Bulwark Takes - Republicans Don’t Want Trump Anywhere Near the Midterms

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

Katy Tur hosts Sam Stein, Mona Charen, and others for a wide-ranging discussion of Donald Trump’s role in the 2026 midterms, his focus on sporting events and legacy projects, turnover in the White House, Jared Kushner’s meeting with Hakeem Jeffries, and the growing political backlash to AI and data centers.Watch The Moment with Katy Tur on MS NOW: https://www.ms.now/katy-tur-reports

Hey, everybody, it's me, Sam Stein, back from vacation. And look, subscribe to the Bullwark. It's really important. God support the mission. I'm about to give you a video. It's me and Mona Cherin. We're on MS now all afternoon with Katie Turr. We talked about a lot of stuff.

Backlash to Trump. Is he or is he not going to be on the campaign trail? He's been promising to get out there in campaign for Republicans. Do they want them? Would it be good? I don't think so. Also, apparently, he's going golfing in September, in Ireland? It doesn't seem like a campaign stop to me, but maybe there's votes to be had among expats in Ireland.

I don't think so. We talked a little bit about that, too. Why is he so obsessed with sporting events? I mean, I like sports. A lot of people like sports, but I'm not president of the United States, but he goes to sporting events all the time. We address that. We talked about a lot of other stuff, too. Like, why is Jared Kushner meeting with Hakeem Jeffries?

And all this backlash to data centers, whether this is, you know, just political, advantageous moves by Republicans and Democrats, that's what there's real anxiety there, whether the tech titans kind of screwed up and doing all this stuff without regulation, all that. We talked about it all for like a long time on MS now. And if you like videos like this, if you like the content we're bringing you, support the mission. Subscribe to the bulwark. Just do it.

It's easy. It's a great thing to do. Bye. They say that Trump does great when he's on the ballot, but when he's not on the ballot, His people don't come and they don't vote for senators, congressmen, and other Republicans. And that these people, they're running, they're great. But if Trump isn't actually on the ballot. So what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot.

Just come and vote. It's so important. So just say that I'm on the ballot one more time. You've got to say it. And you've got to come out and vote. because if we lose, you're going to lose your border. You're going to lose your tax cuts. You're going to lose everything that we've done.

Good to be with you. I'm Katie Turr. Make believe is a big part of the Trump administration, 2026 midterm strategy. Make believe the war in Iran is over. Make believe tariffs aren't taxes. Make believe the polls are fake. Make believe the gas isn't $4 a gallon. And make believe that Donald Trump is still.

still on the ballot. You heard the president in South Carolina, but it is a point his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, made all the way back in December. He's going to have a fun next year. But we're going to put him on the campaign trail too. Typically, just a little bit of campaign speak, if I may. Yeah. Typically, in the midterms, it's not about who's sitting at the White House.

It's you localize the election and you keep the federal officials out of it. We're actually going to turn that on its head. Good. And put him on the ballot because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters. How many of those politicians that are campaigning, though, want him around since then? Susie Wiles, by the way, who was saying that he was going to campaign since, like, it's 2024, you have to wonder what she's been thinking because it's been nine months. And the president doesn't appear to have gotten the memo.

He's largely stayed off the trail. His priorities have been elsewhere. The ballroom, the triumphal arch, reflected pools, and car races, where, to be fair, he did get to have fun waving a big green flag to start the 250th Grand Prix in the middle of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. We keep wondering if he even cares about the midterms or if he's waving the white flag on that, too. Maybe it's green. Yesterday, the New York Times first reporter that Jared Kushner has met with Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to discuss potential areas of common ground. Why would they need to find common ground? Jeffries and Democrats are in the minority.

They wouldn't be the ones to negotiate with. Or is the White House, is Jared Kushner preparing for a world where Democrats retake control and make Jeffries a speaker and put him squarely in charge of potential areas of common. and ground. Joining us managing editor at the bulwark and MS now contributor, Sam Stein, policy editor at the bulwark, Mona Sharon, is with us. MS now political analysts and host of fast politics. Molly Jong Fast is with us as well, along with Chief Washington correspondent and Midas Touch, Scott McFarlane.

