US Politics
Karl Rove warns Republicans that 2026 could be a bloodbath for the party because of their mistakes
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Republican strategist Karl Rove has warned President Donald Trump that he is walking right into a midterm disaster.
He made the claims in a Wall Street Journal column, and said if Trump doesn’t reverse course, the losses the Republicans could suffer in 2026 will haunt him for the remainder of his time in office.
“The administration is making mistakes that could result in a nasty 2026 midterm defeat for President Trump’s party,” Rove wrote in a piece titled: “Alarm Bells Ring, Are You Listening?”
Rove suggested that Trump was “making the same mistakes his predecessor made,” pointing to the president’s low approval rating and a free-wheeling speech on the economy at a Pennsylvania rally last week.
“Mr Biden and his allies looked disconnected from reality when they proclaimed ‘Bidenomics is working’ even as ordinary Americans struggled with inflation. Telling voters not to believe their own lying checkbooks was politically insane. Mr. Trump is doing the same thing,” Rove wrote.
Rove also noted Trump’s recent response to Hollywood legend Rob Reiner’s murder, saying that his comments were met with “universal horror and revulsion.”
“Mr Trump’s comments were met with universal horror and revulsion. What the president said about the Reiners didn’t diminish them. It diminished him,” Rove said. “The adage, ‘if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all’ is especially true when the subjects are a treasured elderly couple stabbed to death (allegedly) by their son,” he added.
The day after Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner’s deaths, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the director “passed away reportedly due to the anger he caused others through… a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
“He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump,” the president added.
Even typically inflammatory right-wing commentators like Nick Fuentes, Matt Walsh, and outgoing Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene criticized Trump for his comments.
Rove said Trump’s “grotesqueries have to stop,” adding that Republicans have less than 11 months “before voters decide the shape of his final two years as president.”
“It doesn’t look good for the GOP next year. The White House is on the wrong track. It had better get its messaging right — both its formal attempts at directing the conversation and Mr. Trump’s spontaneous social-media rants. Or else the president won’t like the outcome,” Rove wrote.
He added: “A furious party in revolt against its executive, who is plagued by Democratic investigations and opposition. Time’s a-wasting.”
