Trump, fighting the Senate and Iran, takes team to Camp David
by Jared Gans and Joshua Feldstein - 07/31/26 7:17 AM ET
President Trump will assemble his Cabinet at Camp David today as he faces mounting struggles with his legislative agenda, a vexing war with Iran and record low approval ratings with the midterm elections less than 100 days away.
All eyes in the political world will be on the meeting, which was originally scheduled for May but was postponed due to poor weather, with both houses of Congress out of town. The meeting is expected to be open to press and comes at a particularly perilous time for the president.
Trump is coming off a few stinging defeats in the Senate, as he has been forced to backtrack — at least for now — on his nomination of Todd Blanche to be attorney general in the face of unyielding opposition from GOP lawmakers who he either primaried or forced out of their seats.
He’s not having much better luck with advancing his legislative agenda, as Republicans have rebuffed his push to pass an election security bill or cancel August recess to advance the latest GOP reconciliation package.
And the Iran war is heating up again, with strikes this week on Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan threatening to pull in U.S. allies across the region, with no sign of Iran easing its demands for control of the Strait of Hormuz, much less making major concessions on its nuclear program.
The economic impacts of the war have delivered Trump some of the toughest approval numbers of his entire presidency, a flashing red warning sign for the GOP ahead of critical midterms that will help define the remaining two years of Trump’s presidency.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday found only 32 percent of registered voters sampled approve of Trump, the lowest percentage that the pollster has ever recorded in either of his terms.
“That, my friends, is the Bush Line,” wrote Sarah Longwell, a longtime Republican political consultant and publisher of The Bulwark, referring to former President George W. Bush’s approval rating upon leaving office, a low-water mark that she credited for losing two presidential elections to Democrats and opening the way for Trump’s takeover of the party.
An Economist/YouGov poll released the day before found 34 percent of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s job performance, tied for a record low in that survey.
The Quinnipiac poll found nearly two-thirds of respondents said they believe the war hasn’t been worth the fighting and a majority of Americans blame Trump “a lot” for the rise in gas prices.
The president’s struggles with the Senate are the fruition of a relationship that has been worsening for months.
Trump alienated members with his decision to weigh in on key primaries and help oust Republican Sens. John Cornyn (Texas) and Bill Cassidy (La.), both of whom were defeated by primary challengers.
That led to the creation of the so-called YOLO caucus, a group of Republicans on their way out of Congress who have been increasingly willing to break with the president on key votes.
The caucus’s power was on display this week as Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is retiring after this year after feuding with Trump, refused to provide key votes to advance Blanche’s nomination to lead the Justice Department.
Trump’s also hitting a wall in the Senate with his push to pass a reconciliation bill that would provide nearly $75 billion in Iran war funding and fund reforms in the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act.
The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports Republicans say a budget framework passed by the House is not close to being ready to move in the Senate.
It could even be pushed to after the election as part of a deal between Senate Republicans and Democrats to avoid a government shutdown and fund the government through Dec. 4. GOP leaders are anxious to protect their most vulnerable members from painful votes that would be part of the reconciliation process.
The Trump administration has also struggled to reassure the public amid a record outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasite traced to lettuce imported from Mexico – another issue like to come up at today’s meeting.
Safe to say it’s not shaping up to be a relaxing visit to the presidential retreat for Trump or his top advisors.
https://thehill.com/newsletters/morning-report/6001443-donald-trump-camp-david-cabinet-meeting-senate-gop-iran-war/
