April and early May, roughly 77 percent of respondents told a CNN/SSRS survey that Trump’s policies have driven up the cost of living, with most people pinning the blame on his decision to go attack Iran and the implement global tariffs.
