WASHINGTON DC – With one full week left before he meets his date with midterm destiny, President Donald Trump knows he is in trouble.
In one of his final fundraising pitches to supporters, a Saturday email blast came titled “Farewell President Trump” and included a picture of the Maga leader boarding a train and waving goodbye from a railway station’s platform.
“In just 1 week, we might have to say goodbye to each other forever,” the email warns. “Do not make me say goodbye,” urged the President, predicting that Republicans losing their majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate would leave him on the brink of departing the White House.
“One day 1, Democrats will file the Articles of Impeachment against me for the THIRD TIME. But this time they will have the votes – the votes to lock me out of the White House and throw away the key.”
Nothing in that fundraising plea is true. Democratic Party leaders remain skittish about the prospect of beginning impeachment investigations against the President, because without a two-thirds majority in the Senate they would have no way of securing a conviction at trial. Not even the most optimistic of Democratic strategists believes that the party will come close to that kind of landslide electoral outcome on 3 November – election day.
The “STAND WITH TRUMP” fundraiser is not the first of its kind. On 4 October the President warned supporters that his time in office might come to an end as a result of a Democratic Party triumph in the midterms. “This could be my final four weeks as President,” the email warned. It shared a “critical reflection” in which Trump claimed to have prayed over the elections’ outcome in the White House Rose Garden.
There is no evidence that Trump writes any of these emails himself. But they reflect a last-ditch Republican effort to get out the vote in the midterms by intimating that his presidency might end if Trump’s loyal grassroots supporters sit on their hands and stay home.
It also comes after recent campaign appearances by the President for Republican candidates in traditionally red states including Texas, Kansas and Ohio, an acknowledgement of serious fears that they could be ousted even in these Republican strongholds.
“If our people sit this one out, it is over. No second chance. No do-over,” the email thunders. It reflects growing concern in Republican circles that Trump’s plunging approval ratings and the country’s affordability crisis sparked by his unresolved war on Iran may lead to a massive enthusiasm gap between the committed determination of Democrats to show up at the polls and the disappointed apathy of many Republican supporters.
“Once they kick me out, they’ll reverse everything I’ve done to Make America Great Again over the past two years,” the latest email claims. It warns voters that “Borders will open again and criminal illegal aliens will flood into our country AGAIN…cities like Washington DC will roar with crime AGAIN…Social Security tax will go up to an all time high AGAIN…And this time the American dream might slip away for every young American and all future generations to come”.
In reality, the Democrats would be constrained in power, even if they win majorities in both houses of Congress. Trump, as President, will retain veto powers over any legislation they send to his desk, and it is highly unlikely that enough Republicans in the House and Senate would turn against him to provide the two-thirds majority needed in both chambers to override their use.
But after the midterms are over, Trump knows his political life is going to change rapidly. That’s partly due to Republican rivals who are now gargling in the wings, eager for their chance to take the party’s reins in the 2028 presidential election.
For almost a year, Vice President JD Vance has been indicating that he plans to discuss his own presidential aspirations with Trump once the midterms are over. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is already positioning himself for a presidential run, as evidenced by a speech that he made this month in front of the Acropolis in Athens calling for an “unapologetic pursuit of national power” and a rejection of “the average, the ordinary, the mediocre”.
Other potential candidates are likely to include Pete Hegseth, Trump’s cocksure Secretary of War. He may even welcome the Democrats’ anticipated investigation of his activities in office as he seeks to position himself as Trump’s authentic Maga successor.
The President himself is already offering a preview of what his presidency might look like after the votes are counted next month. His threat to launch intensive fresh air strikes on Iran could be the first chapter of his post-midterm presidency, and an indicator of his determination more broadly to go for broke.
Unless, of course, his fundraising email is trying to tell us all something, and he really does have a train ticket to convey him out of Washington in his breast pocket.