Donald TrumpThe midterm reboot was supposed to be the triumphant return of a political heavyweight. After Democrats posted impressive gains in off-year elections across the country in November, White House aides promise the president would return to the campaign trail to storm the 2026 midterms with the same “fire and dominance” he claimed to possess in 2024 — infamous fabric and all. But if his rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, is a preview of what the GOP should expect, Trump’s promise should be read as a threat. Far from a comeback, his comeback rally was a flop.
Trump’s team was clearly hoping that the blue-collar community in one of the country’s top swing states would provide him with a friendly springboard. Expecting a crowd of several thousand, with the nostalgic sound of MAGA chants echoing through the metal bleachers, I tuned into Fox News Tuesday night to find the president in a conference center ballroom inside a local casino that appeared to generously seat 200 people. And even that small crowd seemed hesitant, almost resigned, as Trump rambled on for nearly an hour. Fox News, of course, dutifully avoided any wide shots. But the truth was clear on the screen: the magic of MAGA was gone.
Trump marched on stage insisting he is ready to make America “affordable again,” a line created to evoke Reagan-era economic populism, which instead evoked Jimmy Carter calling for personal austerity. Trump said he had “no higher priority” before launching into his usual misdirection, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden for the rising cost of living.
Even a local waitress brought on stage to support Trump complained that her paychecks don’t stretch far enough anymore. “Almost everything I make is used to pay the bills” she said. In response, Trump offered Marie Antoinette-style advice.
“Americans must learn to adapt to a lower standard of living.” he told the crowd before suggesting a specific solution to his fares, 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 Americans struggle to afford food. Even more damaging for Trump, a majority (55%) blame his administration. So Democrats jumped at his absurd advice. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona posted on X“Trump needs private jets and a gold-covered oval desk, but your kid just needs a pencil.”
And because the president is anything but predictable, his speech eventually strayed from the economic spotlight, quickly turning into angry tangents about alternative energy, immigrants and other odd grievances.
In a particularly confusing moment, Trump attacked the concept of energy storage despite the fact that Pennsylvania had has recently secured hundreds of jobs with a new zinc battery factory. “They want us to go to the batteries!” he scoffed. “We don’t have a battery content. So let’s switch to batteries according to these fools that have been in our country.”
Things got more confusing when Trump seemed to forget that he first nominated Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. “I just heard that it could be all four Fed commissioners signed by Biden, including Too late, I heard that the autopen would have signed those commissions. If he had signed those commissions,” he said“you can’t use auto open”.
Moments like these underscored growing concern about Trump’s cognitive abilities, which are becoming a political issue. I’ve watched him fall asleep in meetings, go crazy through speeches, wander offstage, and misidentify world leaders. His right hand appeared repeatedly bandaged and bruised. At least once, the side of his face fell off on national television. And for a man who claims to “ace” cognitive tests, it’s curious that he doesn’t remember getting an MRI during his second “annual physical” this year. Even his own supporters whisper if age is catching up with him.
Maybe that’s why he jumped off the stage and at Truth Social to boast that he was “able to ‘sit through'” his “very boring medical examinations”:
Some even said they had never seen such powerful results. I take these Tests because I owe it to our Country. In addition to Medical, I have done something that no other president has done, on three separate occasions, the last being recently, taking what is known as the Cognitive Exam, something that few people could do very well, including those who work at the New York Times, and I have ACCESSED all three in front of a large number of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know. I have been told that few people have been able to pass this exam, 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 “stopped publishing.”
Several other media outlets immediately verified or criticized Trump’s performance at the casino.
“At first stop on his accessibility tour, Trump scoffs at accessibility,” said the Washington Post he captioned his report.
“Trump Has Fun, But Fails to Feel Americans’ Pain on Prices,” CNN’s headline reading.
“Trump’s speech about fighting inflation turns into grievances about immigrants from ‘dirty’ countries,” the Associated Press reported.
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As the AP headline reflected, Trump’s racism hijacked his entire message on accessibility. The president channeled 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. “Dirty, dirty, disgusting, full of murder.” Then, as if time had repeated itself, he revived the “t**le countries” insult he once denied making. “Why are we only taking people from s**thole countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few?”
The rally reached its nastiest point when Trump took aim at Rep. Ilhan Omar, Dt., 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, which, I mean, is considered the worst country in the world, right?”
Omar came to the United States as a refugee when he was 12 years old. He is an American citizen. She is an elected member of Congress. However, Trump could not resist diving deeper into racist conspiracies, once again baselessly accusing her of marrying her brother to obtain citizenship – a lie long debunked but repeatedly used to dehumanize her. “They should get the hell out,” he said. “Throw the hell out of her.”
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 song against Omar and other black women in Congress. Back then, it shocked the nation. Now it’s simply part of Trump’s speech. He’s run out of new ideas, so he recycles the darkest ones.
CNN fast streaming footage refuting Trump’s denial of 2018 “s**thole” comments. MSNBC echoed his earlier remarks attacking Omar. NPR highlighted the contradiction between Trump’s claims of power and the reality of a man struggling to maintain coherence. The mainstream media 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, an 80-point swing from 2021. In Georgia, Democrats flipped a state House seat that Republicans won in an upset just two years earlier.
Off-year results are often the earliest indicators of the national political mood. This year, that mood suggests voters are fed up with MAGA theatrics and a man telling struggling families they just have to “put down their pencils” to make ends meet.
Republicans should be worried, too they now recognize the same. Trump lost the popular vote in 2016. He lost the White House in 2020. His endorsed candidates faced off in 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024. The GOP has not outperformed in a single national cycle since he took control of the party. The Mount Pocono rally reaffirmed this truth. As Trump tried to demonstrate strength, he appeared small and irrelevant. The billionaire president who tells supporters to buy fewer dolls before Christmas obviously doesn’t know how to connect with voters anymore.
The Trump of 2026 is not the Trump of 2024. The president he is clearly tiredangry, confused and unable to adapt to a country in economic crisis. Not even Fox News can spin this. The right-wing media ecosystem that once treated him like a demigod is now torn between pretending he’s energetic and quietly wondering if he’s fading. Democrats, meanwhile, are seeing increased energy, with the party’s candidates over-performing in special elections nationwide, a trend that is often a devastating indicator of the party’s demise.
Republicans insist that bringing Trump back into the spotlight in the midterms will energize the base. It might – but it will also energize everyone else.
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