Trump Unsure His Voters Will Turn Out in the Midterms
NPR's Mara Liasson says Republicans are trying to pin fringe positions on Democrats, while a weak jobs report and stubborn inflation cut against the president's party.
President Trump says he does not know whether his supporters will vote in November's midterm elections when his own name is not on the ballot.
"If I don't run, will those people go out and vote? And that's the one thing I can't tell. I'm going to ask them to," Trump said in a video interview with Punchbowl News posted Friday.
NPR senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson, speaking with host Ayesha Rascoe, said the president is nonetheless very much on the ballot for Democrats and for voters unhappy with his performance.
Liasson described the party's central test as whether a progressive can win in a swing state. Abdul El-Sayed, who won Michigan's Democratic Senate primary this past week, did so on the strength of young voters and white college-educated voters, she said, but did not win other key parts of the Democratic base, including African American voters. General election voters are "older, whiter, less college educated, more moderate," she said, leaving open the question of whether he adjusts positions on issues such as Israel that helped him in the primary.
The Republican nominee, former Rep. Mike Rogers, was unopposed. Republicans say they got the Democrat they wanted to run against, Liasson said, and are "clearly trying to make El-Sayed's Muslim heritage an issue."
Wisconsin votes Tuesday. Progressive candidate Francesca Hong is polling well ahead in the governor's primary, campaigning on taxing the rich and free childcare, including a 1% state income tax increase on couples making at least $431,000. The likely Republican nominee, Rep. Tom Tiffany, voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election in January 2021.
Liasson said Republicans have been effective at turning positions held by a few Democrats — abolishing ICE, defunding the police — into party-wide labels, a tactic Democrats have also used against Republicans.
Both parties have problems, she added. The latest jobs report showed the economy losing jobs, and inflation persists, with talk at the Federal Reserve of raising interest rates. Trump has not browbeaten his new Fed chairman pick, Kevin Warsh, as he did Jerome Powell, but the White House told Fed Governor Lisa Cook in a letter it is considering trying to fire her again over alleged mortgage fraud. No charges have been filed and courts have not backed the effort.
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), in accordance with our editorial policy.
