Donald Trump’s midterm reboot was supposed to be the triumphant return of a political heavyweight. After Democrats saw impressive gains in off-year elections across the country in November, White House advisers promised the president would return to the campaign trail to storm the 2026 midterms with the same “fire and dominance” he claimed to wield in 2024 — infamous weave and all. But if his Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, rally is any preview of what the GOP should expect, Trump’s promise should be read as a threat. Far from a comeback, his return rally was a flop.
Trump’s team clearly hoped the blue-collar community in one of the country’s most important swing states would give him a friendly launchpad. While I expected a crowd of a few thousand with the nostalgic sound of MAGA chants echoing off metal bleachers, I tuned into Fox News Tuesday evening to find the president in a conference center ballroom inside a local casino that appeared to hold, generously, 200 people. And even that small crowd seemed hesitant, almost resigned, as Trump ranted for nearly an hour. Fox News, of course, dutifully avoided any wide shots. But the truth was clear on screen: The MAGA magic had vanished.
Trump marched onstage insisting he was ready to make America “affordable again,” a line crafted to evoke Reagan-era economic populism that instead conjured Jimmy Carter calling for personal austerity. Trump declared he had “no higher priority” before launching into his usual misdirection by blaming the rising cost of living on his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Even a local waitress brought on stage to support Trump lamented that her paychecks no longer stretch far enough. “Pretty much everything I make goes towards paying the bills,” she said.
Even a local waitress brought on stage to support Trump lamented that her paychecks no longer stretch far enough. “Pretty much everything I make goes towards paying the bills,” she said. In response, Trump offered advice in the style of Marie Antoinette.
“Americans must learn to adjust to a lower standard of living,” he told the crowd before suggesting a specific solution to prices hiked by his tariffs, which he continues to insist are a success. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils…You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice.”
According to a new POLITICO poll, half of all Americans are finding it difficult to afford food. Even more damaging for Trump, a majority (55%) blames his administration. So Democrats were quick to pounce on his absurd advice. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona posted on X, “Trump needs private jets and an Oval Office covered in gold but your kid only needs one pencil.”
And because the president is nothing if not predictable, his speech eventually strayed from the economic gaslighting, quickly devolving into angry tangents about alternative energy, immigrants and other odd grievances.
In a particularly baffling moment, Trump attacked the concept of energy storage despite Pennsylvania having recently secured hundreds of jobs with a new zinc battery factory. “They want us to go to batteries!” he jeered. “We don’t have battery content. So let’s go to batteries according to these morons that were in our country.”
Things turned more confusing when Trump seemed to forget he had first nominated Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell. “I just heard it could be all four commissioners in the Fed signed by Biden including Too Late, I hear that the autopen may have signed those commissions. If they signed those commissions,” he said, “you can’t use the autopen.”
Moments like these underscored the growing concern about Trump’s cognitive abilities, which are becoming a political issue. We’ve watched him drift asleep in meetings, slur through speeches, wander off stages and misidentify world leaders. His right hand has repeatedly appeared bandaged and bruised. At least once, the side of his face drooped on national television. And for a man who claims to “ace” cognitive tests, it’s curious that he cannot recall whether he sat for an MRI during his second “annual physical” this year. Even his own supporters whisper about whether age is catching up to him.
Perhaps that’s why he hopped off stage and on to Truth Social to boast that he was “able to ‘ace’” his “very boring Medical Examinations”:
Some have even said they have never seen such Strong Results. I do these Tests because I owe it to our Country. In addition to the Medical, I have done something that no other President has done, on three separate occasions, the last one being recently, by taking what is known as a Cognitive Examination, something which few people would be able to do very well, including those working at The New York Times, and I ACED all three of them in front of large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know. I have been told that few people have been able to ‘ace’ this Examination and, in fact, most do very poorly, which is why many other Presidents have decided not to take it at all.
Trump went on to complain about the New York Times’ coverage “of my Election Results” and said the country would be better off if the Times “would cease publication.”
Several other media outlets immediately fact-checked or panned Trump’s performance at the casino.
“At the first stop on his affordability tour, Trump mocks affordability,” the Washington Post headlined its report.
“Trump has ‘fun’ but fails to feel Americans’ pain on prices,” CNN’s headline read.
“Trump’s Speech On Combating Inflation Turns To Grievances About Immigrants From ‘Filthy’ Countries,” the Associated Press reported.
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As the AP’s headline reflected, Trump’s racism sidetracked his entire message on affordability. The president turned his frustration into familiar bile, returning to the xenophobic script that propelled him to political success in 2016. “We’re taking people from hellholes like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia and many other countries,” he said. “Filthy, dirty, disgusting, ridden with crime.” Then, as if time had folded back on itself, he revived the “s**thole countries” slur he once denied making. “Why is it we only take people from s**thole countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few?”
The rally reached its ugliest point when Trump took aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., a frequent target. “I love this Ilhan Omar, whatever the hell her name is, with the little turban,” he said, mocking her hijab. “She comes from her country, where, I mean, it’s considered about the worst country in the world, right?”
Omar came to the United States as a refugee at 12. She is a U.S. citizen. She is an elected member of Congress. Yet Trump couldn’t resist diving deeper into racist conspiracies, baselessly accusing her yet again of marrying her brother to obtain citizenship — a lie long debunked but repeatedly weaponized to dehumanize her. “She should get the hell out,” he said. “Throw her the hell out.”
The anemic crowd of MAGA supporters obliged with the all-too-familiar chant: “Send her back!”
America has heard this before. In 2019, Trump incited the same chant against Omar and other women of color in Congress. Back then, it shocked the nation. Now it’s simply part of Trump’s stump speech. He’s run out of new ideas, so he’s recycling the darkest ones.
CNN quickly aired footage disproving Trump’s denial of the 2018 “s**thole” comments. MSNBC replayed his prior remarks attacking Omar. NPR highlighted the contradiction between Trump’s claims of strength and the reality of a man flailing to maintain coherence. The mainstream press no longer treats Trump’s behavior as simply shocking — it properly frames it as dangerous.
Meanwhile, the political world continues to turn against the president. Tuesday was Election Day in several states — and Democrats had a very good night. In Miami, a Democrat won the mayoral race for the first time in nearly three decades with an 80-point swing from 2021. In Georgia, Democrats flipped a state House seat that Republicans won in a rout just two years earlier.
Off-year results are often the earliest indicators of the national political mood. This year, that mood suggests voters are tired of MAGA theatrics and a man who tells struggling families they simply need to “give up pencils” to make ends meet.
Republicans should be worried, and they are now admitting as much. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He lost the White House in 2020. His endorsed candidates face-planted in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024. The GOP has not overperformed in a single national cycle since he took control of the party. The Mount Pocono rally reaffirmed that truth. While Trump attempted to demonstrate strength, he looked small and irrelevant. The billionaire president who tells supporters to buy fewer dolls ahead of Christmas obviously does not know how to connect with voters anymore.
The Trump of 2026 is not the Trump of 2024. The president is clearly tired, angry, confused and incapable of adjusting to a country in economic crisis. Even Fox News can’t spin this. The right-wing media ecosystem that once treated him like a demigod is now split between pretending he is energetic and quietly wondering whether he is fading. Meanwhile, Democrats are seeing increased energy with the party’s candidates overperforming in special elections nationwide, a trend that is often a devastating indicator for the party out of power.
Republicans insist that bringing Trump back into the midterm spotlight will energize the base. It may — but it will also energize everyone else.
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