Donald TrumpThe midterm reboot was supposed to be the triumphant return of a political heavyweight. After Democrats saw impressive gains in off-year elections across the country in November, White House advisers promised the president returns to the campaign trail to attack the 2026 midterms with the same “fire and dominance” he claimed he had in 2024 — infamous weave and all. But if his rally of Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, is any preview of what the GOP should expect, Trump’s promise should be read as a threat. Far from a comeback, his comeback rally was a flop.
Trump’s team clearly hoped that the blue-collar community in one of the country’s most important swing states would provide him with a friendly launchpad. While I had expected a crowd of a few thousand to the nostalgic sound of MAGA chants swirling on metal bleachers, I tuned into Fox News on Tuesday night to find the president in a conference center ballroom inside a local casino that appeared to hold, generously, 200 people. And even that small crowd seemed to sit back, almost resigned, as Trump sat for nearly an hour. Fox News, of course, dutifully avoided any broad shots. But the truth was clear on the screen: The MAGA magic was gone.
Trump went on stage insists he was ready to make America “affordable again,” a line designed to evoke the economic populism of the Reagan era that instead encouraged Jimmy Carter to appeal to personal austerity. Trump declared he had “no higher priority” before launching into his usual misdirection by blaming the rising cost of living on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Even a local waitress who was brought on stage to support Trump lamented that her paychecks no longer stretch far enough. “Not much of what I make goes towards paying the bills,” she said. In response, Trump offered Marie Antoinette-style advice.
“Americans must learn to adjust to a lower standard of living,” he told the crowd before suggesting a specific solution to the increased prices with his tariffs, which he continues to insist are successful. “You can give up certain products. You can give away pencils… You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three are nice.”
According to a new POLITICO poll, half of all Americans are struggling to afford food. Even more damaging for Trump, a majority (55%) blames his administration. So Democrats quickly pounced on his absurd advice. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona sent on X“Trump needs private jets and a gold-plated Oval Office but your child only needs one pencil.”
And because the president is nothing if not predictable, his speech eventually strayed from economic gaslighting, quickly devolving into angry tangents about alternative energy, immigrants and other odd grievances.
In a particularly turbulent moment, Trump attacked the concept of energy storage even though Pennsylvania has has recently gained hundreds of jobs with a new zinc battery factory. “He wants us to go to the batteries!” he read “We don’t have batteries content. So let’s go for batteries according to these morons who were in our country.”
Things got more confusing when Trump seemed to forget that he had first nominated the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Jerome Powell. “I just heard that it may be the four commissioners in the Fed signed by Biden including Too Late, I hear that the autopen may have signed those commissions. If they signed those commissions,” he he said“you can’t use the autopen.”
Moments like these underscored growing concerns about Trump’s cognitive abilities, which are becoming a political issue. We’ve seen him fall asleep in meetings, slur through speeches, wander off stages and misidentify world leaders. His right hand repeatedly appeared bandaged and bruised. At least once, the side of his face landed on national television. And for a man who says he “aces” cognitive tests, it’s curious that he can’t remember if he sat for an MRI during his second “annual physical” this year. Even his own fans wonder if age is catching up with him.
Maybe that’s why she got off the stage and on Social Truth to brag that he was “able to ‘do'” his “very boring Medical Exams”:
Some even said that they have never seen such Powerful Results. I do these Tests because I respect our Country. In addition to the Medical, I did something that no other President has done, on three separate occasions, the last one recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something that very few people can do very well, including those who work at the New York Times, and ACED all three in front of a large number of doctors and experts, many of whom I do not know. I was told that very few people managed to ‘do’ this Exam and in fact most do very poorly, so many other Presidents decided not to take it at all.
Trump went on to complain about the New York Times’ coverage of “my Election Results” and said the country would be better off if the Times “stopped publishing.”
Several other media outlets immediately fact-checked or fact-checked Trump’s performance at the casino.
“In first stop on his affordability tour, Trump mocks affordability,” The Washington Post his report said.
“Trump has ‘fun’ but fails to feel Americans’ pain on prices,” CNN headline read.
“Trump’s Anti-Inflation Speech Turns to Complaints About Immigrants From ‘Dirty’ Countries,” reported the Associated Press.
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As the AP headline reflected, Trump’s racism has sidelined his entire message of affordability. The president turned his frustration into familiar bile, returning to the xenophobic script that brought him political success in 2016. “We are taking people from hell holes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries,” he said. “Dirty, dirty, disgusting, crime-ridden.” Then, as if time had folded back on itself, he brought up the “s**thole countries” slur he once denied making. “Why do we only take people from deserving countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few?”
The rally reached its ugliest point when Trump took aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a frequent target. “I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is, with the little turban,” he said, teasing her hijab. “She comes from her country, where, I mean, it’s considered the worst country in the world, isn’t it?”
Omar came to the United States as a refugee at age 12. She is an American citizen. She is an elected member of Congress. However Trump could not resist diving deeper into racist conspiracies, accusing her baselessly once again of marrying her brother to obtain citizenship – a lie that has long been denied but repeatedly armed to dehumanize her. “She should get the hell out,” he said. “Throw it to hell.”
The anemic crowd of MAGA fans obliged with the all-too-familiar chant: “Send her back!”
America has heard this before. In 2019, Trump incited the same chant against Omar and other women of color in Congress. That day, it shocked the nation. Now it is simply part of Trump’s stump speech. He’s run out of new ideas, so he’s recycling the darkest.
CNN videos streamed quickly deny Trump’s denial of the 2018 “s**hole” comments. MSNBC repeated his remarks before attacking Omar. NPR highlighted the contradiction between Trump’s health claims and the reality of a man who struggles to maintain coherence. The mainstream press no longer treats Trump’s behavior as merely shocking — it properly frames it as dangerous.
Meanwhile, the political world continues to turn against the president. Tuesday was Election Day in several states — and Democrats had a great night. in miami, A Democrat won the race for mayor for the first time in nearly three decades with an 80-point swing from 2021. In Georgia, Democrats flipped a state House seat that Republicans won in a battle just two years earlier.
Off-year results are often the earliest indicators of the national political mood. This year, that mood suggests voters are tired of MAGA theatrics and a man who tells struggling families they simply need to “put down the pencils” to make ends meet.
Republicans should be worried, and now they are admitting as much. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He lost the White House in 2020. His endorsed candidates have been face-planted in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024. The GOP has not outperformed in a single national cycle since taking control of the party. The Mount Pocono rally reaffirmed that truth. While Trump tried to show strength, he looked small and irrelevant. The billionaire president who tells supporters to buy fewer dolls before Christmas obviously doesn’t know how to connect with voters anymore.
The Trump of 2026 is not the Trump of 2024. The president he is clearly tiredangry, confused and unable to adjust to a country in economic crisis. Even Fox News can’t turn this around. The right-wing media ecosystem that once treated him like a demigod is now torn between pretending he’s energetic and quietly wondering if he’s fading. Meanwhile, Democrats are seeing a surge in energy with the party’s candidates overperforming in special elections across the country, a trend that is often a devastating indicator of the party out of power.
Republicans insist that bringing Trump back into the midterms will strengthen the base. It can — but it will also empower everyone.
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