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October 19, 2026

93 posts · Monday

How Zelensky Decided to Publicly Confront Trump

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Wall Street Journal: “For 18 months, since a disastrous Oval Office meeting with Trump early in his presidency, Zelensky had been trying to court him. Now he signaled to those around him that plain speaking was needed.”

“Zelensky, traveling to meet European allies in London and Brussels, decided to publicly criticize Trump’s approach, despite the risk of angering him further. He wanted to send a message to the public in the U.S. and Europe: Ukraine would defend itself however it needed to, and it wasn’t to blame for Russia’s invasion or for high global fuel prices.”

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Trump’s Broken Promise at the Pump

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Talking PointsOne of Donald Trump’s central promises during the 2024 presidential campaign was that he would bring down prices and make everyday life more affordable.

He even pledged to get gasoline below $2 a gallon.

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The GOP’s Knives Are Already Out — For Each Other

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“Republicans are already starting to blame each other as the midterm election spirals further out of their control,” Politico reports.

“Everyone is bracing for President Donald Trump’s ire if the party loses big in November. House Republicans are planning to accuse the Senate side. Trump political aides have taken to directly calling campaigns they feel aren’t performing well enough. National GOP operatives are quietly furious at lackluster candidates who didn’t do enough to prepare for a tough year despite early warnings. And some GOP candidates are pointing the finger back at their own party committees.”

Inside the Quiet Money Pullback In Georgia’s Senate Race

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“The money spigot is sputtering in Georgia’s Senate race amid growing expectations that Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff will win reelection,” Politico reports.

“The Senate Leadership Fund, Republicans’ top Senate super PAC, did not spend on broadcast television in the state last week — the first week they were off air in the race, according to tracking firm AdImpact. Neither did Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC.”

Republicans Fall Back to the Red Wall

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“Republicans are racing to shore up their red wall as it starts to crumble,” Politico reports.

“In the states that propelled Donald Trump and his MAGA movement to power a decade ago, the GOP is staring down close races all over the map and bracing for the worst.”

“Nowhere is this more on display than in the backyard of the Republican Party’s heir apparent, VP JD Vance, and its potential future NRSC Chair Bernie Moreno. Even with its diminutive size relative to Texas, it’s drawn outsized spending: The Senate special election hit more than $466 million, behind Texas at more than $520 million, according to AdImpact.”

Said a senior MAGA-aligned strategist: “Ohio is going to be your bellwether of what kind of night it is. I think — I do truly think — as Ohio goes, the Senate goes right now.”

Trump Approval Rating Hits New Lows

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“Three national polls show President Trump’s approval rating hitting new lows as Democrats lead Republicans by 8 to 10 points ahead of the midterms,” Axios reports.

“Republicans need Trump’s loyalists to turn out, but embracing an unpopular president risks alienating independents they need to win competitive races.”

The Danger of Getting Too Close to a Source

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Bob Woodward spills the beans in his new book: “Richard Darman was what I call a ‘hide in plain sight’ source, because it was widely known that we were close friends. Not known, but perhaps suspected, was that he was a pipeline for me into the White House during the Presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush…”

“The most celebrated source of my career was Mark Felt, the No. 2 man at the F.B.I. during the Nixon years, who died in 2008. I referred to him as Deep Throat. But if Felt was on one end of the source spectrum—a secret source for thirty-three years, who operated entirely in the shadows, deeply paranoid and careful about what information he provided me and how he did it—Darman was his opposite. Flagrant and out in the open, he casually spoke to me about the most sensitive and high-level decision-making inside the Reagan and Bush White Houses.”

Pre-order · Out November 24, 2026Secrets
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Trump Plans Student Loan Penalties After Midterms

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“Trump administration officials are preparing to impose financial penalties on millions of Americans in default on their federal student loans next year,” the Washington Sun reports.

“The Treasury Department is moving forward with plans to hire private debt collectors, three of the sources said, possibly as soon as November. The sources said those plans are unlikely to be announced before the midterm elections.”

Some MAHA Voters Question Their GOP Ties

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New York Times: “While it’s difficult to pinpoint the number of MAHA supporters who are pulling their support from the Republican Party, nearly 70 percent of rural supporters of the movement said the Trump administration’s policies have had an adverse effect or no impact on the health of people where they live, according to a KFF and A.P. poll earlier this year focused on the midterms.”

“The driving forces behind the MAHA movement are people seeking to be healthier and looking to remove harmful substances in food, the poll found.”

Quote of the Day

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“If the United States will officially take the side of Russia, of course if these two countries will be together, of course we will not prevail and we will not be able to stand. If United States will support Putin, I mean, it’s unbelievable. It’s a tragedy. It’s a historic mistake and a big tragedy.”

— Ukrainian President Zelensky, quoted by the New York Times.

Trump Skips House Battlegrounds in Final Stretch

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Punchbowl News: “With just two weeks until Election Day, Trump is hardly sniffing any House district that’s in play for Republicans, even though he’s headed to some reliably red states with toss-up Senate races (hello Iowa and Kansas and closer-than-usual South Carolina!) This is a far cry from how Trump said he’d be spending the final days before Election Day.”

White House Allies Play Midterms Blame Game

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“Trump administration officials and allies are starting to debate who will shoulder the blame if Republicans perform poorly in November,” Semafor reports.

“The White House has witnessed an uptick in drama driven by the midterms, from maneuvering to replace chief of staff Susie Wiles to finger-pointing at James Blair, President Donald Trump’s outside adviser whose recent work trip to Republika Srpska frustrated the president because of its proximity to the November elections.”

“Wiles seems safe; Trump has issued multiple emphatic endorsements of his chief of staff. Some suggest Blair will get blamed, though his tension with Trump has subsided for now.”

Why Midterm Polls May Not Be Inflating Democrats

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Nate Cohn: “Are the midterm polls overestimating the Democrats?”

“It’s hard not to wonder. We’ve seen the polls inflate Democrats’ chances many times, but we’ve never seen Democratic candidates doing this well in red states during the Trump era. Recent polls have shown them leading in enough states to take the Senate.”

“Let’s state it plainly: It is absolutely possible that the polls could be overestimating Democrats. Polls are inherently imprecise, subject to many sources of error, and they could be wrong in much the same way they’ve been before.”

“Even so, there is no reason to assume that the polls will systematically overstate the Democrats’ standing as they did in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. In fact, the polls haven’t really done so in midterm or off-year elections during the Trump era, including the 2018 or 2022 midterms. Just last November, the polls actually underestimated Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia — and by a lot.”

Republicans in Ohio Are Worried About Turnout

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“Just two volunteers showed up on a recent weekday at a Republican Party campaign office near Cleveland that in 2024 was brimming with activity every night,” the New York Times reports.

“One of the two, Tanya Karabanovs, 54, sat among stacks of untouched yard signs and brainstormed new ways to convince her neighbors to vote for Republican candidates such as Senator Jon Husted, who was appointed in 2025 to finish the term of Vice President JD Vance. Her most recent idea: stuffing chocolate bars into goodie bags with leftover campaign literature.”

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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