Heading into the midterms, 'no US president in recent times has been as unpopular as Donald Trump'

Erin Ogunkeye is pleased to welcome Richard Johnson, Senior Lecturer in US Politics at Queen Mary University of London. He says that “Donald Trump is damaged goods at this point in his presidency.” With this uncompromising assessment, Johnson takes us through the political forces shaping the 2026 US midterm elections. Far from assuming that Trump’s formidable campaigning instincts can once again mobilize Republican voters, Johnson questions whether the president’s political influence has become a liability for the very party he once transformed. He points to a potentially significant realignment within the American electorate. Economic grievances, rising living costs, trade disputes and disillusionment with the war in Iran appear, in Johnson’s reading, to be weakening important elements of the coalition that sustained Trump’s return to power. Particularly consequential is the possibility that Latino voters, agricultural communities and sections of the MAGA electorate may be reconsidering their political loyalties or withdrawing from electoral participation altogether.