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Donald Trump said in South Carolina while campaigning for Darline Graham:

And the problem that we have is they say that Trump does great when he's on the ballot.

But when he's not on the ballot, his people don't come and they don't vote for senators, congressmen, and other Republicans.

And that these people they're running, they're great, but if Trump isn't actually on the ballot, so what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I'm on the ballot. Just come and vote.

It's so important.

So just say that I'm on the ballot and one more time you got to say it and you got to come out and vote.

Trump made variations of this same pitch over and over again in every red state that he visited over the past month. Trump begged voters to pretend like he was on the ballot.

They did, and they are voting Republicans out of office at historic levels. Democrats have taken control of the House majority and the Senate majority.

Voters rejected Trump’s hand-picked Senate candidates in Texas, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Trump went to these states and campaigned for his chosen candidates, and they were all rejected.

However, according to Trump, the Republican drubbing is everyone else’s fault.

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Democrats have flipped four US Senate seats so far in the midterm election, and all three candidates were handpicked by Donald Trump, and they lost in red states.

Democrats have taken back control of the Senate after winning Ohio and Kansas, with races in Iowa and Alaska leaning their way.

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The writing was on the wall for Republicans early, as they were only able to win both the gubernatorial and US Senate elections in deep red Florida by very narrow margins.

Without Trump starting a war in Iran and launching a trade war, the Senate map would have looked vastly different for Republicans. Without Trump chasing off Republican incumbents in North Carolina and Texas due to personal vendettas, two Democratic Senate pickups might have stayed under Republican control.

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The nightmare scenario for Republican strategists wasn’t that a wave of Republicans would vote for Democratic candidates. That was never going to happen. The scenario that Republicans feared the most was a wave of votes for Democratic candidates and a decline in turnout for Republicans.

It is early, and there are hours left to go on election day, but so far, it looks like Republicans are having a turnout problem in several states.

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Let’s take a quick peek at a state that many analysts thought might be a turnout bellwether, and that is Virginia.

G. Elliot Morris posted on X:

Fresh E-Day turnout data in VA, courtesy of State Navigate, implies Dem **E Day voters** are voting at a rate about 9-10 percentage points higher than Republicans. This is on top of the Democratic lead in engaging early voters in the state.

If Democrats maintain this Election Day voting edge when combined with their early voting lead, the conditions will be set for a Democratic blowout in the state.

Let’s hop over to Arizona, where the ABC15 data guru Garrett Archer posted on X:

Election day ballot types so far in Maricopa as of 9am. Turnout is running under 2022.

…

Here are some comparisons to 2024 and 2022. The Republican advantage it’s similar to 2024. Volume remains below 2022.

…

The decline in election day turnout is almost exclusively on the GOP side so far. Whoever is in charge of the button should start thinking about breaking the glass.

The Election Day turnout declines are coming from one side. Republicans aren’t showing up to vote.

Then there is Georgia.

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Donald Trump has some weird ideas about how to get out the vote for Republicans. Trump tried to rally Republicans by talking about the backside of an Ohio U.S. senator. He gave a speech on election eve that consisted of 25 minutes of talking about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, grass, and reviving a debunked conspiracy theory about vandalism.

Trump has also called his midterm election campaign rallies crap and complained about doing them and campaigning for Republican candidates.

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The president has likely cost Republicans votes in each state that he has visited, as his antics serve as a constant reminder that Donald Trump is the problem in America right now, and voting for any candidate with an (R) beside their name is a vote for Trump.

Republicans are already blaming Trump for their likely loss of control of Congress in today’s midterm election, which is odd considering that they are the party that made the choice to allow a 34-time convicted felon who tried to overthrow the government to be their nominee in 2024.

Just when you may have thought that Trump could not do anything else to help Democrats win, the president showed up on Fox News to rally the Republican troops by threatening to leave the country.

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Democrats are gonna win the House. They only need to flip four seats. They could flip four seats in Pennsylvania and take control of the House. In fact, they probably will flip four seats in Pennsylvania. They could flip three seats in Iowa. They're gonna gain multiple seats in California, even though I expect the House to be long decided by the time California rolls around. There, there are just numerous states. Ohio, they could make surprising, they could make surprising gains in Ohio. There, there are just lots and lots of possible opportunities and options on the map for Democrats. And conversely, there are very few areas for Republican pickups.

