'Catastrophic' new data increases GOP's terror of midterm 'bloodbath': analyst

A former GOP strategist Friday said that new polls have increased Republican fears that a "bloodbath" is coming this November.

Rick Wilson, co-founder of the anti-Donald Trump The Lincoln Project, wrote in his Substack that recent poll results indicate that the president's approval ratings are spelling trouble for the party's chances in the midterm elections. Wilson boiled it down to a simple fact: voters hate Trump and his MAGA coalition is falling apart.

"Apropos of the 2026 elections, Trump is increasingly a boat anchor around the necks of Republican candidates," Wilson wrote. "I’ve been a professional consumer of polling for three decades, and the absolute crashout of Trump’s polling is like nothing I’ve ever seen."

The New York Times/Siena Poll published on Jan. 17 has pointed to troubling signs for the GOP, with 56% of those polled disapproving of Trump's job as president.

"Catastrophic. 2026 is teeing up to be a bloodbath," Wilson wrote.

Trump has faced a series of unfavorable polling results in recent weeks and has even called for criminal charges to be filed against pollsters after The New York Times published results he didn't like after a new survey this week found his reputation spinning into freefall.