Dysfunction and instability are here to stay

**David Pakman** (0:00)
Coming up today, Republicans have a midterm problem and Donald Trump may have just come up with a truly incredible way to make it even worse, if you can imagine. Meanwhile, something very odd is happening at the White House as Karoline Leavitt prepares to leave and Trump has nobody lined up to replace her. Trump loses a fight over putting his name on the Kennedy Center. The response is basically, well, then maybe I'll tear down the entire thing. And we have the administration blaming Joe Biden for a supposed war on cattle, which doesn't exist while they are struggling to explain what is your plan to lower beef prices. And then we must talk about the genuinely disturbing national security questions raised by Donald Trump's inner circle as a frantic Scott Bessent appears in video. You must see here we are. Here we go. Let's do it.
I genuinely don't know if Donald Trump could come up with a better strategy for helping Democrats in the midterms if he tried, because Republicans have a really obvious problem right now. That problem is that Trump is really unpopular. People are unhappy with the economy. They're unhappy with the Iran war. They don't believe their lives are better than when Joe Biden left office in January of twenty five. And Republicans desperately need this election to be about anything other than Donald Trump. So what has Donald Trump decided to do?
Make the entire election about Donald Trump. Listen to this from a forthcoming interview with Sean Hannity, which was recorded this week and apparently is going to air on on Sunday night.

**Donald Trump** (1:43)
Look, there's a theory that I get the vote. You know, this I see it all the time that when Trump's on the ballot, they win. When he's out of the ballot, the people don't go to vote. And I'm asking the people through your brilliant show, number one show, I'm asking the people to get out and vote, pretend I'm on the ballot. They go out and vote. We're going to win. And if we don't, our country is going to be in sad shape because we're going to go through a lot of things.

**David Pakman** (2:07)
There is Trump pretend I am on the ballot and go out and vote. That's Trump talking about the midterms. And the funny thing is, I sort of do understand what he's trying to do.
Trump has a turnout problem. There are people who love Trump and will crawl over broken glass to vote for Trump. But when Trump's not running, some of those people don't show up. That's absolutely true. Trump has acknowledged it multiple times. He recently said to supporters in South Carolina, Republicans have a problem because Trump voters don't necessarily come out and vote for senators. Trump voters don't necessarily come out and vote for members of Congress when he's not on the ballot. So his solution is pretend I am on the ballot. Now, here's the problem. There are other people who can also pretend Trump is on the ballot. The Democrats, the independents and the Republicans who voted for Trump but regret it. The people who voted for Trump but are furious about prices. People who don't like the Iran war, people who don't like what he's doing with tariffs, people who don't like what's happening with health care and the subsidies that they got rid of. So everybody gets to pretend Trump is on the ballot. And this gets us back to that absolutely bizarre Republican midterm convention that they're holding in Dallas on September 9th and 10th. I've been saying since they announced that thing, I don't understand why Republicans would want to do it. And maybe they don't. Maybe it's only Trump who wants to do it so he can give himself a show and make himself the center of another event. Midterm elections are already usually a referendum on the president. And when the president is unpopular, the president's party should want individual candidates to be able to go home and say, forget about what's happening in Washington.
Forget the national circus. Forget the president. I'm your guy. I'm your gal. I care about this district. I care about this state. I understand what my constituents need. Here are the three things I'm going to do for you.
Localize the election as much as you can.
Tell voters to forget about the orange guy in DC.
That's the approach that a lot of Republicans would say that's what we need to be doing. And instead, they're having this gigantic national convention whose entire purpose seems to be make the make every race, make every congressional race, make every Senate race about Trump. And it's not like Trump is going to make a quick appearance and leave. He's appearing both nights. JD. Vance is headlining one night, Trump's headlining the other. The RNC says it's going to be a showcase for President Trump's success. What success? They're basically building a flashing sign that says this election is about Trump, which Democrats should be thrilled about. And clearly, some Republicans understand that that's a problem for them because there are now reports of Republicans privately worrying, man, this convention could really backfire. It's going to take candidate's away from districts and away from campaigning. And it all could become way more about Trump than the people on the ballot. And of course, it will. It's Trump. Now, imagine being I don't feel sorry for them, but imagine being a vulnerable Republican running for Congress. You are desperately trying to convince swing voters. You're your own person. And then your party says great news. Come to Dallas. We're going to put Trump on TV for two nights and we're going to remind everybody you're part of his party. And to some degree, a vote for you is a vote for Trump. And remember, if you're an incumbent Republican, a vote for you kind of is a vote for Trump because you've been rubber stamping close to 100 percent of what Donald Trump has wanted Republicans in Congress and in the Senate to do. So now Trump is explicitly saying, hey, pretend I am on the ballot. If I'm a Democrat, I'm saying absolutely. I'm going to go out and vote as if Trump were on the ballot. People who might not otherwise be as motivated to go out and vote because they don't feel that their vote is going to do anything to Trump might say, well, if Trump wants me to act as if he's on the ballot, I will go and vote. And if you hate what Trump's doing, you can tell yourself you're voting against Trump. And that's kind of the most incredible hair brained thing about all of this. Trump's strategy for resolving Republican turnout problems could be phenomenal for activating Democrats to go out and vote. So I say, go ahead and do it. Pretend Donald Trump is on the ballot. I'm not convinced Republicans are going to like what happens when everybody does. Now, there was a period of maybe four weeks ago or something like that where I was starting to think they're really not talking about this stupid midterm convention. Maybe somebody is talking sense into Trump and they're saying, sir, listen, we don't think it would be the best thing. And maybe they're going to cancel it. Maybe they're going to realize that this is a very bad idea. It doesn't seem like it seems like they are going full speed ahead towards making Trump the center of this thing. And if only for spite, listen, spite is a valid reason to do things. I I I believe it is in a lot of situations. And if you were sort of like, yeah, I don't like Trump, but I'm not super motivated to get out and vote in a midterm or whatever, spiting Trump coming in and saying, pretend I'm on the ballot is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate reason to vote.