Trump shows he’s not done giving his party fits

President Donald Trump decided to take reporters on a tour of the construction on Tuesday. extremely unpopular ballroom – expresses public obsession with a project that has caused political crises for his party.

Hours later he Endorses Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton He’s in a runoff with GOP Sen. John Cornyn next week despite major concerns from the institutional GOP about Paxton’s electability.

Just 24 hours ago Trump made his decision 10 billion dollar lawsuit against the government it controls $1.8 billion funds to pay allies.

The optics of this just got worse additional terms Added to the agreement Tuesday: The Internal Revenue Service cannot pursue claims against Trump, his family or his businesses for past tax problems.

And this all comes shortly after Trump said: “He doesn’t care about Americans’ finances.” While trying to resolve the Iran war. (He didn’t help that message by telling reporters on Tuesday about high gas prices, “It’s peanuts.”

Given the volume of Trump’s politically useless gambits these days, it almost seems like to try He is trying to create political problems for his party ahead of the increasingly worrying 2026 midterm elections.

And Republicans may start asking themselves what to do if Trump doesn’t back down soon.

Republicans face what looks like an increasingly brutal election, some recent polls show Democrats ahead by double digits in the so-called general vote. But Trump proceeds as if he doesn’t care or believe it one bit.

“Everybody tells me it’s unpopular, but I think it’s very popular,” Trump said Tuesday. He was talking about the Iran war, but this idea seems to apply to many other things as well.

A major new entry on Trump’s list of highly questionable gambling is the $1.776 billion fund he has set aside to provide compensation to allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by previous administrations.

We don’t know exactly who will benefit from this yet. But those who would logically benefit from this appear to include numerous Trump allies who have been investigated and/or convicted (people like Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, and Roger Stone), as well as the defendants in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, for example, told CNN he expects to receive compensation after facing legal trouble following outlandish voter fraud allegations in 2020.

Possible legal issues aside, paying these people doesn’t seem like a good idea politically.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune addressed the concerns early Tuesday morning.

“Yeah, I’m not a big fan. I’m not exactly sure how they intend to use it. But my understanding is that it was just announced. But yeah, I don’t see a purpose for it,” the South Dakota Republican said.

Trump and his allies have long claimed that these people are victims of a weaponized justice system, but the American people seem to disagree:

• A. 2017 CBS News poll 67 percent of Americans said the trial, in which Flynn admitted lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russians, was “serious.”

• And one 2020 NBC News poll It showed that those who believe Trump should commute Stone’s sentence oppose doing so 2 to 1 (36%-16%).

• Even when it comes to Trump personally, a clear majority of Americans consistently say the legal review of him and his indictments is correct. it was legitimate. (The fund can’t pay Trump directly under the terms of the deal, but those numbers seem meaningful.)

Trump could enter even riskier territory by paying money to those who attacked the Capitol. In last year’s survey Pew Research Center And Washington Post showed that a majority opposes Trump pardoning non-violent January 6 defendants. For violent offenders he pardoned, that number rose to three-quarters or more.

And Americans appear to have real concerns about corruption and self-government in the Trump administration.

April Fool’s Day Reuters/Ipsos poll It showed Americans disapprove of Trump’s stance on corruption by a 2-to-1 margin (59%-29%). Other polls showed 6 in 10 believe Trump is using his presidency to: enrich yourself and its friends and family.

Corruption and overcoming self-interest were not Trump and the GOP’s biggest political problems. But imagine, as the 2026 election approaches, the administration occasionally distributes large sums of taxpayer money directly to Trump’s convicted allies, making little headway in the legal process, and doing so while Americans think the president is ignoring inflation concerns.

This is par for the course with Trump lately. He’s running like someone more interested in using his time as president to enrich himself, help his allies, and pursue pet projects than helping Republicans avoid a 2026 implosion.

There are whispers that he has largely given up on the latter, and that continues.

Ballroom 2 to 1 is not popular. But not only can Trump not stop talking about it; he is now asking taxpayers for money, despite previously saying it would be entirely privately funded. Although the GOP may have a lucky break there Proposed funding hit a major hurdle in the Senate.

Equally puzzling are Trump’s other efforts to renew the nation’s capital. almost no one seems to want thisincluding occasionally plastering his name on items. The latter is particularly incongruous given Trump’s situation. now a historically unpopular president.

The Iran war is, of course, his and the GOP’s biggest political liability right now. Matters were not helped by the administration’s apparent mishandling of the war, but its unpopularity was also entirely predictable from the start. Trump started this in an election year Two-thirds of Americans previously opposed it.

And on top of the pile is Trump’s quixotic and Greenland’s unpopular questhis trying to enrich himself More and more while on duty Low-key comments about dead political enemieshis social media posts and comments About black people.

And while Republicans have occasionally voiced concern about his behavior, most of the party ignores it and seemingly hopes it goes away.

Frankly, it’s not going away. Midterm exams are less than six months away. Trump is already a historically unpopular president; He is a president more unpopular than ever, including after January 6th. And increasingly he rules like someone who has nothing to lose.

But his party has a lot to lose. This past week has shown how Trump could soon force many into an incredibly difficult choice: a president who demands loyalty and punishes disloyalty, or their own political future.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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