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President Donald Trump's committed MAGA base has continued to support him through numerous missteps, but according to a new Washington Sun report, Republicans are learning directly that there is one issue that even they are turning on. According to the Wednesday report, GOP lawmakers returning to Washington, D.C., after the recent congressional recess have bad news about the MAGA die-hards back home: they are sick of Trump's war with Iran and "want answers" about when it will end. Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican whose reelection bid was derailed by Trump interference, spoke to the Sun about what he has heard from voters back home. “They don’t like it,” Cassidy explained. “Even the people that love the president don’t like it.” Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and another target of Trump's revenge endorsement campaign, expressed similar sentiments, telling the Sun that voters remain frustrated about the president's poorly explained motivations for the costly war. “If the president was clear on what the objectives were that we were trying to achieve, I think they would be more patient,” Cornyn said. “But in the absence of that, I think there’s just confusion.” Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who opted to retire next year rather than face Trump's wrath, described the war as "a top-three campaign issue in North Carolina, where the large military and veteran population has kept the war’s human cost at the forefront." "Voters remain most focused on the economy, he said, but the war’s duration has made the lack of measurable progress harder to ignore," the report detailed. Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, said that his constituents are losing patience with the conflict, especially after administration officials said that it would be wrapped up in a matter of weeks. “Most of them thought it would be quick in and out, similar to Venezuela, and that wasn’t the case,” Rounds explained. “It’s time to be clear on the strategic objectives and start measuring results,” Tillis added. “And that’s not something that we’ve had since they started the conflict. You just can’t have some throwaway statement saying it’s going to end just after the election. The American people are smarter than that.” Trump and Vice President JD Vance have recently claimed that the conflict with Iran should be wrapped up just after Election Day, a claim that comes as gas prices have once again started to creep up to historic levels. The Sun noted that, privately, Vance and other Trump officials have warned that Iran is likely to resist ending the war for the rest of his second term.

On Wednesday, Newsweek published a new map charting President Donald Trump’s disapproval rating in the country’s top farm states, and it offers a “major warning sign for Republicans” as the economic situation continues to deteriorate with the midterms looming. With diesel prices hitting historic highs due to Trump’s war with Iran, farmers who make up a key part of the GOP coalition are overwhelmingly negative on the president’s leadership. As Newsweek explains, “Rising diesel prices could have critical impacts for farmers, who rely on diesel to power agricultural equipment. Rising prices could also drive up transportation costs across the agricultural industry. Rising diesel prices stem from disruptions to oil and fuel shipments in the Middle East amid the United States' war in Iran, which began earlier this year. For Republicans, there is a political risk if farmers, a core part of the Republican base that helped elect Trump in 2016 and 2024, abandon the party or sit out the midterms due to frustration over the impact. Rising prices come just weeks before the November midterms, and Democrats hope to expand the electoral battleground into more conservative states like Iowa and Kansas, where diesel's impact could be felt most acutely.” Per the Census of Agriculture, 10 states lead in agricultural sales, including California, Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois, Kansas, North Carolina, Indiana, and Wisconsin. These states run the gamut in terms of political leanings, from reliably blue California, to purple Wisconsin and North Carolina, to typically deep-red Texas and Nebraska. But Newsweek has bad news for the GOP: “Trump’s approval was in the negatives in all of those states except for Kansas, where he remained slightly above water.” Yes, even in Texas, where Trump’s disapproval rating is approaching 60 percent. These findings come as diesel prices hit a record high on Wednesday, increasing to $6.3103 per gallon. According to Newsweek, “Prices averaged $5.9424 one week earlier, $5.4460 one month earlier and $3.7008 one year earlier. Regular gas prices have also increased to $4.3672 per gallon.” These rising diesel costs drive up expenses across nearly every aspect of the farming industry, and also increase costs for the trucks, trains, and ships that move agricultural products across the supply chain. And as Newsweek reports, farmers have begun speaking out about the problem. Jason Kurtz, a farmer who voted for Trump, told Fortune that "cash-strapped" farms were struggling due to skyrocketing diesel costs and have been forced to make cuts just to make it through harvest. "We have to harvest," he said. "We have to run the machines. We have to use the diesel, so it cuts into our bottom line." According to Newsweek, this situation has made midterm races in the farming states of Iowa, Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, and North Carolina unusually competitive this election cycle as disapproval of Trump’s handling of the economy and other matters has grown. “Overall,” writes Newsweek, “Trump’s approval rating stood at -26 points in the latest Civiqs poll, with 60 percent disapproving of him and 34 percent approving as of Wednesday.”