There are some from the gerrymandered districts, but being that the Texas gerrymander did not work out like they thought it would in Texas, the Republican gerrymander, because Republicans based their gerrymander on Hispanic voters, and the idea that the movement in Hispanic voters in 2024 was permanent, or at least would last for more than one election cycle, and it turned out that it didn't, and Hispanic voters have swung more strongly to the left in less than two years,

Democrats have been feeling good about winning back the House since January 2025. They knew this wasn't going to last for Republicans, and then as soon as Republicans abdicated any sort of oversight, responsibility, or ability they then knew that they were almost a shoo-in to win back the House.

What To Expect In The Senate

My map ends up with a 53-47 Democratic majority in the Senate. That's my most likely scenario. Maine flips, Ohio flips, North Carolina flips. I think that's a given. Texas flips and Kansas flips. I don't feel as confident in Iowa. You'll see Michigan is still blue because I think I think Mike Rogers is cooked. I think Mike Rogers has been cooked for a while. I think the Trump rally is what did it.

My Senate Map:

You'll notice Ohio flips because, again, I think Jon Husted's been John Husted's never really been leading that race. That Sharrod Brown's been winning for months now, and I don't think that changes on Election Day. Minnesota, Republicans never really had a chance in Minnesota. Michelle Tafoya is not a good candidate. That was fool's gold. North Carolina's been done since Roy Cooper entered that race.

The day Roy Cooper entered that election was the day it was over. Roy Cooper is a really good governor. He's a really good public servant. He's gonna be very popular, and he's gonna be an amazing senator for North Carolina. Georgia, Republicans thought they had a chance in Georgia, but Jon Ossoff put them away very quickly. It got to the point where last month Republicans pulled out of Georgia, and then Democrats pulled out of Georgia too Kansas. Kansas is really interesting because Adam Hamilton is a really good candidate. Roger Marshall has been pretty much exposed in this election by having to run against somebody. And Marshall is one of those cases in Senate races where he's actually embraced Trump more tightly, even though Trump is unpopular.

And then what really decided and made up my mind on Hamilton wasn't just the polling or the turnout or any of the numbers, it was really that ad that Marshall released on his own a couple of days ago that he went to war about the law- lawsuits about his med- him suing his patients for delinquent bills. And he did it behind his campaign's back and never consulted his campaign. So yeah, that, that told me he's toast.

That pretty much did it for me on that one. You'll notice Iowa, I wouldn't be surprised if Iowa flipped. I didn't color in-- I don't think I colored in Mississippi here. Maybe it's still red. Mississippi, I think Democrats get within single digits. Florida, I think, is just too Republican, and Angie Nixon is not the right candidate to flip that seat. Doug Jolly, however, I wouldn't be surprised if Doug Jolly beat Byron Donalds in the governor's race. That wouldn't be surprising at all.

Texas, Talarico. I'm gonna say this, and people may disagree, but I believe Texas was doomed the minute Trump booted Cornyn from the ticket and put Paxton in there. I believe Ken Paxton is another one, just like Roger Marshall, another Republican candidate who has been exposed. These are elected officials who have survived for a long time in heavily Republican states because they've never seriously been challenged. Marshall isn't as corrupt as Ken Paxton, who actually gives Donald Trump a run for his money. But they're both flawed. They're both running against Democrats, who have a religious background, and that's not-- I won't say it's totally different than the Republican- for the Democratic Party, but it's not totally different. Raphael Warnock is the template, and look how successful he's been in Georgia, Reverend Warnock. So that's how that's happening, and I think there's a lot of parallels between what's happening in Texas and what's happening in Kansas.

Iowa. I still have Iowa red because I just don't know if Josh Turick is gonna get over the line and win. I, that could be close, but I don't know if Turek can just have just enough. But if there's a huge blue wave, don't be surprised if that 53-47 Democratic advantage becomes a 54 to 46 and Democrats win Iowa And also, I wouldn't be terribly shocked if things get really big, if theyf we end up seeing a nine-vote margin for Democrats and they pick up one more.

South Carolina. South Carolina, Darlene Graham is horrible As somebody who spent a little bit of time in South Carolina, it's a really heavy load for Dr. Annie Andrews to win that race. She's gonna come close. If things go really well for Democrats, we could mark that blue, and there goes your 55-45 Democratic advantage. If that happens, Democrats are set up probably to control the Senate for several election cycles, 'cause you don't wipe out that kind of advantage in one cycle.

Democrats Should Not Be Afraid To Expect To Win

Republicans always think every election is stolen because they expect to win. Trump is going to claim that this election was stolen if Republicans lose the House and Senate, so Democrats need to be assertive and expect to win.

