The first is that Trump pretty obviously does not care what happens in the upcoming midterm elections.

Oh, he claims not to care, but I see these midterm elections very differently; you simply do not pressure Red-state leaders and legislatures to crack and pack their voters into gerrymandered districts in the middle of a census cycle if you don't care what happens. If Trump truly believed he was as popular a POTUS in the fashion he constantly claims on his American Pravda psychotic social media rants -- or that his policies were actually popular -- he'd have no need to prattle incessantly about the primaries or to rig the maps in the middle of a census cycle in order to disenfranchise particular voters.

He's already sounding pretty defeatist on the issue, a sort of shoulder shrug and "Well, what can you do?" attitude that is alarming to those Republicans who are trying to get re-elected and trying to avoid losing control of one or both chambers of Congress in November.

Well, what you can do when you know you and your policies are unpopular and your Party has lost every special election since the day of your inauguration is exactly what Trump is doing: Rig the election while continuing to whine incessantly that your opponent is cheating (without a scintilla of any evidence whatsoever).

Whining when he's losing isn't new for Trump; his needy ego simply cannot handle being bested by anyone. Reminder that over a decade ago when he lost in Iowa to Ted Cruz, Trump whined like a toddler and accused Cruz of cheating the Wednesday following the (stupid) caucuses, via tweet:

Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he illegally stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong any [sic] why he got more votes than anticipated. Bad!

The tweet was then deleted and replaced with another that didn't contain the word "illegally."

He followed that up with a tweet demanding:

Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.

He further claimed that he had actually won Iowa and said that he'd likely sue and that what Cruz did was "unthinkable" and he wanted a "do-over." Sound familiar?

That is Trump: All bullshit... all the time. Trump lies like he breathes; when his needy ego requires it, he pulls bullshit out of his backside as if it's gospel. You would think the cult minions would "clue in" to his modus operandi, but sadly that would require their admission that he played them for fools.

What actually happened in Iowa? Trump skipped the Fox GOP debate before the caucuses and failed to invest in a ground game. It's that simple.

The second is that Trump is also signalling that he just does not care what voters are going through economically right now.

Right now and also never: Trump has never cared about what voters are going through. Trump only cares about Trump, and his ego is so needy that it needs constant feeding... witness those backside-licking sessions that they refer to as "cabinet meetings." An 80-year-old man with a healthy self-esteem does not require other adults to abase themselves, and neither do they need to constantly denigrate former occupants of the White House (when they resemble that remark) for doing or not doing things that they also did not do when they were occupants of that same space (not rocket science). This group of co-dependent bowing and bleating sheeple absolutely does not "make America great again" (stolen slogan of Ronald Reagan), rather confirm America's so-called leaders are a group of weaklings and prostrating sycophants and suck-ups in service to a small man in constant need of praise and prizes, but I digress.

Great article, CW. :)