Trump Holds Wild Cards as Midterms Hit Final Stretch — SkimNews
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- Trump's approval sits at 33%, down from 37% in June and 42% at the start of his term, with majorities disapproving of his handling of both the economy and immigration.
- Trump is sitting on more than $400 million that could shape the election's trajectory, and took in $1.2 billion from his crypto businesses last year, per a document released this summer.
- Trump's crypto wealth is complicating a bipartisan Senate push to advance cryptocurrency regulation as soon as next week, with Sen. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland demanding a more robust ethics provision before she supports the bill.
- Democrats need to flip just a handful of House seats to regain the chamber and see a possible Senate path if they hold Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire while winning Republican-held seats in Maine, Texas, Iowa or Ohio.
- The Democratic Governors Association has spent $5 million backing Iowa state auditor Rob Sand, who is trying to connect with rural voters in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic governor in 20 years.
- Redistricting has reshaped the map in Texas, California and Florida, while Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is appealing a court ruling last week that blocked a Trump-backed map there.
- Republican governors Mark Gordon of Wyoming and Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma have publicly warned against federal overreach into elections, with Gordon calling Justice Department monitoring of poll workers 'a bit aggressive' and 'irregular.'
Why it matters: With just a third of adults approving of Trump's job performance, his party faces the historical gravity that cost presidents' parties 40, 31 and 63 seats in recent midterms — but partisan redistricting has shrunk the genuinely competitive universe, meaning small swings in a handful of states (Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Georgia) could determine whether Democrats retake the House or the GOP holds the line. Trump's $1.2 billion crypto haul, meanwhile, has already stalled ethics-minded legislation in the Senate, showing his personal financial profile is now shaping federal policy timing.
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