Victor Davis Hanson: Trump, Beware—These ‘Unforced Errors’ Could Hand Democrats a Midterm Win

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4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2026

⏱️ 13 minutes

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Summary

With only nine months until the midterm elections, Democrats will scrutinize every move President Donald Trump takes as they fight to reclaim control of the House and the Senate. Victor Davis Hanson lays out the narrow road ahead to victory for Trump and the GOP during the 2026 midterm elections. History is not on the incumbent’s side. Messaging mistakes and unforced errors could shift key voters and hand Congress back to Democrats. Hanson explains what it will take to hold a Republican majority—and why the stakes for these midterm elections could not be higher—on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words." “There's another advantage that Trump has. They've raised, I think, $90 to $100 million. They've out-raised the Left by three or four times. And the billionaire class of Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, not to mention Marc Andreessen or Elon Musk, they have defected and it's really hurting the Democrats. “What they're looking at in California with this billionaire's tax, you can be a billionaire and have property and investments, homes, but you might only have, I don't know, $100 million. They're gonna take $50 million from you on your aggregate worth. That's not gonna go over well with the billionaire class. And there, that's just a foretaste of what Kamala Harris will do if she has a Democratic Congress.” (0:00) Midterms Ahead (2:04) Unforced Errors (4:34) Incumbents Usually Lose Seats (5:35) What’s Working (9:11) Outraging Democrats (10:08) Known Unknowns (10:55) Final Playbook 👉 The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: http://dailysignal.com/donate 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠ Also on Spotify: https://megaphone.link/THEDAILYSIGNAL9753340027 👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enable notifications: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1 👉More exclusive content is available on Victor’s website: https://victorhanson.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:28.9	There's about nine months left into the midterm elections in November. How should we envision
0:35.9	this with the current administration that's chances?
0:38.3	I think the best simile is that there's a pathway over the mountains, but on one side there's a sheer drop.
0:45.3	On the right side, there is ample room if you travel close to the mountains and not get near the precipice.
1:00.2	What are the perils that you'll follow or the cliff as you go on the path to the midterm?
1:18.3	Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson. There's about nine months left into the midterm elections in November,
1:28.0	and how should we envision this with the current administration that's chances of retaining control of the House or Senate.
1:37.6	Well, I think the best simile is that there's a pathway over the mountains, like a pass.
1:40.7	But on one side, there's a sheer drop.
1:49.4	And the other, there's, on the right side, there is ample room if you travel close to the mountains and not get near the precipice. Now, what is the precipice? There is a
1:57.8	pathway to save the Republican Congress and thereby to save the Trump counter-revolution.
	...

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