Page A4From§Eachthe early evening edition — 2 October 2026
As it ran on the front
Call it what the campaign would prefer you call it: a disciplined, state-by-state midterm operation, running exactly on schedule. The schedule says Alabama. On Friday the president rallied in Mobile alongside Senator Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor, and state Representative Rhett Marques, down the ballot — a ticket in a state Republicans are not defending, because there is nothing there to defend. That is strategy. That is — say that again — that is the one stop on the map where showing up changes nothing at all.
The polling is what sent him there, supposedly to steady the ship. On September 21st, Reuters/Ipsos put his approval at 32 percent, the lowest of his second term and, by Reuters's own measure, the lowest of his political life. A week later the Wall Street Journal's survey had him at 37 percent, the lowest any president has polled that close to a midterm in the outlet's own history of asking. CBS News, reporting the same week, tied the slide to inflation and gas prices from the war with Iran. The president's response was that the polls are fake. A White House that confident does not usually need Mobile, Alabama. A White House that confident does not usually need Mobile, Alabama at all — which is the tell, not the applause line.…
…(cont) Because the money had already told the truth before the president did. The Senate Leadership Fund, the party's main super PAC, had set aside $71 million to elevate Michael Whatley in North Carolina, the seat Republicans actually need. It spent $30 million, then began pulling the rest back out — up to $10 million of it — and sent that money to Kansas instead, a seat suddenly worth defending that wasn't supposed to be in play. That is not trimming. That is a party moving its fire truck because the first house is already lost and the second one just caught.
So here is the operation, laid out in full: the polling is the worst on record, the party's own PAC is triaging a state it didn't expect to need defending, and the president's week went to neither state. It went to Alabama, which Republicans will carry regardless, and which needed exactly none of this. The networks called the Alabama trip a stop on a campaign blitz. Fine — it is a stop. It is a stop nowhere near either fire, in a week when the party's own checkbook told you precisely where those fires are.
“Here's the trick: when your own numbers go south, you don't go where the fight is, you go where the cameras love you and call it a blitz. The PAC moved the money to Kansas because they know where the real bleeding is — the President went to Alabama because that's where nobody can make him answer for it. That's not a campaign strategy, that's a man avoiding his own report card.”
“This is a disciplined, nationwide midterm push, energizing the base in every corner of the map — look, Alabama has voters too, they deserve a rally same as anybody. And the polling? The polling is fake, we've said that, it's — well, it's two different polls from two different outlets six days apart, both the worst of his term, so maybe not fake exactly, maybe just — bad. Timing. It's bad timing.”
Earlier in this story
The receipts
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
Senate GOP group pours millions into defending Kansas seatThe race for control of the Senate is changing in the final weeks before the midterms, with the GOP defending several traditionally red-leaning states.
Watch live coverage as President Donald Trump delivers campaign remarks for Republicans in Mobile, Alabama.
President Donald Trump will speak at a rally in Alabama on Friday at 7 p.m. as part of his tour boosting Republican candidates ahead of the midterm elections. Alongside the president will be Sen.
"We've got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt" - Trump promised it done "over a period of eight years", 31 March 2016 The Washington Post, 31 March 2016 interview
Trump continues midterms push in Alabama as his approval rating nears record low over economyPresident Trump continued his extended midterm campaign in support of fellow Republicans on Friday with a stop in deep-red Mobile, Alabama. Weijia Jiang has the details.
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections — MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking (August 2026) MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
Watch live: Trump rallies Alabama voters amid GOP midterm crunchPresident Trump will hit his next stop on the red-state campaign blitz Friday, rallying voters in Alabama as Republicans face a difficult final month before the midterms. Trump is expected to stump alongside Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who is running for governor, and other GOP candidates as the party looks to boost enthusiasm in…
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· As Iran War and Economic Struggles Persist, Trump Approval Rating Hits Record Low from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· High inflation, gas prices push Trump approval ratings down: "The polls are fake," he says from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Trump approval slips to historic low in Wall Street Journal survey from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Trump approval falls to all-time low in Reuters/Ipsos poll from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.