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President Trump continued to sell himself as the Republican Party’s savior as he crisscrossed the country in recent days, making it clear in words and sheer presence that this midterm election is about him.
But back in the nation’s capital, Mr. Trump’s White House was consumed by dramas that reinforced why polls show that his presidency itself has become a drag on Republican tickets.
On Monday, Mr. Trump asked for the resignation of Kimberly Guilfoyle, his ambassador to Greece, after a string of embarrassing reports, including that she urged a donor to pay for her $100,000 credit card debt. The president on Thursday canceled the Pentagon’s planned livestream of an execution of the Army officer convicted in the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting after bipartisan outrage. And on Friday, he ousted his press secretary of five days after her bumpy debut.
Meantime, the White House Counsel’s Office was investigating a dispute between two prominent Trump allies and former administration officials over claims one of them misallocated funds for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a heated conflict stemming from a transaction from the Democratic Republic of Congo to a Texas defense company. And the administration deepened its standoff with the federal judge presiding over a lawsuit challenging the president’s plan for a golf course, pushing to disqualify her after she excoriated federal officials for ripping up hundreds of mature trees with little notice.
Together, the string of controversies invoked the chaos of Mr. Trump’s first term, when infighting among his aides regularly burst into public view. The week also encapsulated how Mr. Trump’s approval ratings have been dragged down by his administration’s policies and allegations of self-dealing that have shadowed much of his inner circle.
“It feels like late 2020,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in Mr. Trump’s White House during his first term. “There’s almost too much chaos. It’s drinking from the fire hose, and you can’t anticipate the next plot twist from this administration.”
She added: “You couldn’t dream up a worse week for the White House heading into the midterms.”
Mr. Trump’s approval rating sits around 37 percent, the lowest of his presidency, according to The New York Times average of polls. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted Oct. 9-13 and released on Sunday shows his approval among Republicans dropped from 88 percent near the start of his term to 79 percent. The survey also found, for the first time in a decade, that voters trust Democrats more on the economy, and 66 percent of voters said Mr. Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself.
A Fox News poll from this month found that government corruption ranked first among voters’ concerns, followed by inflation, gas prices, government leadership and health care. Democrats are making the case that corruption is in fact a cause of higher prices.
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President Trump arriving in West Palm Beach, Fla., after giving remarks at a midterm election campaign rally in Highland Heights, Ky., on Saturday. Credit…Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
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