Trump 'just does not care' that GOP is about to get 'clobbered': Axios founder
As Donald Trump prepares to give his State of the Union speech, he will do it under a cloud of record-low approval numbers that he seemingly refuses to acknowledge — and that has Republicans living in fear.
But the president doesn’t care, reported Axios's founder Jim VandeHei on MS NOW just hours before the national address.
Appearing on “Morning Joe,” VandeHei told the hosts that the president has convinced himself that he is doing a great job and will try and make that case in his speech, regardless of the sour mood in the country.
With co-host Jonathan Lemire claiming that it appears inevitable that Republicans will lose control of the House and that Democrats plan to make Trump’s life “miserable” after assuming power, VandeHei said things are far worse for Trump and Republicans than the polls show.
“You guys have painted a pretty bleak picture,” the Axios founder told the hosts. “For Republicans, I actually think it's worse than what you painted, because it's not just that he's losing independents. It's not just that he's underwater in terms of his popularity, it's that you see a massive gap in the enthusiasm among Democrats, which is high, and Republicans, which is low.”
“So he's losing independents,” he elaborated. “He has an unmotivated Republican Party and a highly motivated Democratic Party. If you look at all of the local and state races over the last couple of months, Democrats are routinely outperforming their performance two years ago. That is a bad, bad sign.”
“I can't find a single Republican I talked to that doesn't think they're not going to get clobbered in November, that maybe even the Senate, which looked like it wasn't in play, could be in play,” he reported. “And here's the thing: Trump does not seem to care.
"When I talk to his aides, when I talk to Republicans who are going in there, they're like, ‘Please, please, please stop talking about tariffs. Stop talking about Venezuela, stop talking about Greenland. Please talk about affordability. We've got to win the House. We've got to win the Senate.’ And nothing! He just does not care. I think he thinks he's killing it. And I think you're going to see that in the State of the Union where he's going to say we're crushing it.”
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