Source: Politics<\/p>\n
The Republican Party\u2019s midterm wipeout has torn apart President Donald Trump\u2019s coalition.<\/p>\n
For months, polling has shown cracks among Trump\u2019s 2024 voters over immigration<\/a>, the Iran war and the president\u2019s influence. Now, new results from The POLITICO Poll<\/a>, conducted just days after the election, reveal a deep chasm between Trump\u2019s self-identified MAGA base and the non-MAGA voters who helped fuel his return to the White House.<\/p>\n The two camps hold sharply different interpretations of the GOP\u2019s historic midterm defeat and what comes next for their party, according to the survey conducted by PF Global. MAGA Trump loyalists were more likely to say the president is not to blame for the losses \u2014 that things would have gone better if he was on the ballot \u2014 and that the party should now move closer to Trump.<\/p>\n Non-MAGA Trump voters starkly disagreed, saying they are ready to move away from him and his unpopular agenda. About one in five said they voted for Democratic candidates this cycle.<\/p>\n The fault line is a fresh warning sign that Republicans, desperate to stitch back together a winning coalition after their midterm calamity, may struggle to keep the voters that powered Trump\u2019s victory in 2024 in the fold.<\/p>\n And it calls into question just how loyal the party should be to a leader \u2014 and movement \u2014 it has spent the last decade united around. Overall, just over half of all Trump voters said the president will be able to make a comeback from the election losses.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the [GOP] spends the next two years figuring out who it is and what it stands for, these divisions will only be further exposed,\u201d said Republican strategist Doug Heye.<\/p>\n Here are four charts that show just how much the midterms have divided Trump\u2019s own voters.<\/p>\n A majority of non-MAGA Trump voters blamed Republicans’ loss of the House and the Senate on Trump\u2019s actions since taking office, with far fewer saying the campaigns themselves were responsible. A 59% majority also said the president is a loser of the midterms, a striking rebuke from a group of voters who helped his return to the White House.<\/p>\n But MAGA Trump voters are torn over who they blame for their losses.<\/p>\n The divide mirrors disagreements happening at the top levels of the Republican Party. In the immediate aftermath of the election, some Republicans, at least tepidly, began pointing fingers<\/a> at the president. Others have called for a \u201creckoning\u201d without explicitly laying the blame at Trump\u2019s feet or articulating an alternative vision for the GOP.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no way to sugarcoat what happened on Election Day. From coast to coast, and in some of the reddest parts of the country, Republicans were humiliated,\u201d 31 Republican National Committee members wrote in a letter<\/a> to GOP lawmakers this week.<\/p>\n Trump, who ahead of the midterms repeatedly urged voters to \u201cpretend\u201d he was on the ballot, insisted in a Truth Social post<\/a> after the election that, \u201cI JUST WASN\u2019T ON THE BALLOT. IF I WERE, WE WOULD HAVE WON IN A LANDSLIDE!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump will never stop delivering results for the American people and he will undoubtedly go down as the most successful and consequential president in American history,\u201d White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement.<\/p>\n As Republican Party leaders grapple with how to rebound from the midterms, MAGA isn\u2019t ready to move on from Trump: They said the path forward is embracing Trump and his agenda.<\/p>\n Non-MAGA Trump voters said the opposite \u2014 and nearly half of them think their Republican candidates should have broken with the president on the economy this cycle.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is very clear that Election Day 2026 was an unequivocal rebuke of Donald Trump, both him personally and his policies,\u201d said one national GOP operative who worked on midterm races, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the landscape. \u201cMAGA needs a serious rebrand if it is going to have any success in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n That presents a complicated picture for Republican leaders, who will have to find a way to appeal to Trump\u2019s fiercely loyal MAGA base without alienating the less committed voters who helped deliver his 2024 victory.<\/p>\n On Election Night, as the scale of Republican losses was becoming clear, POLITICO asked GOP operatives who worked on midterm races whether the defeat meant it was time for Republicans to consider a new vision for the party.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can it not be?\u201d one person responded. It\u2019s \u201cthe worst defeat a party has taken in 50 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Non-MAGA Trump voters are split over whether Trump can make a comeback after the midterms bloodbath. MAGA, however, is quite confident in the president\u2019s abilities to do so.<\/p>\n And collectively, Trump voters are more optimistic about the Republican Party than the president.<\/p>\n Some key aspects of Trump\u2019s agenda are unpopular with Americans, including his push for mass deportations, tariffs imposed on key trade partners and the war in Iran. The congressional Republicans who once supported many of those policies are now weighing<\/a> whether they can distance themselves to regain voters\u2019 trust.<\/p>\n In an interview with \u201c60 Minutes<\/a>\u201d after the midterms, Trump admitted his party\u2019s losses may be attributed at least in part to the Iran war and the resulting high gas prices \u2014 though he also mentioned how, in some cases, voters \u201cdidn\u2019t like the candidates\u201d and asserted, again, that he wasn\u2019t on the ballot.<\/p>\n “President Trump remains the unequivocal leader of our party who’s cut taxes, lowered drug costs and secured our border,\u201d RNC spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said in a statement. \u201cRepublicans will continue to harness his ability to energize our base and expose the Democrats’ disastrous record to win back our majorities in 2028.”<\/p>\n As the party looks ahead to 2028, Republicans are already weighing how much the party\u2019s next presidential nominee should carry the MAGA mantle.<\/p>\n Some Hill Republicans are increasingly warming to the prospect<\/a> of a Marco Rubio presidential bid, arguing that voters may be looking for a new direction after Trump \u2014 and Vice President JD Vance may be too closely tied to the president\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n MAGA Trump voters said decisively that they prefer someone who has worked in the administration \u2014 another sign of their support for the president, and of the difficulty of changing course as a party given that loyalty.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody reserves the right to adjust. You know, learn from this,\u201d GOP Rep. and incoming Oklahoma Sen. Kevin Hern recently told POLITICO<\/a>. Asked his favorite candidate of the three he expected to run: Vance, Rubio or DeSantis, he replied with a smile: \u201cEverybody.\u201d<\/p>\n