On Wednesday, Fox News shared some bad news for Republican midterm chances. According to the network, President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with Canada will hurt five states in particular – all of which are key battleground states. “Billions of dollars in U.S. exports are exposed to the northern neighbor's retaliatory tariffs that target American goods across a range of industries,” reports Fox. “The outcome? Costs are expected to continue rising for U.S. businesses and consumers in the weeks leading to the must-win midterms.” To better understand how the situation would play out, Fox spoke with David Clement, policy director of the free market nonprofit Consumer Choice Center, who explained, "American manufacturers or American businesses who rely on Canadian inputs are going to start to feel the pain right in the lead up to going to the ballot box.” He specified that Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are among the states most exposed to negative fallout, due to their high levels of trade with Canada and the goods targeted by the tariffs. "Ohio is by far the most vulnerable state in terms of exposure from the Canadian retaliatory tariffs," Clement said, estimating roughly $2.3 billion in exports to Canada are exposed. He noted machinery, transportation products, minerals, and metals as major sources of that vulnerability. In Michigan, Fox went on, the impact is particularly evident in the auto industry, where supply chains are deeply intertwined with neighboring Ontario. "Most Americans don’t know that a single component on a U.S.-assembled vehicle can cross the border upwards of eight times before it’s actually completed," Clement said. "When you are tariffing automotive parts going across the border each way, it really gums up the very intertwined supply chain for cars between Michigan and Ontario." Those costs, he asserted, will trickle down to consumers. Fox notes that Pennsylvania also faces significant exposure. According to Clement, roughly 25 percent of the state's exports go to Canada, much of it machinery and equipment, putting just under $1.8 billion in exports at risk. Clement also argued that even if Democrats win control of Congress during the midterms, the trade war likely won’t end anytime soon due to the legislative hurdles that impede lawmakers’ ability to reverse presidential trade policy. Still, Clement asserted that the timing could play a big role in the midterms, as the impacts of the tariffs are already being felt. "Cost of living, cost of goods, cost of doing business is such an important factor for Americans who are going to be casting a ballot," he said.

Anthony Scaramucci rarely has nice things to say about his former boss, but in a new interview with The i Paper, he revealed one world leader he considers "dumber" than his former boss, President Donald Trump. Scaramucci previously served as White House communications director during Trump's first term, and was infamously fire just 10 days into the job. He has since emerged as a vocal critic of the president and his political movement, frequently attacking him in the media and endorsing his opponents. On Wednesday, The i Paper published a new interview with Scaramucci where, among other things, he touched on the United Kingdom's own far-right political movement, led by Nigel Farage and the Reform Party, which has been gaining momentum in recent electoral cycles. Scaramucci said that he recognized a lot of "Trumpian" elements in Farage and his supporters, but also called him a "dumber version of Trump," explaining that he lacks some of the essential tools and traits that helped his former boss ascend to power twice. “He has Trump’s guile and shamelessness, and he’s got Trump’s corruptibility," Scaramucci told the outlet. "But Trump is smart. He got to the American presidency twice. Farage doesn’t have the political instincts Trump has, he doesn’t have the bombast and the flair. In 2016, Trump had almost 100 per cent name recognition. Farage doesn’t have that.” Elsewhere in the interview, Scaramucci was pressed about Trump's evident mental decline, having once observed that the president appears to be "losing it, mentally." The ex-official said that, in his estimation, the common theory about dementia is "B.S.," and suggested that the power afforded to him by the presidency has done more to corrupt his mind. “Has he declined? We’re all declining,” he explained. “There’s also the imperial nature of the presidency; the majesty, the power, the pomp, which has also changed him. Obama said it better than me: The presidency, if you’re a good guy coming into the presidency, you can magnify your good guyness. If you’re a bad guy coming into the presidency, guess what? It’s going to magnify your bad guyness.” Scaramucci also supported the idea that the presidency was a lifelong goal for Trump, and dismissed the idea some have put forward that he was spurred into politics after he was publicly ridiculed by Barack Obama in 2011. He added that Trump's relentless drive to force himself on the world is the result of a "massive chip on his shoulder." “I’m not a psychotherapist, but it’s very important for him to force himself into the world, right? He’s got to have his name plastered on every building. He’s got to have different brands associated with his name,” he said.

