Donald Trump sees himself as a guy with a unique ability to stage epic events. However, the reality of the situation is that quite often he winds up presiding over epic flops. He creates a military parade for himself on his birthday, and nobody shows up to watch it. He stages a national version of the state fair on the National Mall, and the crowds are so thin (after all the musical acts he had booked pulled out) that the whole thing turns out to be nothing more than a sad joke. Over and over again, starting with his first inauguration, events that Trump touts as the biggest spectacles of all time turn out to be embarrassing disappointments for him (not that he ever admits it, of course).

Which brings us to what's about to happen next week, in Texas. Trump got a bee in his bonnet a while ago and decided that the way to generate enthusiasm for Republicans in the midterm elections was to hold a GOP political convention. But at this point it's looking like it's going to be nothing more than another epic failure for Trump. As the New York Times reported today:

When President Trump announced that he would hold an unusual party convention just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, he wrote online that it would be "a truly Historic Event" and "a RALLY like none other!"

But as they stare down a bleak political environment, with the president's approval rating at a record low, many House and Senate Republicans running in competitive races across the country are keeping their distance from Mr. Trump's Dallas pep rally next week, choosing to stay home and campaign instead.

In other words, he can't even convince Republican politicians to show up for a Republican Party convention. Which isn't all that hard to understand, since "lawmakers are being charged $25,000 to attend." That's a lot of money to pay for very little return. Unlike presidential-year party conventions, there will be no official nomination from the convention floor, instead it will be nothing more than a rally to boost Trump's own ego. It will take place over two days, both of which will feature Trump as the headline speaker.

The article doesn't say, but I highly doubt any of it will air on the broadcast television networks. Perhaps the rightwing cable channels will cover the whole thing, but that's about all the coverage the event will generate. Trump will preach to the choir, and not many other Americans will even notice that it is happening.

Trump's job approval rating is at record lows because so many of his policies have turned into disasters for the average American family. But rather than realizing this and attempting to fix any of it, Trump has doubled down on everything and denies that the poll numbers are real. He denies that the voters are angry at him, and he denies that the biggest political issue of the election even exists (preferring to gaslight his audiences by telling them that the affordability crisis is no more than a "hoax" dreamed up by Democrats). In multiple ways, he proves that he just does not care about people having to pay a lot more for gasoline, groceries, housing, and everything else.

Which is probably what he's going to say on both nights, next week. He'll paint a rosy-tinted fantasy image of how wonderful everything is right now, and personally claim all the credit for all the wonderfulness. He'll rant and rave about Democrats, using the most scathing and demonizing language imaginable. And then the next night, he'll get right back up there and do it all over again.

I don't know about Republicans in Congress, but that doesn't sound like anything worth paying $25 to see -- much less $25,000. Especially since Trump is already sitting on a huge pile of cash ($400 million) in his own personal super PAC that he has so far refused to spend helping any of his fellow Republicans out in their campaigns. Which is why many of them are already offering up their excuses for not attending next week -- most of which consist of some version of: "I think my time would be better spent in my district campaigning."

It's hard to blame them, especially the ones in battleground districts who are already trying to distance themselves from a spectacularly unpopular president. They certainly don't want voters to see them whooping it up having a big party with Donald Trump right now, for good reason. Trump wants to put on a spectacle, but it's already looking like it's going to wind up being nothing more than a spectacular flop.

Like much of what Trump does, the concept of a midterm political convention is quite likely to disappear from memory once he leaves office. Once we all go back to using the names Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico again, Trump's big party will be relegated to nothing more than an arcane bit of political trivia: "What was the 2026 GOP midterm convention?"

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant