President Donald Trump is doomed in the upcoming midterm elections, says an ex-Republican congressman — and the reason may surprise you.
“This is the biggest reason why Trump and Republicans in November are gonna get their a—- handed to them” in the midterms, former Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois said on his Substack on Thursday. “I've been saying this for a year now. One word: cruelty.”
Elaborating on how Trump’s immigration policies come across as so cruel that they will turn off independent voters, Walsh described Trump’s abuse of immigrants as “abject, raw, n----, wide open cruelty” in the name of an “ugly, extreme, dark, hateful, unconstitutional, un-American immigration enforcement.” Because even Americans who oppose illegal immigration tend not to be sadistic, Walsh argued, Trump will suffer immensely for this cruelty during the midterms.
“We disagree on a lot of issues, but America is not a cruel place and the American people are not cruel,” Walsh said. “We do not f—-- support the cruelty that these mass federal thugs have been engaged in on our streets. Cruelty more than anything else is going to kick Republicans in the a— in November. By the way, a lot of Republicans know it.”
Walsh then detailed human rights abuses that have occurred due to the actions of immigration law enforcement.
“This must not be what America is,” Walsh said. “It's what Donald Trump is doing his damnedest to turn America into. And I know, because I talk to them every day, there are Americans that f—-- applaud what Trump is doing with ICE. But most Americans don't. Most Americans don't. And I believe that these most Americans — as I've said before — come November, they will crawl butt—n---- across broken glass for a mile to vote. And they'll do that to vote to make crystal f—- clear that what ICE is doing now, what Trump is doing now with immigration enforcement, must not be what we are.”
Democrats, despite not doing enough about illegal immigration in Walsh’s estimate, can now run with Trump’s cruelty.
“And if Democrats dropped the ball, man, that pendulum has swung right through the other wall,” Walsh said. “And we will not be this.”
Walsh has been an outspoken critic of the MAGA movement within the modern Republican Party. Earlier this week, Walsh described Trump voters as “cultists,” adding that he used to be a Trump voter himself.
“When it comes to my former congressional colleagues — these Republican members of Congress, and all these conservative right-wing talk radio guys and Fox News guys, the world I used to be a part of — man, I'll call them members of a cult till the cows come home,” Walsh said. He later added that “if you don't like me calling you a cultist, if you don't like it when I call you a cult follower of Donald Trump, then don't act like one.”
Walsh has also harshly criticized Trump’s immigration policies, such as describing ICE agents as “thugs.”
“What these heavily armed masked thugs lawlessly roaming our streets are doing is the utter opposite of law enforcement,” Walsh said. “And there's a reason, by the way — I talk to cops regularly — most cops in this country detest what ICE is doing.” He then used sarcasm to criticize agents who violate the Constitution because they say they are “afraid.”
“Can you believe it?” Walsh said, facetiously pretending to be indignant at an unreasonable order. “They want judicial warrants! The American people are demanding that ICE have and use judicial warrants if they want to enter a home or a private business, you know, those pesky judicial warrants! That pesky Constitution!”

