Donald Trump’s outbursts are generally riddled with hyperbole, nonsense and braggadocio.

But in one his latest rants he is showing something unusual – a degree of fear.

On January 6 Reuters reported that he had said told Republicans that they must win the 2026 midterm elections or else he will be impeached by Democrats.

“You gotta win the midterms ’cause, if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be – I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” Trump said at a retreat for House Republican lawmakers in Washington. I’ll get impeached” he said to the House Republicans.

“I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on with the mind of the public because we have the right policy. They don’t. They have a horrible policy. They do stick together. They’re violent, they’re vicious, you know. They’re vicious people”, he said.

“They had the worst policy. How we have to even run against these people—I won’t say cancel the election, they should cancel the election, because the fake news will say, ‘He wants the elections cancelled. He’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator. Nobody is worse than Obama. And the people that surrounded Biden.”

Now Trump is clearly innumerate and barely literate but increasingly he is noticing that he has problems and hits out at anything or person he thinks is seeking to undermine him.

Sadly, for him most of the undermining is self-inflicted – and the impact of this is manifested in recent polling. Democrats are currently holding their largest advantage, 14 points, since 2017 on the question of who respondents would vote for if the midterm elections were held now.

President Trump’s approval rating is just 39%, his lowest since right after the 6/1/21 attack on the Capitol. A combined 6-in-10 blame congressional Republicans or Trump for the government shutdown; and nearly 6-in-10 say Trump’s top priority should be lowering prices — and no other issue comes close.

The latest FiftyPlus One polls average finds that current Trump numbers are 56.5% disapprove and 39.6% approve.

Elliott Morris’ Strength in Numbers newsletter recently looked at polling on a detailed state by state basis. He found that Trump’s overall approval is underwater in 39 states and his inflation numbers are underwater in 49 states.

Morris also found that Trump’s approval overall among adults is ‘pretty abysmal’ (positive in just 11 states) and is ‘downright catastrophic on inflation.’ Morris says these numbers look less like the 2024 presidential election and more like the 1984 result when Mondale lost to Reagan by 18 points.

Significantly Morris found that Trump’s approval rating is not just underwater because of Democrats but that the decline in Trump’s vote margin is steeper in redder parts of the country.

“They say that when you win the presidency you lose the midterms” Trump told the Republicans – a rare example of reality recognition or more probably a ploy to make them feel sorry for him.

Meanwhile Republicans and sensing the wind changes and looking out for themselves.  For instance, Republicans put one of President Donald Trump’s most significant goals on ice on Monday by refusing to change the John F. Kennedy Center’s name officially.

Trump has been trying for months to rebrand the Kennedy Center as the Trump-Kennedy Center, a move that has caused a swarm of musicians to boycott the acclaimed concert hall. He has affixed his name to the building’s exterior, although officially changing the name requires an act of Congress because the center was created by federal law.

…but sadly, even if he is impeached by the House it’s unlikely that he will be by the Senate because of the margin required there. But nevertheless, he will be the most impeached President in history…and Republicans Reps and Senators are starting to distance themselves from him in a bid to protect their own skins.