Trump Erupts in Angry Panic over 2026 as Polls Take Truly Brutal Turn

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2026

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump has the midterms on his mind. A few days ago he erupted in a wild tirade on Truth Social, raging about voter fraud and voter ID while urging Republicans to make them central in the elections. He’s now pinned this rant to the top of his feed. Over the last 24 hours, he’s been on a tear, elevating half a dozen other tweets on these topics. By “warning” that Republicans must centralize voter fraud, he’s actually telling them to engage in mass voter suppression or perish. He has good reason to panic: One new poll has his approval at 38 percent. Another survey puts Democrats ahead in the House ballot matchup by six points. And polling averages find Trump’s approval on immigration, his “good” issue, at abysmal lows. We talked to Lakshya Jain, head of political data for The Argument. He explains why the numbers are even worse for Trump if you dig into the details, particularly on the economy; why it’s so unusual that Trump is tanking on two GOP issues, the economy and immigration; and why that is creating unexpected opportunities for Democrats. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.4	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:32.7	Several days ago, Donald Trump erupted in a wild tirade over voter ID and voter fraud,
0:36.2	urging Republicans to make that central in the midterms.
0:39.1	I thought at first that this was a one-off,
0:46.2	but by my count, in the last 24 hours, as of now, Trump has promoted at least half a dozen tweets about Democrats, about voter fraud, and about the GOP Save Act, which is all about voter suppression.
0:53.1	Clearly, Trump is very worried about the midterms.
0:56.5	And for good reason, a bunch of new polling is out that paints a dire picture for Trump and the
1:01.3	GOP. So it's a good time to take stock of what's really going on with Trump's approval and
1:06.8	with midterm polling right now. We're doing this with Laxha Jane, head of political data at the
1:12.1	argument website. Lakshah, nice to have you on. Thanks for having me, Greg. So we're seeing a lot of
1:18.7	new polling out now that looks pretty rough for Trump and Republicans. A new Reuters poll finds Trump's
1:24.4	approval at 38% with 60% disapproving. That's 22 points underwater.
1:31.4	The New York Times polling averages have Trump at 40% to 56%. So 38% might be a bit low, but it's plausible.
1:41.2	Lakshah, your polling at the argument has the generic ballot matchup at Democrats
1:45.8	plus six, 53 to 47 points. What's your view of the data right now? Can you run us through
1:51.6	what's out there? Yeah, I would say that one of the biggest things that we are seeing with
1:59.1	Trump is that everyone who cares about cost of living
2:01.4	is really, really mad at him. Like, you know, the thing is, I have seen a lot of public opinion
2:10.7	data. I can't remember the last time that a president was this imperiled for the economy right after his party enjoyed such a
2:23.9	commanding economy edge. Right. Like it's important to say here, Greg, that the Republicans have
2:29.9	been known for their strength on the economy in the eyes of the voters. This is a Republican issue.
	...

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