Democrats will win the House and are in a good position to win the Senate.

What Democrats should expect from a blue wave victory.

Don’t hope for victory; expect it.

That is the way Trump will be overcome.

What are you expecting on Election Night? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Republicans have desperately needed leadership and a midterm election message that appeals to voters. Instead, they got a mentally declining 80-year-old felon ranting about reflecting pools and grass for 25 minutes.

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I will not recap everything that Trump rambled on about during those 25 minutes, but his message to America was an attempt to blame “vandals” for breaking the Reflecting Pool instead of himself.

Trump said:

 Washington, D.C. is now, yeah. Washington, D.C. went from one of the most unsafe places in this country to one of the safest cities in the country. So we decided to get involved with the Reflecting Pool once and for all for America's 250th anniversary, and it was our goal to open it temporarily for the July 4th weekend.

That was the big weekend where we had so many incredible things take place, the UFC fight, and so many other things. We wanted to get it all open by a certain time, and our goal was July 4th.

We got it open a little sooner than that and we were gonna close it then and redo the pipes because the pipes are very old and in bad shape, but we wouldn't have been able to do that. So we closed it, and we started to do... Then we had we opened it quickly, and there was great vandalism with slashing. We have pictures of it. We have photographs of it.

In fact I w- must say, Jesse Watters of Fox did a whole long piece on it and it's-- it was sad to watch because the vandals really went to town. A lot of people tried to protect the vandals.

But we got it done. We opened it just now f- with the pipes. The pipes now are totally renovated. They're brand-new pipes put in, and the pipes being very important in terms of the algae and other things. And it's a complete job, and we're very proud of it. We got really a... Got it done for a small fra- fraction of what the Obama and Biden spent on it.

They spent a tremendous amount. They never got it done. That's why we had to do it. So we fixed the leaks. We resurfaced the bottom in a, a beautiful dark blue, very dark blue. They call it American flag blue, but it's very dark. And if you had a regular blue, like I personally love the lighter color blue, but then you wouldn't have any reflecting.

Worried about inflation, gas prices, can’t afford to live? The Republican Party is not the place for you, because this president is busy protecting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool from vandals that his own DOJ wrote in a legal filing don’t exist.

Video:

Trump did actually talk about the midterms for a little bit, and it was where he may have ended the GOP majorities in the House and Senate.

Trump Claims No Responsibility For Looming GOP Wipeout

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The signs are all pointing in one direction as it relates to the results of the midterm election. Democrats are more energized and more organized; the president’s poll numbers are horrid, and the mood in the country is angry.

None of these dynamics work in favor of the incumbent party that is currently in power.

Republicans aren’t facing headwinds. They are running against a Category 5 hurricane of rage, and that storm makes landfall tomorrow.

The GOP has gone from watching the forecast and hoping that the storm misses them to boarding up the windows and doors while trying to ride it out.

It was a storm that was self-caused and entirely preventable.

Republicans had seen and benefited from voter storms like this as recently as 2024, when voters who were angry about the economy and inflation unloaded on Democrats and elected Republicans.

Voters wanted one thing. They wanted the economy fixed, which was the one thing that Trump had zero interest in doing.

When Trump bailed on inflation and the economy, he set the storm in motion, but Republicans could have chosen not to follow Him and made voters' top concern a priority.

Instead, they followed Trump off the cliff, and now they are blaming him for their loss.

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Rep. Haley Stevens’s very messy, very public unraveling that included her flipping her endorsement in the Michigan Senate race from Democrat Abdul El-Sayed to Mike Rogers might have been a game-changer, but not in the way that Republicans were hoping.

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Stevens may not have brought any Democrats with her to support Rogers, but she certainly gave El-Sayed a huge boost in fundraising.

According to the El-Sayed campaign, “In the final sprint to Election Day, the Abdul for Senate campaign is closing out the race with a record-breaking fundraising surge, bringing in more than $2.4 million on Sunday, November, 1—delivering its biggest fundraising day yet.”

The windfall for El-Sayed was because Haley Stevens is holding on to a personal grudge. Reports suggest that grudge stems from Stevens not being invited to an event AOC and El-Sayed held in her district, and from not being invited to the church event with El-Sayed and Rep. James Clyburn on Sunday.

It appears that, because Stevens refused to answer the question when asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, she decided to endorse and appear with Mike Rogers after not being invited to the El-Sayed event.

Instead of turning the election on its head and giving Rogers a boost, the endorsement backfired and may put El-Sayed over the top.