I just want to go back to all of the sporting events that Donald Trump has been to over the past a year and a half. He went to the championship, the Knicks game, Game 5. He went to the U.S. Open last year. We'll see if he goes again this year. He went to the World Cup. He went to the Super Bowl, the Grand Prix, as we just showed, where he was waving that green flag. I think he went to the World Series.

I'm not quite sure if I remember that correctly. And now, by the way, he's going to Ireland because the Irish Open will be held at one of his golf courses there. He said he wanted to watch Rory McElroy, one of his favorite golfers, defend his title in the Irish Open. I mean, he seems to be, Sam using this as a chance to get to go to the best sporting events in the world. Sounds awesome, honestly. It does. I would kill for that, but I'm also not president. And so, you know, you would think there's some other things on his plate. It does, you know, it does beg the question of why is he doing this so much? He's obviously a big sporting a fan and congrats for that, but I think the viewing public looks and says, can you please focus

on things that matter to me and not to you? And, you know, the whole Freedom 250 event was like this. I mean, the UFC found in the lawn, the IndyCar race, all the other events, the Patriot games, you know, and then you combine that with the redesign of the Oval Office, sorry, well, the gold redesign of the Oval Office, the ballroom, everything, the beautification of Washington, D.C. You have a picture of a president who's incredibly distracted on things that don't matter to the American public, who cares about going to sporting events and beautifying his properties, but, you know, can't really manage to get the price of grass down. And I think that's toxic for the midterms. And I think Molly nailed it on the head. I mean, yes, on the one hand, the real problem for

Republicans is the macro economics, the macro picture around the midterms, things that are really unlikely to change between now and November. And the one way to fix it would be, in theory to get those low propensity Trump aficionados out. But is he too toxic? Is the stuff that we're talking about, the sporting events, the Washington beatification stuff? Is that just too toxic now to deploy him on the trail in a way that is strategically viable for Republicans?

That's the quandary right now. And I don't really see a very smart way through it. I mean, if not toxic, is he just not inspiring people? By the way, he did not go to the World Series. The World Series was Dodgers versus Blue Jays, Donald Trump did not show up in Canada in Toronto for any of those games. Neither did he show up in Los Angeles for any of those games. And speaking of Canada and the subject of whether if he's not toxic,

whether he's not inspiring, it doesn't appear that he is giving people a reason to be inspired. I mean, he just announced Mona new tariffs on Canada, which will continue to send prices of goods here at home up. Just so. Look, let's just play an imaginary game and imagine that his popularity right now were at 50 or 52 percent or something like that, right? How would this midterm race look? It would be like a royal procession. He'd be in demand everywhere. Every Republican would be racing to express their solidarity with him. They would be begging for his time. Things would look a little bit, frankly, like they did in 2025, when pretty much the whole world was cowtowing to Trump. It looks very different because of where he stands in the polls. Okay, so they pin their hopes on, you know, Trump being able to somehow cajole, beg, plead with the low propensity voters out there to come out in a midterm. Well, the bad news for the president is that low-proposity.

Propensity voters are exactly that. They don't tend to come out in midterms for anybody. It's just, you know, Barack Obama actually had the same problem. You know, many low propensity voters chose him in 2008, but they didn't come out in 2010 when he wasn't on the ballot. They did in 2012. So it's going to be a very, very difficult hill to climb to get those kinds of voters to turn out. And it's, it's, The fact is, his approval rating is closer to 30% than 50%, and that's why it looks so desperate for the Republicans right now. Yeah, it might not be a matter of Donald Trump not taking the time to go out in the campaign trail, just not getting any invites to go out in the campaign trail. Several key Trump allies and several key positions are leaving the White House, including press secretary Caroline Levitt, and congressional liaison on James Braid. And while Politico notes that the timing of these departures is not exactly unusual that they inject a dose of uncertainty at an already tenuous time when the president is facing a slew of challenges, both foreign and domestic. Joining us, Sam Cine, Mona Sher and Molly Jong-Fast back with us.

