The mood inside Trump's inner circle has soured as GOP candidates increasingly break with him in public, CNN reports. Advisers are growing more worried about losing the House, and confidence that Republicans can hold the Senate is fading by the day.
The shift raises an old political question with new urgency. How does an unpopular president help his own party keep Congress when his coalition can't expand past the base that already backs him.
For Republican candidates in competitive districts, that dynamic puts them in a bind. Distancing from Trump risks alienating his loyal voters, but sticking close to him offers little help with the swing voters who decided the 2024 race and may decide 2026. CNN describes GOP strategists watching Senate control slip from a sure thing to a genuine question mark.
The strategy question CNN raises has no clean answer yet. An unpopular president leading his party into a midterm election is a familiar story in Washington, but the speed of this shift, according to Trump's own advisers, is what has them worried.