It is hard to believe that the Republican Party won just two years ago in such a dynamic fashion. Thanks to their winning message of strengthening the economy, reducing inflation, and curbing the affordability crisis, overwhelming numbers of Americans voted to give Donald Trump a second chance at the presidency.
They also gave him majorities in the United States House of Representatives and Senate, as if to ensure that the president would have what he needed to make the country prosperous and peaceful again.
President Donald Trump delivers the Commencement address at the graduation ceremony for the University of Alabama, Thursday, May 1, 2025, at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)
President Donald Trump delivers remarks at a National Day of Prayer event, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in the White House Rose Garden. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
At first, it seemed as though the president and the Republicans were addressing the concerns of average Americans.
In fact, at the start of this year, the inflation rate was coming down for the first time in years, and the average cost of fuel was projected to reach more affordable levels–and stay there–so long as nothing happened to disrupt global energy markets too much.
And, wouldn’t you know, all that positive momentum made it look like the Republicans were going to have a very strong showing in November’s Midterms.
The War That Broke the World
But then February 28 happened.
The Iran War began without even a congressional debate.
Before long, the Iranians attacked shipping going through the Strait of Hormuz (SoH), a strategic waterway through which 20 percent of the world’s crude oil and around 20 percent of the world’s natural gas flows. The longer the war persisted, the more it disrupted the global economy and the higher goods prices spiked.
From there, the president’s ongoing immigration policies became an electoral burden, a shocking turn from when they were a source of strength for him in 2016. But the electorate began tiring of the perception of cruelty from the administration’s ICE agents in their conduct. It wasn’t that voters opposed prosecuting illegal immigration. It was that the administration was fixated on targeting a certain subset of people (mostly Latinos) and doing it in vicious, brutal ways.
Between the economic collapse in the United States, the war, and the appearance of impropriety in multiple domains, not just the prosecution of the president’s hawkish immigration agenda, voters have soured on Trump.
In fact, his approval rating is the lowest it has been in a decade–getting to lows not seen for a Republican since George W. Bush at the height of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis.
Going into the Midterms, with so many viewing this election cycle as a referendum on Trump and his policies, that’s a bad sign.
And look at the polls of early and mail-in voting.
These polls indicate that on all the major issues that Trump was elected with overwhelming majorities in 2024, the president and GOP have failed to address those concerns.
In fact, they’ve made those issues worse because of the unpopular Iran War.
Come to think of it, the Iran War itself is a repudiation of the Trump agenda.
Remember, one of the only consistent things that Trump has campaigned on since 2016 has been his opposition to what he rightly described as “stupid” wars of choice in the Middle East.
Donald Trump has started one of the most unpopular, seemingly endless, massively damaging wars of choice in the Middle East. And the voters know it.
A Cornucopia of Corruption
On top of all that, voters are overwhelmingly listing corruption as a key election concern this year. In some polls, it even ties with healthcare as a top concern for US voters.
That doesn’t bode well for Republicans or the Trump administration.
Most voters perceive the White House as engaged in a cornucopia of corruption.
People are sick of it. Especially because their own economic circumstances aren’t just declining as they were under the much-maligned Joe Biden; they are collapsing.
Donald Trump was not a typical Republican presidential candidate.
He represented, voters believed, a clean break with the Republican Party of the past.
The GOP that favored markets over people.
The Republican Party that loved tax cuts for the billionaires and scraps for the ordinary American.
The GOP that, no matter what, supported endless wars.
Trump was the battering ram, in the eyes of many, to break down the gilded doors of Washington and put people and policies in place that would put ordinary Americans’ concerns first.
People endured his brash style, his braggadocio, and frankly, his immorality, because they believed it served a higher goal: restoring American greatness.
After ten years, though, people are tired of it.
They no longer believe that the president has their interests in mind.
They also think that he has become detached from the needs of the people.
Trump went into Drain the Swamp, and in the eyes of many voters, he’s become the swamp.
That populist wave that pushed Trump and the MAGA Republicans into power has now left the Right and has moved over to the Left.
That is why you now see at least six of the seven battleground Senate seats trending Democratic on Election Day.
That explains why gubernatorial races in Deep Red states, like Texas and Florida, are up for grabs today! Americans are rightly fed up.
They’re tired of the same old thing.
And now that the war party in DC has clearly taken over the Trump administration, and the GOP is happily in lockstep with the war party, the American people are swinging hard to the Left.
Can the Democrats Achieve a Generational Victory?
Whether the Democrats can do any better than the GOP is irrelevant.
Americans are desperate.
They want real change, and they want their kitchen-table needs addressed now. Not ten years from now. But now.
At this rate, most Americans would likely welcome Iranian nuclear weapons if it meant the cost of gas went down and if more people could afford homes.
What’s more, the people are more than happy to throw Trump out with the rest of the bums, since he so clearly has thrown his lot in with those bums.
Trump and the GOP are in for an historic defeat.
No one on the Right is really ready for it.
The question is whether that defeat is generational and ensures Democrats dominate for the next decade or more, or if it is temporary. For Trump’s purposes, though, that doesn’t really matter.
He will go down as a failed president, and the GOP will be punished for not standing up to him more.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is the Senior National Security Editor. He also manages The Weichert Brief on Substack. Weichert is the co-host of The Mario Nawfal Show on Twitter/X. He is the author of four bestselling national security books, most recently A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine (Encounter Books). His next book, Fortress Americas: A New Monroe Doctrine (Tucker Carlson Books), is due out December 8. Follow him via Twitter/X @WeTheBrandon.