One Of The Biggest Days Before Election Blunders in U.S. History

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This isn’t what the Mike Rogers campaign and Republicans expected when they got Rep. Haley Stevens to endorse Rogers at the last minute in the Michigan US Senate election.

It appears that the Stevens endorsement has already backfired and brought Democrats together around Abdul El-Sayed.

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According to Politico, El-Sayed raised $1.2 million in four hours after Stevens endorsed Rogers.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin is a centrist Democratic US Senator from Michigan. Slotkin is also regarded as one of the two Democrats in the state, the other being Gov. Gretchen Whitmer who can shift Democratic voters in the state, so when Slotkin posted on X about Stevens endorsing Rogers, it carried a lot of weight.

Slotkin posted:

Any day of the week, Michiganders care more about the price of gas or groceries than the daily political drama or the last-minute moves by politicians for the TV cameras.

I was knocking doors in Sterling Heights yesterday and to a house, those folks were hyper-focused on how expensive everything in their life seems to be, and they’re desperately worried — often in tears — about the future for their kids.

And it is for that reason that I have avoided commenting on the actions of Congresswoman Haley Stevens until now. But there is simply too much at stake.

We have to be focused on the mission at hand.

That mission is to put a check on President Trump in the U.S. House and Senate, and do the hard work of saving the middle class. So anyone who makes an election this important about themselves, and not Michiganders and our democracy, should think hard about whether they are serving the greater good.

People outside of Michigan sometimes have a hard time understanding our politics. And in moments like these, I get it. But here’s the simple truth: The election on Tuesday is bigger than any one person. It’s about who we are as a country and the values that most represent us. Michigan elects fighters, and we will elect Abdul El-Sayed on November 3.

At the time of publication, no other Democrats have followed Rep. Stevens and endorsed Rogers, but there are some indications that Democrats are giving to El-Sayed in a big way.

The Stevens Endorsement Is Backfiring

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Donald Trump did not want to do the Sunday rallies in Iowa and Kansas.

At his rally in Florida on Friday, Trump threw a fit and said:

I thought this was going to be my last one. I thought this was it. I thought I could relax. 28 days in a row of this crap is lot. It’s a lot. My voice is about operating at about 49.2%. They called me in Iowa, and they called me in Kansas, and they said, ‘Sir, would it be possible to do a little rally of about 50,000 people each?’ And I said, ‘Does it matter?’ They said, ‘We just want to make sure that we win.’

Trump has been complaining about his travel, but the rallies were put back on the schedule after he looked like he was quitting on Republicans.

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Bad optics made Trump come to Iowa, and the optics were even worse when he got there.

Protesters who were kicked out were reportedly chanting “F—k you” at the president.

Trump was trying to claim credit for the rally that he canceled and complained about holding:

 I said, "What about Iowa? The people are incredible." And they said, "We like that.”

He was then interrupted by protesters apparently chanting F—k you at him.

The protesters were kicked out and Trump said:

Video:

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American politics has not seen a sore loser this big since Donald Trump tried to overthrow the government after the 2020 election.

Haley Stevens could not get over losing the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan to Abdul El-Sayed. For days, she has been publicly criticizing El-Sayed for ads that he has nothing to do with.

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Stevens made her crash-out official on Sunday by endorsing the sinking Republican campaign of Mike Rogers.

Stevens appeared with Rogers at a church in Detroit, and afterward spoke to the media, where she made it clear that she can’t get over her primary loss.

Rep. Stevens is claiming that she is still a Democrats and supports Democrats, “ I think that Chuck Schumer is gonna become the majority leader, you know? And I think that there are incredible Democrats and incredible activity taking place across this country.”

Video:

In her next breath, Stevens let loose with her bitterness and personal grudge, “ I stood with my party, and I was booed off the stage, and, you know, it was violently shouted down. You know, I was up there with other Democrats. Those people who were on that stage with me, they're gonna make their choice. The ballot box is still very personal and, and private. And today, in a moment of faith, tied to my faith and to this great city... By the way, I'm standing here with a guy named Mike Rogers.”

Haley Stevens Has No Future In The Democratic Party After Endorsing Mike Rogers

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Republicans are about to get blown out in the midterm election, so the corporate media that nudged the electorate towards Donald Trump in 2024 is about to be proven very wrong.

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Trump’s return to the White House has not been the license to print money and profit driver that the big media corporations were hoping for, but the inherent bias of these corporations due to being overwhelmingly owned by people who donate to and support Trump, means that there is often an inclination to tilt the coverage toward the right no matter what the people in front of the camera may personally believe.

