Welcome to the Jim Acosta Morning Memo on a Tuesday morning after Trump closed out his midterm campaign with a speech at the Reflecting Pool that could not have been a more perfect metaphor if he had filled it with Orange Kool-Aid.
Dead Pool: We have all been tracking months of Trump messaging that isn’t just tone deaf, it is tone DEAD.
From dismissing sky-high gas prices as a “small price” to literally bragging about how much money oil companies are making; going on and on about beautiful men and their muscly asses; mocking his own supporters for being unable to afford a burger; hating football; and deriding dozens of War dead and hundreds of wounded Americans as “small potatoes.”
And through it all, Trump has made clear his top priority is pouring money into tacky and ridiculous construction projects, including his spectacularly failed Reflecting Pool project.
And it is that failure that he chose to highlight on Monday with a closing argument speech that was delivered from inside an enclosure whose walls might as well have been there to keep out reality.
The speech began inauspiciously, as tens of people greeted Trump with a smattering of tepid applause.
Some of those folks were Parks Service staffers who probably should have gotten hazard pay.
It’s here! Looking for the very best in election coverage? Follow the Midterms right here for commentary and real-time election results and analysis from experts across Substack.
MAAP Check: As voting begins, there are only 168 House races in the R-Zone, versus 216 in the D-Zone, with 51 “Tough Call” races. It doesn’t take a stable math genius to see that Democrats are going to have a big majority when the dust settles. The question now is how huge will this wave be?
In the Senate, there are nine “tough call” races, which you can game out using our Scenario Builder, but if Dems manage to take only half of them, they will control both chambers comfortably.
Join Jim Acosta tonight with the great Katie Couric for live midterms coverage from the Center For Politics at UVA, and be sure to check out the full MAAP for yourselves and try out the interactive function.
All About Trump:
