He spoke admiringly of a senator’s posterior.
asserted
He → speak → posterior
He baselessly accused a Muslim candidate of being a terrorist.
asserted
He → accuse → candidate
He boasted about his renovations of the White House.
asserted
He → boast → House
He quipped that his own supporters couldn’t afford a hamburger at his Mar-a-Lago club.
asserted
supporters → quip → club
Every now and then, he spoke about the cost of living, and other everyday concerns of voters.
asserted
he → speak → voters
Donald Trump has held dozens of campaign rallies before next week’s US midterm elections.
asserted
Trump → hold → elections
The 80-year-old remains convinced that he can prove the doubters wrong again and help Republicans retain control of the US Congress.
asserted
Republicans → remain → Congress
But it was five words he uttered at this summer’s Republican convention in Dallas that could seal his party’s fate: “Pretend I’m on the ticket.”
uncertain
I → utter → ticket
It helped ensure that the midterms will deliver a national verdict on Trump’s second term in the White House.
asserted
midterms → help → House
And opinion polls suggest that the judgment will be damning, piercing his aura of invincibility, reshaping the final two years of his presidency and setting the stage for a fierce battle to succeed him.
asserted
judgment → suggest → him
“Donald Trump nationalised these races, and now they’ll lose seats because of it,” said Michael Steele, a former chair of the Republican National Committee.
asserted
Steele → nationalise → Committee
“He made himself the referendum.
asserted
himself → make → ?
Individual candidates wanted to run their individual races but he told them: ‘Put me on the ballot.’
asserted
he → want → ballot
He has political instincts for himself, but no political instincts for the party.
asserted
He → have → party
Pain is the norm for White House incumbents when the midterms roll around.
asserted
midterms → roll → incumbents
In 1994, Bill Clinton suffered a 54-seat setback in the House of Representatives; in 2010, Barack Obama lost 63; in 2018, Trump himself lost 40.
asserted
Trump → suffer → 40
He seems unlikely to defy history this time.
asserted
He → seem → history
Trump goes into the elections with the lowest approval rating of any president before the midterms since Harry Truman’s Democrats were crushed 80 years ago.
asserted
Democrats → go → midterms
The coalition that in 2024 powered Trump to the greatest comeback in modern political history has suffered blow after blow: his failure to fully release the Jeffrey Epstein files detailing ties of the elite to the child sex offender; the growth of datacentres in rural communities; an eight-month-old war in Iran that he promised would be over in weeks; a relentless rise in the cost of fuel and food.
asserted
he → power → fuel
The anger over Trump’s broken promises has been compounded by a whiff of corruption, and the perception that he is using the presidency to enrich himself and his family.
asserted
he → compound → himself
He accepted a plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One, decorated the Oval Office in gold, demolished the White House East Wing to make way for a $400m ballroom and is planning a triumphal arch in Washington.
asserted
He → accept → Washington
His personal fortune meanwhile has surged – from $2.3bn in 2024 to $6.5bn, according to Forbes.
uncertain
fortune → surge → Forbes
With Republicans clinging to a paper-thin 218–214 margin in the House and 53–47 lead in the Senate, opinion polls indicate a rising “blue wave”.
asserted
polls → cling → wave
A recent Reuters/Ipsos survey gave Democrats an 11-point lead, 47% to 36%, on the generic congressional ballot, while Trump’s approval rating stood at 32%.
asserted
rating → give → %
Voters will also choose governors in 36 states and three US territories, and decide thousands of state legislative contests.
asserted
Voters → choose → contests
Tens of millions of early votes have already been cast, with habitual Republican turnout lagging behind Democratic participation in critical battlegrounds.
asserted
turnout → cast → battlegrounds
So dire is the environment for Republicans that conservative Super Pacs backed by billionaire Elon Musk, who has poured $366m into saving Republican candidates, are being forced to dump emergency funds into strongholds like Kansas, Iowa and Texas.
asserted
who → back → Kansas
Trump won the presidency in 2024 after promising to curb inflation and lower prices; instead, the opposite has happened.
asserted
opposite → win → prices
Across the country, voters are confronting an affordability crisis exacerbated by two defining choices of Trump’s second term: a sweeping regime of foreign tariffs and the fateful decision to launch airstrikes on Iran in February.
asserted
voters → confront → February
Chris Matthews, a political commentator and former presidential speechwriter and congressional aide, said: “He’s losing on cost of living and affordability.
asserted
He → say → living
Older people on limited incomes are focusing on what it costs to live each month.
asserted
it → focus → what
It’s much more macro than Maga.
asserted
It → ’ → Maga
No matter what he does for Maga people, the power of macroeconomics is much stronger and people are going to vote against him.”
asserted
people → do → him
The economic fallout of the Iran war, which Trump frequently downplays as a “little detour”, has reverberated across global energy markets.
asserted
Trump → downplay → markets
Diesel prices have soared, sending shock waves through agriculture and freight transport from the Central valley of California to the grain belts of Iowa and Ohio.
asserted
prices → soar → Iowa
Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former official in the Clinton White House, points out that voters can directly attribute their economic misery to the president.
asserted
voters → point → president
“There’s a very clear line between his actions and the things people don’t like,” she said.
asserted
she → ’ → actions
“It’s going to be the tariffs and it’s going to be the war: both self-inflicted wounds.
asserted
both → go → ?
He didn’t have to raise tariffs; that was his theory of the world, which turned out to be wrong.
asserted
which → have → world
Bombing nuclear sites in Iran was one thing, but going to all-out war turned out to be a mistake.
asserted
going → bomb → war
…and 73 more, not listed.
The Aporia
