(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)
Legendary GOP strategist Karl Rove warned in his latest column for The Wall Street Journal that President Donald Trump is courting a midterm disaster for his party that will haunt him for the remainder of his term.
Under the holiday-themed headline “Alarm Bells Ring, Are You Listening?,” Rove submitted that “The administration is making mistakes that could result in a nasty 2026 midterm defeat for President Trump’s party.”
After lamenting Trump’s dismal approval rating and economic speech before an audience in Pennsylvania last week, Rove accused the president of “making the same mistake his predecessor made.”
“Mr. Biden and his allies looked disconnected from reality when they proclaimed ‘Bidenomics is working’ even as ordinary Americans struggled with inflation. Telling voters not to believe their own lying checkbooks was politically insane. Mr. Trump is doing the same thing,” he argued.
The architect of former President George W. Bush’s White House campaigns went on to deplore Trump’s reaction to the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife:
On Monday Mr. Trump grabbed the national spotlight when he decided to make a self-absorbed Truth Social post trashing Rob Reiner after he and his wife were gruesomely murdered.
This was a Hollywood couple with typical liberal Hollywood political sentiments. So what? He was a beloved television star and gifted movie director. She was a talented photographer. Friends describe them as warm, big-hearted, caring and generous.
Mr. Trump’s comments were met with universal horror and revulsion. What the president said about the Reiners didn’t diminish them. It diminished him. The adage, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” is especially true when the subjects are a treasured elderly couple stabbed to death (allegedly) by their son.
“The presidents’ grotesqueries have to stop. His team has 10½ months before voters decide the shape of his final two years as president. Every day matters,” concluded Rove. “It doesn’t look good for the GOP next year. The White House is on the wrong track. It had better get its messaging right — both its formal attempts at directing the conversation and Mr. Trump’s spontaneous social-media rants. Or else the president won’t like the outcome. A furious party in revolt against its executive, who is plagued by Democratic investigations and opposition. Time’s a-wasting.”