The biggest media companies in America have based their coverage on the inaccurate idea that the United States is a center-right nation, so when an election looks to be moving toward the left, they will look for stories that will give the right a chance, because election drama is very profitable for the media, and less drama means fewer viewers, which equals less money added to the corporate bottom line.

Even though the Republican Party under Donald Trump is a raging dumpster fire, it is Democrats who get hit with the division and drama narrative.

In Michigan, Hayley Stevens fed the media what they were looking for when she criticized Abdul El-Sayed for ads that he has nothing to do with, and tried to revive the Democratic Senate primary divisions in Michigan.

Kristen Welker pounced on Stevens’ comments, and they were her first question to Rep. Jamie Raskin on Meet The Press.

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Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC doesn’t seem to want to be a senator. Much like the man who put her in office, Donald Trump, she has complained about having to campaign for votes.

Graham is unqualified and only seems to have gotten the Senate appointment because her brother Lindsey died while in office. The problem, besides her distaste for campaigning, is that Darline Graham isn’t qualified to be a US Senator and looks to be in way over her head.

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Republicans are outraged that they have had to throw resources into South Carolina to boost Graham.

Darline Graham also represents the sort of nepotism and elitism that Americans are sick and tired of under Donald Trump.

Some Republicans in South Carolina are concerned that Darline Graham is unqualified and not conservative enough. As a campaigner, Graham has been lackluster, as any unqualified novice might be.

When Lindsey Graham was still alive, Dr. Annie Andrews wasn’t given much of a chance to flip the seat, but all that has changed because of the political environment and the weakness of Darline Graham as a candidate.

With three days to go until Election Day, Annie Andrews appeared on MS NOW and spoke about the South Carolina election.

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Donald Trump canceled his final two rallies, which were meant to help Republicans hold endangered US Senate seats in Kansas and Iowa. The cancellations came at the same time that it was reported that the president had been complaining about his travel schedule in the month of October.

The White House has sold Trump as this tireless ball of energy who never stops working. The reality is that Trump barely works 3-4 days a week and spends nearly every weekend or long weekend at one of his private clubs at the expense of taxpayers.

Trump is also eighty years old and has developed some health issues.

Until the midterm election campaign, Trump’s rallies had virtually vanished during his second administration. Trump would reportedly complain about traveling to help any Republican in an election because he isn’t on the ballot, so he doesn’t care.

Trump has made it clear that he doesn’t care about the results of the midterm election, because he will still be president, even if Republicans get swept out of power elsewhere.

It all finally broke loose as Trump held what was supposed to be his final rally on his way to Florida for a weekend at his private club, and the president’s little fit may have cost Republicans more Senate seats in the Midwest.

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If the New York Times report is true, the Mary Peltola campaign did something dumb and unnecessary, but not illegal. The two Dan Sullivans ballot controversy and the role the Peltola campaign might have played in recruiting a second Dan Sullivan were breathlessly treated by elites like the Times and the White House as a major scandal.

The problem is that the two candidates with the same trick is an ancient trick that is used in every single election cycle.

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In fact, Republicans are using it themselves in 2026.

There is a left-wing candidate in Nevada named Danielle Ford, who happens to also be running for governor in Nevada, and coincidentally shares the same name as the Democratic nominee.

Republicans have been trying to confuse voters in Nevada into voting for the other Danielle Ford.

However, the DOJ has not yet opened an investigation into this case.

In my view, it is a low-brow thing to do, but it isn’t illegal.

The US Attorney for Alaska held a press conference on Friday to discuss the criminal probe into the two Dan Sullivans and the Alaska Senate election lawsuit.

It was a total faceplant.

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Republicans have known for more than a year that the 2026 midterm election could be bad for them. The House was going to be hard to keep, and the hope was that the GOP could turn control of the House into a partisan turnout rock fight that would let them maintain a small majority.

That hope vanished when Donald Trump juiced up inflation with tariffs, and then turbo-charged it by starting a new war in the Middle East.

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The range of seats that Democrats could win has continued to expand. The map started off with 18 swing districts that Republicans almost universally carried in 2024. That is where the baseline of a small Democratic majority started.

Since the Iran war, the number of House districts and Senate seats that Trump’s policies put in jeopardy has exploded. The map has gone from districts and Senate seats that Trump won by 5 points being up for grabs to Republicans rushing to shore up districts and states that were Trump +15 to +20.

Voter anger is the oxygen that is fueling the Democratic gains. This election is about two issues that are intertwined. Voters are most angry about corruption and costs.

