Donald Trump’s fixation on renovating parts of the White House and keeping his distance from the government shutdown fight could be setting Republicans up for a brutal political reckoning, analysts on MSNBC warned Friday.
According to Oval Office insiders cited by the network, the president is “super distracted” and seemingly unaware that his actions—and inaction—are pushing his party toward a potential collapse in next year’s midterms. Meanwhile, polls are showing Democrats steadily gaining ground in key battleground states.
“Republicans may get wiped out there,” said Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough, referencing Virginia, which has been heavily hit by the shutdown. “Up in New Jersey, Donald Trump is bragging about slashing funding and ending the Hudson River tunnel, right? So he’s bragging about making New Jersey residents commute more hellish. That’s impacting what? The New Jersey governor’s race and so [Democrat] Mikie Sherrill is being helped out by Donald Trump right now because he continues to brag about killing that project.”
Scarborough pressed his co-host Jonathan Lemire for insight into what’s happening behind the scenes. “Tell me what are you hearing from the White House? They have to understand this is bad for them in Jersey. This is bad for them in Virginia. This is bad for them across the country,” he asked.
Lemire’s response didn’t inspire confidence. “White House aides, as I’ve been reporting on this show, have been privately saying to me for ten days or so now they think, ‘Oh, the end is in sight, the president’s going to step in and get this done,’” he said. “The issue is, as I’ve been hearing the last 24 hours, the president’s not really paying attention.”
“Because Joe is right,” Lemire continued. “The president, you know, people, even his critics will say has a good read of the room. Like he understands what issues are important, what’s resonating with folks. He’s missing this. And it’s about the bubble that he’s in, it would seem. And every day this goes on is worse for Republicans. But of course, more than anything, worse for Americans and he still is, at least nominally, the president of all of us.”
That “bubble” — the sense that Trump is isolated, insulated, and obsessed with image over impact — dominated the panel’s discussion. MSNBC contributor Katty Kay said her own sources describe a president whose attention has drifted from governance to décor.
“I mean, even for a president who has an enormous amount of energy across a broad range of subjects, the reports I’ve had from people who have gone into the Oval Office and seen him recently, are that he is super distracted at the moment, that trying to get him to focus on one particular policy issue is very difficult, is very difficult. He’s talking about the renovations of the white house. He’s talking about the Lincoln Bedroom,” she said.
“He’s not a president who is particularly, you know, nailed in on one particular issue,” Kay added.
The portrait that emerged from the conversation was less of a strategist and more of a man tuning out a crisis. While workers go unpaid and voters grow angrier, the president is reportedly preoccupied with how his ballroom looks.
That might sound trivial — until Election Day rolls around. If the president stays “lost in a bubble,” as the panel put it, Republicans might not just face headwinds next year. They might face a political wipeout.
Watch the segment below:
