Trump campaigns for Republicans before midterms as reports question crowd enthusiasm

Right · 1President Donald Trump has spent roughly the past month crisscrossing the country to rally for down-ballot Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, with the Washington Examiner reporting on stops in Florida, Georgia and Michigan over the weekend of 23–25 October. 1 Right · 1The Washington Examiner said Trump can still draw a crowd but that keeping people in their seats is the challenge: it documented a steady exodus at all three rallies, the largest in Perry, Georgia, where the crowd shrank by more than a third before the end. 1 Right · 1The Examiner also described the rally format: loose, off-script remarks, video montages, celebrity guests including Mike Alstott, Jason Aldean and Nicki Minaj, Republican candidates called to the stage, and a closing dance to "YMCA". 1

Right · 1As of Monday 26 October, Trump's approval in the RealClearPolitics average was 38.3%, 21.9 points underwater, according to the Examiner; Trump told the outlet the real figure is around 60%, and a veteran member of Trump's political team said "President Trump loves MAGA, and MAGA loves him back." 1 Right · 1Attendees the Examiner interviewed in Fort Myers, Perry and Port Huron said they still like Trump but are worried about the Iran war and higher gas prices; one undecided Perry attendee said the war and pump prices had them "going more Democratic", and the Examiner saw that attendee leave shortly after Trump said the US is "making a frickin' fortune" from the Middle East situation. 1 Left · 1Alex Hinton, a Rutgers anthropologist, wrote in an essay for The Conversation (republished by Raw Story) that rally energy was tepid at MAGA events they attended in three states on 24–25 October, including a Turning Point USA get-out-the-vote event outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where speakers such as Rep. Dan Meuser "barely mentioned Trump". 2

Left · 1Hinton cited a mid-October 2026 poll in which only a third of US adults approved of Trump's job performance and 71% felt the country was on the wrong track, and blamed the Iran war, gas prices, inflation and affordability. 2 Left · 1Hinton said many loyalists still back Trump for three reasons: fear of the "radical left" and socialism, credit for immigration enforcement, and belief that Trump has delivered economic wins and has a long-term strategy; Hinton noted that some of the White House's claimed wins have been shown by fact-checkers to be exaggerated. 2 Left · 1Hinton concluded that the base probably will not be enough to prevent significant midterm losses, including control of the House, citing divisions within MAGA over the Iran war and more energised Democrats; this is the author's opinion, not a reported result. 2