When Trump gets a thrashing at the midterms, four words will come back to haunt him

October 13, 2026 — 4:00am

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Donald Trump is thrashing about wildly as if to escape somehow the fate that awaits him in the US midterm elections in three weeks. He thinks he is impressing the world with his immense power. In truth, he is demonstrating the impotence of power.

His biggest political problem is one of his own making, with a little help from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu: the misbegotten war on Iran. Trump’s words from February will ring through the years. After Netanyahu’s hour-long pitch to Trump’s inner cabinet for America to join his proposed war, the US president casually responded “sounds good to me”, according to New York Times reporting which has not been denied.

His decision to wage that war, in disrupting the global oil supply, fated him to break the three promises that most directly affect the living standards of America’s people.

He promised cheaper petrol; it’s more expensive. He promised lower prices; they’re higher. He promised lower interest rates; they’re higher, too. As those costs have risen, Trump’s approval rating has fallen.

Unable to extricate himself from his war, he’s tried to shrug off the importance of the cost of living: “You know what I really love? I love the inflation.”

‘A referendum on the president’: What’s at stake in these US midterms?

That impressed no one, of course. So now he’s trying a couple of desperate measures abroad to cut the cost of fuel and repeating some tired distractions at home.

Will........

© Brisbane Times