Trump’s revenge and retribution tour is hurting Americans and Republicans

While hardworking Americans battle soaring costs to feed their families, President Trump’s revenge and retribution tour against his political enemies continues with a vengeance. He fixates on President Biden autopens while parents lose sleep over price increases for groceries and health care for themselves and their families.  

Visions of Ebenezer Scrooge’s greed in “A Christmas Carol” will conjure up the ghosts of Trump’s heartless indifference to the suffering of financially hard-pressed families.

Trump is a wounded jungle beast that gets angrier the more it bleeds. He is primed for revenge, which only exacerbates his problems. His job rating is so low that it must rise significantly just to reach mediocre. But history doesn’t offer presidents much hope in improving their standing in the sixth year of a presidency.  

Insulting female reporters, striking out against immigrants and threatening a land war against Venezuela only prolongs his agony, Republican anguish and the nation’s suffering. The more time he spends on these distractions, the less energy and attention he devotes to fixing the economy, which is the public’s priority. 

The big polling news was the release of a national Gallup survey that had presidential approval at a near record low of 36 percent for any president in his second term.   

His grade for handling the economy is deep underwater. It would be wrong to describe his decline as free fall since it probably can’t fall much further. Hardly any Democrat approves of his presidency, very few political independents do.  

The only Americans who still support him are diehard MAGA minions and even some of them are getting antsy. Trump believes he can rely on his old standbys — crime and immigration — for live support but the public faults him on those issues too.

The Democratic overperformance in Tuesday’s special congressional election, in a crimson red Tennessee district, is a vivid illustration of public frustration with the state of the nation and Trump’s tenure. Trump won’t be on the ballot next November, so voters will target congressional Republicans to vent their spleen.

We’re a year away so the situation could change but right now GOP prospects are ugly. Approval for the Republican Congress hovers barely over single digits and their president’s job rating is in the toilet. This creates a toxic brew that could be poisonous for MAGA nation unless Trump and his cronies come up with a plan to fix the economy.  

Voters worried about feeding their families won’t wait long for Republicans to deliver. Trump may think that his hardcore right-wing base will bail Republicans out as it has in the past. But MAGA isn’t what it used to be. Even Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has jumped the sinking Trump ship. 

His job rating probably can’t get any lower, but the problem might even get worse for congressional Republicans, who face a tough election a year from now. God only knows what the impact of the eventual full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files will be.  

Even more damming is the likelihood of massive increases in the price of health insurance premiums if Congress fails to reauthorize Affordable Care Act subsidies within the next two weeks. ObamaCare was unpopular at its inception, but it has become a prized public possession as the life saving program has proved its worth over time. Trump and congressional Republicans kill off the Affordable Care Act at their own mortal peril.

Trump has been extremely critical of ObamaCare. But he has never released his own health care plan, even though he promised to do it 10 years ago when he began his first presidential campaign.

He has failed to deliver because he is caught between a rock and a hard place. He apparently would like to extend the Affordable Care Act temporarily to provide breathing room for Congress to come up with an alternative. But the Republican Congress has absolutely no appetite for keeping ObamaCare alive.

If Trump and congressional Republicans majorities fail to act quickly to this looming crisis, insurance premiums will skyrocket, the public will explode in anger and the Republican majorities will become minorities.  

A Democratic House majority would clear the way for aggressive investigation of the corruption in the White House that has run rampant and cost taxpayers billions of their hard-earned dollars. Then the excrement will really hit the oscillating cooling device. 

The impending crisis in the cost of health care offers Democrats a great deal of opportunity if they stay united and remain on message. If Trump’s approval rating continues to be toxic, my party can win the midterms on an anti-Trump cost of living message. 

But to win the White House two years later, the party must develop bold and innovative plans to fight high costs in food and health care and repair the ugly mess of an economy that Trump created.

Brad Bannon is a national Democratic strategist and CEO of Bannon Communications. He writes weekly for The Hill and hosts the popular progressive podcast on power, politics and policy, Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon. Brad is a political analyst for News Radio KNX in Los Angeles and the Times of India international TV News Channel.