President Trump is kicking off a 33-day blitz heading into the midterm elections, but instead of starting in traditional battlegrounds, he's instead doing a run through some deeply red areas, with his first stop in Texas this evening, Oklahoma right now, and Alabama tomorrow. Actually, when you look at it, every state that he's going to between now and Monday, he won by double digits in 2024. That might make sense if you've been listening to the president's arguments today, which include that he would win the election if it were today, and that his policies aren't the problem, it's just the PR or lack thereof.
The only thing we're doing badly at is public relations. In other words, we're doing a phenomenal job, but by a combination of maybe we're doing a bad job and selling it, our way down and they're coming down further. We have inflation totally, it's been grown and we've done a great job. And the thing I haven't done a good job with is explaining to the people that I'm going at. There's nobody selling it. I'm doing, we're doing an extremely poor job of promotion and an extremely great job of running the country. So I think you're probably better off with that, but we'll get the word out. It should not be hard.
At one point today, the president gave himself an A plus on the economy, and in a new interview with Time Magazine, when the interviewer pointed out, quote, 'Mr. President, your polls have never been lower,' this was Trump's response.
They're fake numbers. I would beat anybody running today by 20 points. Your numbers that you have are fake. The pollsters are corrupt. They're almost as corrupt as the writers.
During that lengthy interview with Time, the president was defensive about his own approval ratings and the ongoing war in Iran. He said it's possible that he ramps up the bombings in Iran after the midterm elections are over. And when he was pressed how he reconciles calling himself the president of peace while also considering annihilating Iran, as he did at the United Nations last week, the president answered this way, saying, quote, 'Because by annihilating Iran, we've created peace in the world.' Now, the polls that the president blasted as fake show that by and large Americans don't support the war or Trump's handling of it. Asked if he thinks that that has anything to do with the fact that he told Americans it would only last four to six weeks when the war has gone on for over seven months, the president said this.
I think the press fed it to them. So that, look, we were in Vietnam for 21, 20 years. We were in Afghanistan for many years. We were in Korea for many. We're everywhere for many years. I'm in there now for six months and I've destroyed their nuclear capability.
Clearly with the timeline still on his mind, he then posted on social media and said, 'I stated numerous times that it would take four to six weeks to get rid of the Iran nuclear threat and I did it in one night. The rest of the time is just to make sure it stays that way.' Of course, that's easily disproven given it was the president and members of his administration that were on camera saying things like this just days into the war.
Whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes, we will always, and we have from right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks.
We estimated it would take approximately four to six weeks to achieve our mission.
As he's articulated, you know, he's said four to six weeks.
The president, commander in chief, the Pentagon has always stated a four to six weeks estimated timeline for Operation Epic Fury. The president, as I said, estimated about a four to six week timeline for the full completion of these military combat operations.
I think with two or three weeks, yeah. Two or three weeks. We'll leave. We're finishing the job and I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer to do the job.
A recent CNN poll found that 78% of Americans say the president is not doing enough to end the war. His daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, while strongly supporting his efforts, also acknowledged it could cost him the midterms. And when he was asked about that today, though, in her comments specifically, the president took the opposite view.
You agree with her or disagree with that? Well, it's, I think it helped because Iran would not have a nuclear weapon. So when you say is it okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, I would say 100% of the people say no, including worldwide. So when you say it that way, it would help. If you don't say that, it could hurt.
At another point in the interview, when the president was questioned about his decision to ban certain outlets, including CNN, unprompted, he said this, quote, 'Because I don't think anybody should be forced to bear fake news, constantly bad stories because I've done great things. I mean, I've done Venezuela, I've done, I can name, I can name 100 great things I've done. I never get good press. I never get fair press. Doesn't have to be good. All it has to be is fair.' And the president continued, 'So at a certain point you say, what's the purpose of like this crazy Caitlyn Collins? She's a very average person. She's the most unhappy young person I've ever seen. If I did something spectacular by any standard, and they would write about it, they will only write badly.' Did I mention that was unprompted? I digress. To sum up the Time interview, the president complained about coverage he doesn't like, dismissed the polls that he doesn't believe, and also insisted the Iran war is going exactly as he planned. At one point, when the reporter asked about the health of Republican Senator Mitch McConnell and he thinks he should stay in the Senate, the president snapped and said, quote, 'This ain't going to be much of a story. Here we are doing this. You haven't asked me one effing positive question. All of this. What about this? What about that? What about this? All negative,' the president said. I want to start tonight with my political sources. Harry Enten is here with me and we are also joined by Karen Finney and Doug Heye.
I don't know how you're keeping it together.
