Is Trump Trying to Lose the Midterms? It’s Not as Outlandish as it Sounds.

Donald Trump rolls on.

His policies fail, his approval ratings plummet, projections for multiple contested House or Senate seats or governor’s races shift left, but Trump continues to respond by lowering his head and charging forward. His rhetoric becomes more shrill, his insults more crude, his refusal to listen to members of his own party more obstinate, and his unwillingness to compromise more set in cement. And so, the war with Iran persists, America’s prestige and position around the world deteriorates, climate change ravages the country, tariffs raise the cost of living, measles cases break records, all while Trump and his family line their pockets with proceeds from bribes and dirty deals and his crusade to rig elections continues unabated.

Trump is not perpetrating the decline of America because of deeply held, albeit misguided, beliefs, but rather because of the obvious delight he takes in demonstrating to friend and foe alike that he can and will do anything he damn well pleases no matter what the cost to his party or the country. Those costs are now quite high and promise to get even higher as Trump refuses to respond to even the most obvious national crisis.

Even on those rare occasions when he does bend to reality, Trump is more than willing to do so to the detriment of erstwhile supporters, often in electoral districts where Democrats have defied expectations by making races competitive.

In his only concession to “affordability,” which he has repeatedly labeled a Democratic hoax and announced was something he did not care about, Trump suspended the tariffs on imported beef, which will lower prices for hard-pressed consumers. But not everyone was happy with the move. With increased, low-cost competition, domestic beef producers will be forced to cut prices, even with an uptick in demand, something they have vociferously pointed out to Republican leaders. And which state is by far the largest beef producer in the nation, supplying a full 25% of the total? Texas, where Ken Paxton is desperately trying to hold a Senate seat that Republicans seem to have occupied since Paxton was fleecing his fellow students out of lunch money in middle school.

Fuel prices, on the other hand, are going nowhere except up. Rather than make concessions that might give the impression that his war with Iran is the failure most Americans know it is, Trump, no longer able to mount an effective military campaign, has initiated “Operation Economic Fury,” vowing to punish other countries that do business with Iran and thus isolate and starve out the Islamists. The only problem is that Trump’s potential miscreants do not include China (except in empty talk), Russia, or North Korea, who have done the most to prop up the regime. Thus, gas and especially diesel prices at the pump will be a reminder to Trump truckers every time they fill up that “America First” does not include them.

As Trump has been warned repeatedly by Republican leaders and strategists, his narcissistic imperviousness seems likely to cost his party the House, even with redistricting, and quite possibly the Senate as well.

The usual explanation for what would ordinarily be considered political suicide is that Trump is an eighty-year-old with the impulse control of an eight-year-old, an enfant terrible who doesn’t think beyond what is right in front of him, future consequences be damned. This is hardly an unfair assessment. Given that he was born into great wealth and has managed to walk away from a lengthy series of business and personal disasters with scant consequences—for him—there seemed little need to adapt. Until now, he has clearly led what can be considered a charmed life, even by fairy tale standards.

But there is another, more bizarre, explanation for what seems inexplicable behavior. Trump wants to lose the midterms and have Democrats take over Congress.

He is all too aware that his presidency is collapsing the way his ballroom is likely to if the headlong construction continues without the checks and inspections that a project of this complexity requires. When faced with this sort of setback in the past, Trump simply walked away from the problem. But that is not a possibility here. He is stuck with the presidency for another two years. If Republicans retain control of Congress and the nation continues to sink into an economic and political morass, it will be awkward to try to blame his own party and resurrecting Joe Biden yet again will be a tough sell. But if Democrats are running Congress, subjecting Trump to a series of investigations while refusing to pass legislation or confirm his appointees, he has a built-in scapegoat and a ready stockpile of excuses.

He, then, becomes the victim, a role he relishes.

It is important to remember that, other than planting his face or name on everything except fire hydrants and building monuments to himself, Trump doesn’t give any evidence of caring about either the country or even his own supporters. He has already milked billions out of his presidency—in 2016, he called his candidacy the world’s greatest infomercial—and while no amount of money is enough for him, it may not be worth the headache of trying to discharge the responsibilities of his office in order to make still more. With Democrats in power, he can simply throw up his hands, say, “They’re destroying the country,” and go off and play golf.

There is some evidence to support this hypothesis. In a move that would appear ludicrous if it did not so fit this scenario, rather than deploy the $400 million he is sitting on in the MAGA, Inc. superPAC to support endangered Republican candidates, he has decided instead to use the money to buy ads that promote and glorify…himself. Trump intends to “lean into the Democratic strategy of focusing on him,” and tout his “many accomplishments…including dozens of new stock-market highs, a decline in fentanyl deaths, the ‘sealed’ southern border, and the increase in domestic-manufacturing production.”

Touting these “accomplishments,” most of which are irrelevant to most voters and others spurious—the United States has actually lost manufacturing jobs during Trump’s second term—is unlikely to help Republican candidates without a president who seems determined to tackle the nation’s growing problems.

Which Trump has made clear he does not. It might interfere with self-promotion.