Republican Candidates Told to Distance From Trump to Save Midterms

The Republican Party no longer sees Donald Trump as its golden goose.

With midterms around the corner, the president’s allies are reportedly urging Republican candidates to break from Trump’s rhetoric on the Iran war in order to save their election odds.

“The understanding is pretty damn implicit: The president is going to say what the president is going to say,” a Republican operative working on the party’s midterm races told MS NOW on the condition of anonymity. “You’re not going to have candidates or lawmakers running out to defend the president’s handling of the economy or the war—polling shows that most people don’t agree with his handling.”

The Iran war has done nothing good for America in the 21 weeks since it began. The conflict has so far killed at least 18 U.S. service members and wounded more than 600 others. It has also taken an enormous toll on daily life in the U.S., inflaming the cost of practically everything as shipping companies contend with rising oil costs. As a result, Trump’s approval rating has plummeted, with trust and loyalty rattled even within his base, which is reportedly losing patience with the unyielding violence.

The White House is now basically cutting its losses, allowing midterm-bound Republicans the opportunity to save themselves from Trump’s sinking ship.

“There is less paranoia and more autonomy,” a Republican strategist in Michigan familiar with the national and regional communications of the party told MS NOW. “[Trump] is still doing the work for the incumbents, but giving them space without lashing out.”

Another Republican operative told the network that “nuance has been adopted in Trump 2.0 that wasn’t in 1.0,” noting that if a candidate is in a state “where he can get someone better and more loyal, he’ll do it,” but “if you’re in a state where you’re the best he can get, there’s a deeper comprehension of that reality.”

A fourth GOP operative familiar with the White House’s strategy referred to debates on Iran as a “Democrat trap.”

“If a candidate lets their race become a referendum on Iran, that’s a mistake,” they said. ...