Trump Distances Self From Possible GOP Midterm Flop: 2020 Is ‘Real Election’

on October 19, 2018 in Mesa, Arizona.
MESA, AZ - OCTOBER 19: President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters during a rally at the International Air Response facility on October 19, 2018 in Mesa, Arizona. President Trump is holding rallies in Ar... MESA, AZ - OCTOBER 19: President Donald Trump speaks to a crowd of supporters during a rally at the International Air Response facility on October 19, 2018 in Mesa, Arizona. President Trump is holding rallies in Arizona, Montana and Nevada, campaigning for Republican candidates running for the U.S. Senate. (Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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While President Donald Trump remains publicly optimistic about Republicans chances of maintaining control of Congress after the midterm elections, in private, he’s started to put distance between himself and GOP leaders, who he thinks hold the sole responsibility for keeping the House and Senate, Politico reported.

“These are their elections,” Trump has reportedly said in private, referencing Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) roles in the midterms. “And if they screw it up, it’s not my fault.”

Trump is telling close advisers that he doesn’t view the midterms as any sort of measure of voters’ approval of him, according to people familiar with those conversations. He’s told confidantes that he thinks his 2020 bid will be the “real election.”

According to a Republican aide who speaks with Trump regularly, the President is expected to “say something like, ‘Paul Ryan chose to be a lame duck speaker instead of leaving, which cost Congress the chance to do several things before November,'” Politico reported.

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  1. The GOP internal polls must be devastating if this is leaking out. Wonder what the Nov. 7 Repub backstabbing will look like. Paulie better watch his back.

  2. Avatar for mames5 mames5 says:

    You know once we win, everything will be the fault of the “Democrat” Congress. That will be his attempt at being Harry Truman as he seeks re-election (and that is the first and last time I will use Trump and Truman in the same sentence). But it really doesn’t matter, because he tries to do it now, especially in the Senate where the Democrats are all but impotent. And the rubes believe him. So let’s win and win big!

  3. Trump: “I’ve gotten the majority of Americans to think I should be impeached and that Republicans are incapable of governing, but it’s totally not my fault if they take that knowledge into the voting booth with them.”

  4. Since Trump’s name is not on every ballot, the election is not real. Righto.

  5. Avatar for jm_tpm jm_tpm says:

    For his entire life, Donald Trump seems to have operated under the belief that nothing bad that happens is ever his fault.

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