Backfires

 

Backfire #1

Election law attorney Ben Ginsberg said Monday that President Trump’s executive order imposing restrictions on mail-in voting will largely impact Republican voters. 

“One thing is, I think you’re going to see some blowback from Republicans in the coming weeks, because after all, Republicans are the older party and older folks like to vote by mail. They’re the rural party,” Ginsberg said during a Monday appearance on CNN’s “The Source.”

“And certainly vote by mail is important to people in rural areas. And thanks to Donald Trump, there are many more low propensity voters in the Republican Party,” he added. 

Ginsberg has served as counsel to the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican Governors Association. [snip]

“Republican operatives in the states know that putting up those barriers to that part of the Republican base makes Republican turnout less likely,” Ginsburg said Monday.

“So this is kind of a flawed political strategy wrapped in a rather vocally charged policy from the president,” he added. 

Despite criticism, the Trump administration moved forward with an appeal Tuesday to lift the nationwide block on the executive order restricting mail-in ballots.

Backfire #2

... While every modern American president largely gave up on fundraising after winning a second term, Trump did not. On the contrary, the incumbent has spent much of the past year and a half making a concerted effort to fill the coffers of his aligned super PAC, called MAGA Inc., which is sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars with 10 weeks remaining in the midterm elections.

The good news for Republicans is that Trump is prepared to start spending some of that money. The bad news for Republicans is that the president apparently intends to spend the money on advertising that celebrates him, not them. The Atlantic reported:

President Trump gathered his top political advisers in the Oval Office early this month to solve a problem of riches: how to spend his super PAC’s $400 million political war chest with fewer than 100 days to go before the midterm elections. […]

Some GOP strategists favor focusing entirely on specific races in an effort to convince voters of the merits of individual candidates and local issues. But Trump himself has rejected that approach.

The Atlantic’s report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, went on to note that the president “ordered a series of television advertisements about his own record,” adding that Trump “suggested that the ad makers mine his own on-camera statements as building blocks.”

To put it mildly, this is an unconventional approach. Given the circumstances, Democrats want to turn the 2026 elections into a referendum on the unpopular president, his flailing party and the discouraging status quo. Republicans, in contrast, want to make the midterms less of a referendum and more of a choice, with a focus on individual races and candidates.

Dare we say, "please proceed" Very Stable Genius and your cult of incompetent goons!