Republicans are now facing a wipeout, and they are trying to get a lifeline from the party’s leadership, which is funded by billionaires.

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Donald Trump has been complaining both privately and publicly about his midterm rally schedule. Trump has actually been complaining about his travel schedule since he was 80 years old and seems to hate traveling to do these rallies, as he has reportedly questioned why he is doing all of this traveling when he isn’t on the ballot.

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The travel has clearly had an impact on the president. Not only have his rally crowds gotten smaller in the red states that he is visiting, but his speeches have become more disjointed and at times nonsensical.

For instance, in South Carolina he promised that a Democratic midterm election victory would bring about another Great Depression.

Trump said, “ If Democrats win, you will have a 1929-style economic depression because that’s how bad their policies are. You’ll end up in a depression. If that happens, that will happen. If the Republicans win, you’ll each have $5,000 in your pocket and economic success for our country like we have never seen before, like what’s going on.”

Trump will still be president after the midterm election. If there is a depression, it will be his fault. Democrats in Congress can’t change economic policies without his cooperation.

Plus, Republicans already rejected his $5,000 bribe and said that it won’t be happening. Americans would have a better chance of getting those checks if Democrats won than if Republicans win.

Trump is clearly toast, but when a reporter asked if the president was canceling an upcoming trip to Kansas because he was tired of traveling, the president blew up.

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The reason why Donald Trump is terrible on the campaign trail as an incumbent goes beyond his inability to admit a mistake. Trump’s only style of politics is to behave like an outsider and campaign on how terrible everything is.

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It is a strategy that worked in 2016 and 2024, but it has failed when Trump is the incumbent, and the person who makes things terrible is him.

At a rally for Darline Graham, in theory, this rally was for Graham, but she was barely given any time; the president decided to pair his effort to buy votes by promising $5,000 if Republicans keep control of Congress, with the threat of a Great Depression if Democrats take control of Congress.

Trump said:

 If Democrats win, you will have a 1929-style economic depression because that's how bad their policies are. You'll end up in a depression. If that happens, that will happen. If the Republicans win, you'll each have $5,000 in your pocket and economic success for our country like we have never seen before, like what's going on.

And remember, just recently I gave all members of the military seventeen hundred and seventy-six dollars. Remember that? The military. Less than a year ago. And everyone said, "Oh, it couldn't, it can't be done." It was seventeen seventy-five. I said, "One dollar more," and we made it seventeen seventy-six. Can you believe it? One dollar more. I said, "That's a strange number. Let's do a dollar more."

Trump has evolved from trying to bribe voters to trying to scare them with a depression.

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Donald Trump’s deal with Putin to fund Russia’s war against Ukraine by importing illegal Russian diesel has hit a big snag.

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American companies want nothing to do with it.

The Washington Sun reported:

U.S. firms don’t want to take on the risks that would come with buying diesel from the Russians, in part because congressional Democrats say that Trump’s order violates sanctions laws, industry officials and energy analysts told The Washington Sun.

…

“Moscow and Washington are still scrambling to find takers, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the cargoes ultimately head to Brazil,” Rapidan Energy Group said in a note to clients.

“They’re being very strongly encouraged by both Moscow and Washington to take these cargoes, including with steep discounts, but they’re encountering a wall of resistance based on reputation and legal risks,” one analyst said.

The total amount of diesel being imported from Russia over the next three months is nine days worth of US consumption.

The legal risk to companies and individuals that buy the diesel is exponentially greater than the reward of a little bit of cheap fuel, but it is congressional Democrats and their soon-to-be newfound power that is already acting as a check on Trump.

Democrats Warned Oil Execs They Could Face Prison For Buying The Illegal Russian Diesel

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When the president knows that the size of the room he is playing in is really small, he preemptively makes up a number. Within the first five to ten minutes of his remarks, Trump will comment on how packed the room in Ohio is and how the “fake news” will report that the crowd was small.

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Reporters report that the crowd is small when the crowd is small.

There is no bias involved. It is a matter of looking at a room or asking a local official about venue capacity.

Long gone are the days when Trump would fill 20,000-seat venues, or even back in 2016 when he rallied in football stadiums.

Trump’s approval ratings are at an all-time low. Fewer Americans are identifying as MAGA.

The president still has lots of ride-or-die supporters, but those numbers are shrinking as many Republicans have tired of his act, and the room he is playing in Ohio is a new low.

Is This Rock Bottom For Trump’s Attendance?

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