Trump Locks Down White House as Midterm Fears Grow

Donald Trump spent two consecutive days largely hidden from the press, with no public events on his schedule and the White House closed to reporters. When he did surface, it was for a taped interview with Sean Hannity in which he explicitly told his supporters to make the 2026 midterms all about him. "Pretend I'm on the ballot," Trump said, urging voters to turn out as if he were the candidate, not the sitting president. The request came as his approval rating sits at just 13% of Americans who strongly approve of him, a number the hosts described as reflecting a base that is "pretty deranged."

A Day of Bizarre and Embarrassing Episodes

While Trump was off-camera, the administration produced a string of self-inflicted wounds. The Department of Education posted a message reading "no one like us" with a tiger emoji, which the hosts identified as a reference to a scene from the film The Darkest Hour where the tiger represents Adolf Hitler. The White House also posted a video of an eagle attacking a Canada goose, intending to project American dominance, but commenters quickly pointed out that the goose actually wins the fight. Trump himself posted an AI-generated image of himself standing next to the Ayatollah and George W. Bush with a "Mission Accomplished" banner, an echo of the Bush administration's premature Iraq victory declaration.