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Trump's midterm spending strategy to help GOP candidates · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: President Trump promised to bring down prices.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: You voted for him three times.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Are you disappointed?
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Very disappointed.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Very disappointed.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Because the prices.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Haven't gone down. I don't know.
• 0:11
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: I'm over it, I think.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Over the Trump thing. The Trump wagon, we will call it.
• 0:16
  Speaker 4: You could talk directly to the president about the war,
• 0:20
  Speaker 4: about the prices, about the economy.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: What would you tell him? Stop the bulls * * t.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: Make America great like you said. That's what I'd say.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Well, that was one Trump voter in Iowa speaking with
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: MSNOW's Alex Tabet. To that point, a new poll by
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Strength in Numbers and Verisight shows President Trump is underwater
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: on every major issue heading into the midterms, even on
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: border security. That was one of his strongest issues in
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: the past. The poll finds Trump's net approval now at
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: minus five. And yet President Trump. has come up with
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: a simple plan to win the midterm elections. More Trump.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: That's according to new reporting from The Atlantic. The outlet
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: reports the president gathered top political advisors in the Oval
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Office this month to discuss how to spend his super
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: PACs $ 400 million ahead of the midterms before landing on
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: the strategy of focusing on himself, ordering a series of
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: television advertisements about his own record that will serve as
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: a backdrop to the hundreds of individual House and Senate contests.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: People familiar with the discussions tell The Atlantic an ad
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: blitz is set to be rolled out soon from MAGA Inc.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Joining us now, MSNOW senior White House reporter Vaughn Hilliard,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: along with MSNOW contributor Mike Barnicle, and presidential historian and
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Meacham. Vaughn, I'll just start with
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: your reporting. As you follow this out in the field,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the president seems to think that he can focus on himself.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Let's not underestimate that, because they've got a lot of
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: money to spend.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: And the hubris of the president of the United States
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: leads one to believe that he may actually believe that
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: to be true, saying that if Republicans lose Senate and
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: House races in November, it's not because of him, but
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: it's because the country doesn't like the Republicans in Congress.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: This is the part of sort of the isolation process.
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: of the president inside of the White House right now
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: and the extent to which he is hearing voices like
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: that directly from Alex Tabet. And if you're looking at
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: the coffers and the extent to which the president actually
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: wants to help out Republicans down ballot, it's questionable. And
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: while they are planning this ad blitz, we reported one
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: month ago, literally today, that that $ 400 million coffer that
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: MAGA Inc. has at Donald Trump's disposal, his own super PAC,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: they have spent less than a million dollars.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: And where did that money go?
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: It went to Darlene Graham, an intra-party Republican battle. And
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: so when you're looking at the promises, you know, we've
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: been talking repeatedly to folks that are working. across the
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Republican apparatus trying to help these candidates. And the big
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: question is, where is he going to spend the money?
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: And now there's some details here from The Atlantic that
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: he intends to spend it promoting himself.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: And as he himself posted on.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: Truth Social yesterday, in part, GOP's only path in November,
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: defend Trump. Donald Trump believes that to a certain extent.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: And now he's directing the allies that have the access
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: to that cash to go and spend it that way.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So, John Meacham, I mean, we see candidates in Senate races,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: close Senate races across the country. Think James Tallarico, for example,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: in Texas, just hanging Donald Trump around the neck of
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: their opponent. Ken Paxton has supported everything Donald Trump's ever done.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: And you see that in races all over the place.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Democrats are happy to have Donald Trump. At front and
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: center of this conversation over these midterm elections, Donald Trump,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: of course, does not have the kind of personality that
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: would lend itself to stepping away and saying, you guys
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: are right. I shouldn't be around. He can't help himself.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: The question is, does it cost perhaps Republicans the Senate
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: this fall?
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: I think one caveat we should state up front is
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: almost everything we've predicted about Donald Trump since 2015 has
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: proven to be wrong. There are a lot of folks
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: who at various points have declared the phenomenon to be
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: running out of gas. It's over. He's gone too far.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: And here he is. As he himself said in the
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: most honest thing from the inaugural address yesterday, in the
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: rotunda on that cold January day. Can you believe this?
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: You know, which is sort of not a bad way
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: to capture the era. We are such a closely divided country.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: These are de minimis margins that shift these elections, that
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: we are once again going to be, I think, in
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: more of a turnout battle, I would argue, and again,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: take it for what it's worth, you know, this notion
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: of this vast Democratic landslide coming feels to me to
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: be premature, to say the least, if only because we
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: don't live in an era of landslides when you step
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: back from the country itself. These are incredibly close races
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: and districts that are, in fact, competitive. A state like
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Texas is going to be, you know, for a Democrat
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: to win there would be a remarkable thing. And President Trump,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: let's just be honest, has a remarkable capacity for political resurrection. Now,
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: can he transfer that? That's the question you're asking. Don't know.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: But if you're Donald Trump and you've gotten this far
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: by being about Donald Trump, what in your life experience
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: would suggest to you that you do something else?