Donald Trump has plans to go on fewer international trips and do more domestic travel heading into this year’s midterm elections.
As reported by Politico, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles says that Trump will travel around the country “weekly,” beginning with a visit to Iowa next week. Cabinet members will also be doing more domestic travel.
“The announcement comes as polling has regularly shown Trump’s popularity slipping and voters beginning to blame his policies for the high cost of living. In addition, some in his party have worried that Trump has been too focused on foreign affairs,” the Politico report says.
One former Trump White House staffer isn’t sure that will help.
Trump’s change in travel plans exposes White House fears he’s ‘in trouble’: report https://t.co/BeRyKmmmlr
— RJCass (@RJCass1) January 23, 2026
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According to Raw Story, Sarah Matthews, who was the deputy press secretary in Trump’s first term but has since turned against the president, appeared on MS Now this week and talked about how candidates in different states might not be eager to have Trump campaign with them. Matthews, who calls herself a “Republican in exile,” now works for The Bulwark and appears regularly on MS Now.
“I mean, traditionally, when a president is unpopular, members of his party actually don’t want him to come visit,” host Chris Jansing asked Matthews.
.@SarahAMatthews1: “I think that Trump knew that he lost, and he had been told by multiple advisers in both the White House and the campaign, and by state officials that he lost…but he was willing to cling to anything and any excuse in order to try to stay in power.” pic.twitter.com/tcCmM8O03z
— Home of the Brave (@OfTheBraveUSA) January 23, 2026
“I would tend to think right now that having him out on the campaign trail is probably music to Democrats’ ears,” Matthews said on the show. “I think that normally, in past election cycles, when Trump hasn’t been on the ballot, it has been useful for Republicans to have him out there. He’s able to excite the base and get low-propensity voters out to the polls, even when he is not on the ballot.”
“But the thing is that, heading into the 2026 midterms, even though Trump is not on the ballot, his policies will be and proven to be very unpopular, as we’ve seen in this polling,“ Matthews also said. “So if I’m a Republican running in the 2026 midterms, I probably don’t want to be campaigning with Trump because I think that it would be tough to explain to voters when Trump is out there giving speeches saying that we’ve defeated inflation and that the economy is great.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
