What’s the one dramatic thing that could do the most to help GOP chances in November–maybe saving the Senate if not the House? My answer: Trump could convince the public he has a plausible plan to end the Iran conflict on OK terms fairly soon. It can be the Conrad Black plan–fine. (https://t.co/LV2UTyBtJA) It can be done via an Oval Office address–repeated on the stump to defeat MSM derision–or something else (TV ads). Gaggling won’t cut it.
1) Yes, polls show voters say they care much more about the economy–and GOPs should do more to drive home the point that underneath the inflation the economy’s moving in a good direction (as J.D. Vance and Byron York argue https://t.co/Rq9KfFWabw). Emphasizing the low poverty rate would also show Trump & Co don’t just care about stock market. But voters have their own ‘lived’ sense of the economy and trying to talk them out of it rarely produces big shifts.
2) Iran was where Trump’s characterological flaws–faith in his own seat-of-pants brilliance, impulsiveness, corruption (Jared), high-handedness, boastfulness, theatrical overthreats–had big real-world consequences that make the Kennedy Center and East Wing fusses, etc., look like mere synecdoches (which they are) https://t.co/Rq9KfFWabw The war was a gross violation of what Trump campaigned on and the point at which his presidency seemed to come undone. If Trump, who’s made himself the issue in the midterms, is going to rehab himself he needs to apply some analgesic on Iran.
3) Optimism on Iran–or at least less despair–translates into optimism about inflation. Everyone understands the connection. So pursuing (2) would do a lot to help with (1)–more than telling people the economy’s good.
P.S.: What about immigration? Here Trump made the political mistake of coming close (or close enough in voters’ minds) to solving the problem, making it less of an “issue”–at least until the Dems unsolve it. Ditto, perhaps, wokeness.
— Mickey Kaus (@kausmickey)
Sep 18, 2026
from Twitter https://twitter.com/kausmickey
September 18, 2026 at 04:11PM
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