'It was a trap': Ex-GOP operative warns Republicans made fatal blunder with Trump

President Donald Trump has found himself in an "unprecedented position of political weakness" as poll after poll shows his policies are dragging the GOP down ahead of the midterms, according to one analyst.

Rick Wilson, co-founder of The Lincoln Project, said in a recent podcast episode that the GOP's efforts to redraw several state election maps are a sign of how weak Trump has become as the 2026 midterms approach. He argued that Trump has effectively erased any positive messaging Republicans can use to attract voters because the war in Iran has caused consumer prices to surge and has eaten away at the gains that Trump's tax cuts would have given voters.

"Donald Trump is in an absolutely unprecedented position of political weakness right now," Wilson said. "We are looking at a map that has already been profoundly influenced by the catastrophic, horrible, terrible, no-good decisions Trump has made on the economy, and Americans have had enough."

Wilson shared recent polling showing that 7 in 10 Americans expect a recession to hit within the next year because of Trump's policies. Another poll showed more than 62% of Americans say the U.S. economy is worse off now because of Trump, while another 55% say the president's policies have made their personal economic situation worse.

"That is not the golden age," Wilson said. "That is not the thing that won Trump the 2024 election."

Wilson added that Republicans could once put up with Trump's antics because the economy was performing well. But that has since vanished, even as Republicans continue to "epoxy" themselves to the Trump brand, he said.

"Everything about that was a tactical and strategic mistake," Wilson said. "Everything about that was a trap."