Harry, Harry. I think, I mean, Harry though, as I was listening to what the president said today and also going through his Time interview, it was a 75-minute sit-down. The thing he keeps saying is if I was running tomorrow, if the election were tomorrow, he'd win by 20%, 25%, basically saying that I haven't done anything that voters should be unhappy with.
Uh, it's, it, it, it's just not true. Look, he's had a negative net approval rating now for well over 550 days in any poll that meets CNN standards for publication. More than that, you can look at the redos, right? Between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. What do you see? You see that Kamala Harris, although she lost by a little bit more than a point in the popular vote back in 2024, she now leads by either six or eight points depending on which poll you look at. He is at this point, you know, you look at that AP-NORC poll, what do you see? You saw that his net approval rating on inflation was what? Like minus 65 points. He now holds, it's a record, he holds the 20 worst polls ever net approval rating on inflation, on the cost of living, and the minus 65 is the worst of the bunch. He's just full of it.
So he says the polls are as corrupt as the writers. That was his point. When the interviewer was saying things are not as rosy as you're portraying them to be, Mr. President. I mean, he just seems to think that the polls are wrong, but do all of them show the same thing generally?
They all show the same thing. You know, I said it right in that answer. Any poll that meets CNN standards for publication, he has had a negative net approval rating now since March of 2025. You have to go all the way back then to find a poll in which he wasn't underwater. And now this includes even the polls that have traditionally been good for him that don't meet CNN standards for publication. And I will note that in large part, while the polls did underestimate him a little bit in 2024, not anywhere near to the extent that he would need to actually have a positive net approval rating.
I mean, Doug, when you hear what the president is saying, and his argument is that the only thing that's going wrong is the PR basically, that they're just not selling things properly. Is that how Republicans see it?
Look, you know, Karen and I both had sort of opposing jobs at the RNC and DNC, worked in communications. And if there's one time-honored tradition in politics, and Karen knows this very well, it's that you say that the policies are going well, it's just the communications effort and the comms team that isn't getting the job done. I've heard it from Trump, from Obama, from Biden, from Bush. Always blame comms. It ultimately means you're not doing what you need to do, but it's a fail-safe excuse that every politician at some point tries to use.
Every politician might try to use it, Karen, but I think the question is for voters, if the main issue is the economy and affordability, and they know that when they're filling up their gas tanks once a week, I mean, how do you think they hear the president's comments? Do they think it's just PR?
Look, I think the president has really, it's a, it's a symbol of how much credibility he's really lost. I mean, I thought one of the things that was so interesting in the AP poll, I think Harry would say that meets our standard, so I'll mention it. Does. Um, that, you know, it pointed out not only the level of dissatisfaction, but how dramatically people are feeling like this is not what they expected. And so the point is day after day after day when he's trying to tell people that everything is great, it's not just that it's very like he's saying the sky is blue and people can see that it's gray when they're filling up their gas tank, it's also that they had a different expectation, and he is consistently not meeting those expectations. And in fact, they're feeling misled. We've seen that, you know, in when we've seen John King on the road talking to voters, people will say it unprompted. Talk about unprompted, right? People say that. We saw this over the summer when people were here for that July 4th debacle, right? That they were so disappointed in him and his leadership. So we're hearing it again and again and again from lots of different parts of the country and from different parts of the Trump base.
Well, and Karen, remind me how it went when Democrats tried to tell people that the economy was doing better than they thought.
Oh yeah, it was great. It was so awesome, right? Remember when we sat here, I mean, probably many of us on the same panels when Joe Biden kept trying to say, you know, God love him, but when you're, you know, we said to his team, guys, it's not just the messaging, it's the actual, you're not meeting people where they are and what they're feeling.
You know, Doug, I mentioned where the president is and he's hitting a bunch of red areas and obviously, you know, he's talking about how well he did two years ago, but obviously he's not on the ballot come November. This race in Texas, Ken Paxton, James Talarico, the president had this to say about the candidate that he has endorsed in this race.
Ken Paxton was at my side more than anybody, and I have to always remember that because he can be a pain in the ass sometimes. I'll be honest. Is he here, by the way? Oh, there he is. Good. I didn't, I didn't even know if he's here. I don't care.
I mean, Doug, what did you make of that comment from the president?
Oh, it's typical Donald Trump. We've heard him say similar things about other candidates in the past as well. I don't think it hurts Paxton, but it obviously doesn't help him. What he needs is he needs help raising money and that's something the president could be very effective at. They also need help in messaging as we were talking about earlier. You know, if I'm Ken Paxton or any Republican on the ballot, I want the president saying, here's what we've done to try and lower costs and here's what we're going to do in the next two years. Anytime that he takes himself off message, it really cuts into Republicans' ability to make those connections with voters that they need to. And just one other thing very quickly, Caitlyn, you know, if you have a problem with how things are being communicated, you might want to hire a press secretary.
