Please, Mr. President. More Conventions, More Campaigning!In the Democratic party’s quest to make this election a referendum on Trump, Trump is helping.Donald Trump’s 2025 financial disclosures are out, and boy, did he rake it in last year: a $500 million deal to sell half his crypto company World Liberty Financial to a UAE firm, hundreds of millions more in fees related to sales of his memecoin and other digital assets, and on and on. All told, Trump pulled in more than $2.2 billion last year. It’s a good moment to revisit a favorite Karoline Leavitt quote: “Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest.” Which may even be true: Trump plainly cares a lot about his personal fortune and zero about the future of America, so where’s the conflict? Happy Wednesday. Join Mark Hertling and Ben Parker live on Substack and YouTube at 10:30 a.m. EDT today for Command Post.
DONALD J. TRUMP to the Rescueby William Kristol Late yesterday afternoon, some of us were taking a much-needed break from politics as we watched Kylian Mbappé take a pass from Michael Olise, slice through the defense, and score France’s first goal in their impressive World Cup victory over Sweden. But not President Trump. He was busy with weighty matters of state. He was posting an announcement on Truth Social. And not just any old announcement. It was “BIG NEWS!” To which those of us who think it crucial that Trump and his party suffer a decisive defeat in this November’s mid-term elections could only say one thing: THANK YOU, President DONALD J. TRUMP! Polling on Americans’ voting intentions for the midterms shows Democrats now have an advantage nationally over Republicans of about 6 points. How can that number be increased? Well, polling also shows that about 58 percent of Americans now disapprove of DONALD J. TRUMP, with only 39 percent approving—a net disapproval of almost 20 points. So: Remind voters that Republicans are above all the party of the man of whom they disapprove by so significant a margin, DONALD J. TRUMP. And make sure that November’s election is above all a referendum on DONALD J. TRUMP, and whether you want him and his administration emboldened or checked. The New York Times this morning reports on a new survey of voters in the six states that are likely to determine control of the Senate this November. Trump won five of these six states in 2024, four of them by more than ten points. Today they’re all in play. Republicans lead by a slim two or three points in Alaska, Iowa, and Ohio. Democrats are comfortably ahead in North Carolina, and they have a slight edge in Maine. Texas is tied. Across all six states, voters’ preferences are tied at 47 percent for each party. But judgments of DONALD J. TRUMP aren’t tied. He has an average approval rating in these states of only 43 percent, with 54 disapproving—a net 11 percent disapproval. By a margin of 14 percentage points, voters in these battleground states said that his policies have done more harm than good. And only 36 percent of voters in these states approve of his handling of the cost of living. So it’s good that the Republican party is leaping to satisfy DONALD J. TRUMP’s desire for a big show in September. It’s good that the party is wrapping itself ever more closely in DONALD J. TRUMP’s smothering embrace. It’s good of them to remind the voting public that if they vote for Republicans, they’re voting for obedient supporters of the policies and the administration of DONALD J. TRUMP. And it’ |