Mon, are you surprised at any departures in this White House, especially as Donald Trump has kept his circle so tight, so insular? Well, I mean, the fact is that this administration does seem to be able to find a lot of fact-agnostic lickspittles that are willing to come in and work for Trump. The post that Caroline Levitt has abandoned, there are a lot of eager beavers ready to, you know, go up and lie for him. So, but look, there is something to the fact that this administration, is circling the drain. And so people who are thinking about a career in the private sector, it looks a lot more appealing right now than it did nine months ago before this awful war took the toll that it has. And so, you know, the Scott Jennings of the world are still going to want to go in and serve,

but I do think it's getting harder to entice people to, to, you know, to, Join a sinking ship, honestly. Lick Spittles and Eager Beaver, you really got me on that, by the way. I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed Lick Spittles in particular. Mona, thank you. Let's just look at the challenges

that are going to be, that are facing anybody in this White House right now. The challenges, by the way, that would very publicly face the next Caroline Levitt in particular, possibility of a Democratic-controlled Congress having to react to that daily potential of corrupt

probes, all of the subpoenas that are going to come out of a Democratic Congress. The war in Iran, which is ongoing. Yes, they're doing an economic deed day, but what happens after the midterms? How do you explain Donald Trump's whiplash decision-making there? An open Republican presidential primary. What's it going to be like working with J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio behind the scenes? Are you going to be able to keep your lips tight on that? or are you going to have a lot of pressure from reporters and the like to get a little bit more detail about their relationship?

Economic anxiety, obviously, Donald Trump's underwater approvals doesn't look like there's, does it look like, is there an example, Sam, of the president's approval rating going up in the last two years of his term? Yeah, Bill Clinton. During Monica Lewinsky, easy one. But that was unique, right? George Bush's flat line. Obama's went up. He left pretty good standing in office. Joe Biden's went down pretty bad. So it's a mixed bad.

Trump's the first time went down pretty badly. Yeah, Trump didn't leave on a great note. I don't think. I think that's pretty fair to say. And in this case, I think of all the challenges you listed, you know, I think, honestly, the lame duck status is kind of paramount because at that point, you're just sort of a caretaker. Obviously, there's things to do. And you want to make sure things don't get screwed up.

up even worse than they are. But you're not building towards something bigger. You're trying to put legacy items on the board. And for Trump, the legacy items are going to be things like making sure your ballroom's finished and the arc and all that stuff. And it's like, okay, if your passion is interior design and reconstruction and things like that, then yeah, this is a really attractive administration to go to. You might like really be into that type of thing and you might like selling gold ornaments. But if you want to build substantial policy, tax policy or things like that, working with a Democratic Congress and having a lame duck presidency is not particularly an attractive option. And then on top of that, if you want to cash out and be in the private sector, you better get going now because the premium for having Trump connections, which is what case you really wants, is not, it has a limited, limited time frame on it. So, look, I can't conjure up the great adjectives and metaphors that the great Mona Charon can.

But it is exactly as she describes. It's not a particularly fine time to be in the ins. I think Mona would really like the House of Trump infomercials that could be coming to us in the future. The exclusive line of gold decor and gold textiles. Who knows? Neosidam, Katie. Neo-Saddam. I love it.

Who else was here? Rick Wilson was here. He said it was Liberace meets Saddam, and I thought that was an apt comparison. That's good too. Yes, yes, yes. All right, don't go away. You're all coming back. We're going to talk about AI. It was once the epicenter of AI. Why is Governor Greg Abbott saying, no, no, no, Texas is not the epicenter of AI now.

Don't go anywhere. This message is sponsored by Bull and Branch. There is nothing worse than getting into bed on a hot summer night and realizing you're not actually going to cool down. You toss the covers off, flip the pillow over, looking for the cool side, somehow five minutes later, you're sweaty again. At that point, you start wondering if you need to crank up the AC even more to get a good night's sleep. But I've realized that sometimes the problem isn't the room. It's what's on the bed. That's why I've been using bowl and branch.

I have their percale quilted downcomforter in their sage leaf color. It's become one of my favorite things about getting into bed. Got it this summer night and day difference. The percale is lightweight and breathable, so it doesn't have that heavy, stuffy feeling you can get from other bedding. Bull and Branch's sheets are made with 100% organic cotton that's woven specifically to allow airflow. And that cooling feeling comes from the construction of the fabric itself rather than some synthetic cooling technology or chemical treatment. There's another thing I really like. 94% of Bull and Branch customers say their sheets get softer with every wash.