Since the end of World War Two, the United States has been the dominant nation in the world due to its military, economic and diplomatic power. But according to a leading global security expert, President Donald Trump has hastened the “American Age” to its end, and while a number of his policies have contributed to U.S. decline, none have exposed the country’s diminished capacity like the spiraling war with Iran. This is according to strategic studies professor Phillips P. O’Brien, who on Wednesday wrote in the Atlantic that Trump has brought the end of American dominance within “plain sight.” “In the past six months,” writes O’Brien, “America’s power — long exemplified by the world’s best warfighting equipment and most highly trained military personnel, a global network of bases and logistics systems, and military and diplomatic partnerships with all corners of the world — has proved insufficient to defeat Iran, a repressive, economically stagnant regime armed with cheap missiles and drones.” O’Brien asserts that while Trump did not erode U.S. capabilities on his own, his “war with Iran has revealed just how the underlying dynamics of global power have shifted — and just how much American might has decayed.” According to O’Brien, there is much evidence of this. For example, Iran no longer fears being overwhelmed militarily, and its cheap drones and missiles have destroyed military bases and air defense installations across the region. This has disrupted supply chains, reduced U.S. military presence, and led to a major drop in morale. Now the U.S. has outright abandoned key military sites across the Middle East. When one service member asked Admiral Daryl Caudle about retrieving personal items from a major base in Bahrain, Caudle admitted, “We’re not getting back in there anytime soon. I just want to be completely honest with that.” All of this has prompted the U.S. military to “reconsider” its presence in the Gulf entirely. O’Brien notes that these issues have resulted in a cascading effect, writing, “To maintain its military effort against Iran, the United States has had to strip the western Pacific of vital equipment. The Trump administration finally relieved the Abraham Lincoln last month; taking its place in the Arabian Sea was USS George Washington, which is normally based in Japan. Its normal task is to discourage military action by China — a deterrence that is now greatly weakened.” The war has also depleted stockpiles of weapons that are essential to deterring China and Russia, while declining manufacturing capacity in the U.S. has made it impossible to catch back up. In the past, says O’Brien, the U.S. could rely on allies to amplify its own power, but no longer. Trump “perceives governments that have followed American leadership for decades as free riders, annoyances, even hindrances,” and has done everything he can to disrupt these vital diplomatic ties. He’s withdrawn military support for Europe, launched a trade war with Canada, and brushed off South Korea, and as a result, all of these allies are now looking for security and economic solutions that exclude the United States. What’s more, there may be no turning back. According to O’Brien, “Even if the United States tries to revert to more of its earlier way of doing business, recent events suggest that its global reach will decrease.” In any case, U.S. decline has gone from being almost unthinkable to starkly apparent. “As recently as February, few experts would have predicted that the United States — a global colossus for more than 80 years — would end up so hamstrung by Iran.” In the face of this disaster, however, O’Brien says it’s impossible to avoid drawing an obvious conclusion: “The American age has come to an end.”