Trump sends crushing message to Republicans: ‘I don’t care about the midterms’

With less than six months remaining until voters decide whether to keep his party in control of the House and Senate for the last two years of his term, President Donald Trump says he does not care about the result as negotiations continue over a potential deal to end the months-long standoff with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump was in the midst of a meandering monologue at the top of the 12th cabinet meeting of his second term when he expressed his total lack of interest in the November elections while boasting of supposed successes against Tehran in the war he started and claiming Iran’s hardline government is “very much intent” on striking an agreement to end the mutual blockade that has caused fuel prices to soar and his approval ratings to plummet.

“Their economy is in freefall, they have 250% inflation, their money has no value. Their whole economic system is broken down,” he said.

“They thought they were going to out-wait me ... he's got the midterms. I don't care about the midterms.”

Trump then told reporters to “look at what happened last night,” citing the Texas senate primary victory of Ken Paxton, the scandal-plagued Lone Star State attorney general who defeated longtime GOP incumbent John Cornyn in a bruising intra-party battle for the right to take on Democratic challenger James Talarico in the general election.

“That was the prelude to the midterms,” he added.

The president’s dismissal of the upcoming elections comes as his approval rating has sunk to new lows amid the continuing conflict with Iran, which has driven gas prices through the roof across the country as the standoff with Tehran over the Strait of Hormuz has choked off global fuel supplies and left energy markets reeling and inflation spiking.

Last week, the polling aggregator RealClearPolitics reported that Trump’s disapproval rating average had spiked to 58.3 percent — higher than the 57.9 percent level it had hit in the days following the riot Trump had fomented at the U.S. Capitol in a last-ditch attempt to avoid leaving office after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

It cited polls from a range of outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the Daily Mail as well as Reuters/Ipsos, CBS News, and The New York Times.

A Fox News survey released last week showed Trump’s overall approval rating falling to 39 percent with 61 percent disapproving, including 41 percent who say they “strongly” disapprove.

That’s a three-point drop since last month, a full ten points lower than the start of his second term, and a single percentage point above the lowest rating of his first term in October 2017.

The three-point slide was powered by drops in his overall approval among key demographic groups, with rural white voters’ approval dropping by six points, that 3 percent drop among Republicans and a five-point slide from white men without college degrees, a voting bloc that has always been one of his strongest bases of support.

A whopping 91 percent blame Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran for the high gas prices, and his Republican Party allies in Congress are also bearing the brunt of voters’ anger.

Polling analyst Nate Silver’s Silver Bulletin reported on Wednesday that Democrats currently hold a 6.9 percent average lead in polling on which party voters would prefer to be in charge of Congress next year.

And with the clock continuing to count down until the day voters decide whether to give Democrats back control of both the House and Senate, Trump appears uninterested in taking any steps to solve the cost-of-living issues he exacerbated with the war despite having campaigned on a promise to bring prices down after voters punished Democrats for post-Covid inflation spikes.

He blew off such economic concerns when speaking to reporters just before his trip to China earlier this month when asked whether he was factoring in his promise to ease Americans’ financial woes during talks to end the war.

“I don't think about American’s financial situation — I don't think about anybody,” he said.

But those talks were thrown into chaos again on Wednesday after the White House dismissed Iran’s latest terms and rejected reports of a draft peace deal as a “complete fabrication,” even as Trump claimed Iran remains keen on striking a deal while insisting that Tehran would not get sanctions relief for giving up highly-enriched uranium — a sticking point in negotiations.

“Iran want very much to make a deal. So far they haven't gotten there... We're not satisfied with it, but we will be. We will be either that or we'll have to just finish the job,” he said.

Earlier in the day, the White House dismissed an Iranian state television report about a purported draft memorandum of understanding on potential peace deal terms as “not true” and suggested that both sides remain far from closing an agreement.

The report claimed the memorandum stated that Tehran would restore shipping through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within a month while American withdraw forces would from Iran's vicinity and end a naval ⁠blockade of Iranian shipping.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Olivia Wales later added that negotiations with Iran were nonetheless proceeding nicely and reiterated Trump has made his red lines clear regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

Pakistan’s prime minister Muhammad Sharif was more optimistic about the prospects of a peace deal, saying he hoped a peace deal could be finalised soon after receiving a call from Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian, according to his office.

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