I've been sleeping in Bowen Branch and I genuinely don't want to go back to regular betting. It's not going to happen, people. I'm hanging on to it. Sleep cooler this summer with Bull and. and Branch. Get 15% off your first order plus free shipping at bull and branch.com slash bulwark takes with code bulwark takes. That's bull and branch, B-O-L-L-L-A-N-D, B-R-A-N-C-H.com slash bulwark takes. Code bulwark takes to unlock 15% off, BowenBranch.com slash bulwark takes, code bulwark takes. Exclusions apply. I'm just, I'm trying to figure out

what the thinking was early on regarding the embrace of AI and the embrace of data centers. Early on, you had Republicans, Democrats, politicians of pretty much all stripes, either not really understanding it or embracing it and saying what a good thing this is. And now it's very clear to them where the public's been all along on this, which is not excited, dreadful of AI, and extremely upset that the people that they elected, political folks from Democrats, Republicans, and independents, not taking it seriously enough, Mona.

So what was it, I mean, on the Republican side, at least, what was the conversation early on about opening the door to the data centers? How did they not see the anger? So I would disagree with you a little bit about the public was always here. I think there's been a dramatic change in the past year, if you look at polling, where the public was.

A year ago, people weren't that upset. But then this spread like wildfire, And you can understand why. I mean, people are upset about the possibility that AI will take their jobs. They've been hearing nonstop scare talk about how AI might actually wipe out human civilization. And they don't feel like there's anything they can do about it. But when a data center comes to their community, they suddenly have power. And that's where they can say, you know what?

Whoa, we don't know what this is. We're not comfortable with the fact that the people who are going to, going to be benefiting, it seems to the average voter, are people like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and others who are these multi-billionaires. You know, the idea being, if it's so great, why don't they pay for it? They have more money than God. And so you can see how this flipped. And so people like Greg Abbott are now rushing to get on the right side of the voters. And, you know, it's, it's, so you can understand that the Democrats are always a little bit suspicious of, business in general, whereas Republicans tend to be sort of knee-jerk support of business,

but this time the sort of the populist anger out there at the ideas of AI, the fear of AI, is pushing the politicians to play catch-up. By the way, I'm not even sure that the people are right here and that data centers are all bad, but that's a topic for another day. I mean, but they are experiencing the data centers in their backyard, and they are a nuisance of things, an easy way to put it. But I know the polling that you're citing here, I just don't know if the polling captured the unease that was out there regarding AI, because it has been many years now that these tech CEOs have been talking about how revolutionary this technology, will be coupled with a lot of editorials and a lot of warnings, including from the father of AI, about how it's going to wipe out humanity. So I'm just surprised, Sam, at the lack of caution that was being taken early on by politicians. Well, it comes down to, did you want the backing

financially of these tech titans in your political campaigns? And if so, what were you willing? to do for it. And a bunch of politicians made the calculation these tech titans had literally billions of dollars to throw around to help them get elected. And the tradeoff was we would basically allow you to write the rules of your own road. And we're going to support you building these data centers. And yeah, they may wipe out civilization, but, you know, at least you can get some jobs in the meantime. So I think that was the initial problem, obviously. And then on top of that, You had a real hubris from the actual tech leaders who came in and said, well, we don't want regulation. We want to be innovative.

We don't want anything to restrict our growth because we can't lose this race with China. Well, of course, regulation is not just there to make sure that consumers are protected. It's there to make sure that you have actual political buy-in from the people of this country. Think about a different path here. Let's say they had embraced some sort of regulatory framework that had some bipartisan buy-in, but that the public also bought into, right? Do you think there would be this frantic emotional backlash against data centers right now if there was a more responsible regulatory framework around AI?

I don't. I think people would be a little bit more comfortable with the idea that you were growing this technology, that you were fostering some of its growth, and that you, in fact, were contributing to it by supporting a data center. Instead, what you have is this free-for-all industry with tech-toucher, Titans talking about eliminating civilization and then saying, hey, we want to put the bedrock of it in your community. Are you cool with that? And they're like, no, absolutely not. All right. Everyone, thank you so much for joining me today. Sam Stein, Mona Sharon. Molly Jong-Fast, I appreciate it.