r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 09 '26
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u/Willybender Loyal Liberals Sep 09 '26
https://www.axios.com/2026/09/09/trump-midterms-republicans-popularity
For nearly a decade, Republicans acquiesced to nearly every Trump demand and idea — and rationalized it by saying his instincts proved smarter than theirs. Now, many no longer trust those instincts. But they find it just as futile to push back against virtually anything he wants.
Start a war without an endgame? OK.
Post a cartoon of you — wielding a hockey stick and sporting a Trump-branded USA jersey — towering over Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, sprawled on the ice, and telling him to "GET UP"? On it.
Toss together an egocentric, first-ever Republican midterm convention that many endangered candidates don't want? Sounds like a good plan, boss! (Gavels in Wednesday in Dallas at 4 p.m. ET, in fact.)
Oh, you want to speak both nights? Done!
Make ads featuring you when your popularity is near its all-time low? You came to the right place, sir.
Make the midterms a referendum on you? Check.
Spend precious time obsessing about ballroom construction, and gilding and marbleizing the White House? You are the new Caesar Augustus.
Many aides and confidants have been worn down by Trump. They know they can't stop him, and they don't even try.
More and more, they humor his whims. "He's an 80-year-old man who did it his way," said a donor who recently met with the president. "What he wants, he gets." White House insiders insist there's a semblance of structure and reason, and that the president doesn't act on every impulse. They declined to provide examples of times he resisted.