Columnists say President Donald Trump’s focus on his own priorities, more than the country’s, is widening the split with Senate Republicans — cracking a coalition once seen as airtight and pushing the president toward lame duck status. Democrats see an opening as the midterms approach.

According to pollsters Douglas E. Schoen and Carly Cooperman in an op-ed at The Hill, one year ago, the “alliance between President Trump and congressional Republicans looked airtight” — but it is now “unraveling, as Republican senators increasingly spar with a president who they see as too focused on his own priorities at the expense of their reelection prospects.”

Schoen and Cooperman see this as “a tremendous gift to Democrats.”

For example, Trump is underwater on numerous key issues, including the economy, where he sits at just 35 percent approval.

Republicans had hoped to use a bipartisan housing bill that went to the president’s desk for his signature, but at the last moment Trump canceled the ceremony and refused to sign the legislation.

“The president wants to make it harder for you to vote rather than make it easier for you to live,” one political strategist said in a recent interview, Schoen and Cooperman noted. They added, “Holding up legislation to address affordability unless a White House ballroom is funded is hardly a winning message.”

Senate Republicans now have a problem: if they distance themselves from Trump, they may appeal to independents while angering Trump’s MAGA base. If they align themselves with Trump, they may lose independents.

The “tensions are expanding,” Schoen and Cooperman observe. Senate Majority Leader John Thune “has been increasingly vocal with his frustration over some of Trump’s recent moves.”

Not that all of this infighting hands Democrats an automatic win.

“All of this being said, whether or not Democrats can capitalize remains unknown. Their party’s favorability, at minus-20, is worse than Republicans’ minus-17, and even worse than Trump’s at minus-15,” Schoen and Cooperman note. “The growing power of an insurgent left wing may also complicate things for Democrats as Republicans work to portray the whole party as left-wing extremists.”

But the infighting does hand Democrats an opportunity to strengthen their position with the voting public.

“Unless the president reverses course,” Schoen and Cooperman warn, “which he is fully capable of doing, he will only speed up his descent into lame duck status and further undermine his own legacy.”

Image via Reuters 

A large panel fell seemingly dozens of feet from above onto the stage during a rehearsal for a performance at an event for President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250, according to video posted by attorney Aaron Parnas.

“The stage is falling apart at the rehearsal for Freedom 250’s July 4th celebration,” Parnas wrote.

After the panel fell, someone can be heard on the video saying, “I was waiting for something like that to happen.”

Critics blasted the administration while others issued warnings.

“This is incredibly dangerous stuff,” wrote journalist Ryan Grim. “Trump cutting safety corners with stage building is the kind of thing somebody can genuinely be prosecuted for if someone dies, which is not uncommon if you slap it together like this. This equipment is deadly when falling from those heights.”

“Literally a miracle no one was hurt here,” noted journalist Philip Lewis.

“In all seriousness, that actually looks really dangerous for the performers. It’s scary how unsafe this all seems,” observed journalist Pablo Manríquez.

“The sheer incompetence of this administration is really rather astonishing. Everything these people touch is shoddily done. This era is replete with evidence that experience and professionalism actually matter,” wrote author Jennifer Erin Valent.

“If there was ever a metaphor for how historians will look back at Trump’s presidency at this moment in time, it’s this,” wrote health care consultant and National Organization for Women vice president Melanie D’Arrigo.

“The Freedom 250 rehearsal stage falling apart is the perfect analogy for the Trump administration,” The Lincoln Project commented.

“Glad everyone’s ok — it’s also hard to imagine a better metaphor for the current state of [America] than this,” wrote the progressive media outlet The Tennessee Holler.

“Trump’s state fair is *literally* falling apart,” remarked liberal political commentator Harry Sisson.

One commenter added, “Those performers are incredibly lucky. That falling piece of debris looked heavy, sharp and came down at incredible speed.”

Trump’s Freedom 250 July 4th event is also besieged by a massive heat wave enveloping part of the country.

“U.S. Capitol Police have already restricted Thursday night’s rehearsal for ‘A Capitol Fourth Concert’ to essential personnel, posting on X that they came to the decision after consulting with the Capitol’s Office of the Attending Physician,” The New Republic reported.

“For safety reasons, the public will not be able to attend tonight’s rehearsal concert,” the Capitol Police’s post read. “Everyone is sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. The National Weather Service is forecasting an extreme heat watch with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees.”

The stage is falling apart at the rehearsal for Freedom 250’s July 4th celebration. pic.twitter.com/bPbg94hp6X

— Aaron Parnas (@AaronParnas) July 2, 2026

Longtime political scientist Dr. Norman Ornstein on Thursday floated a prediction that one political commentator suggested could throw the November 2026 midterms into chaos.

“Something I predicted multiple times is about to come true,” said Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and contributing editor for The Atlantic.

Ornstein said that President Donald Trump’s acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, “is going to cut a deal with Maduro to have him falsely claim that Venezuela tilted the 2020 elections. In return, he and his wife are likely to be in the same prison as Ghislaine Maxwell.”

Maduro is Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela whom the U.S. Army’s Delta Force captured in January. He and his wife, currently imprisoned in Brooklyn, are expected to stand trial on numerous drug-trafficking charges.

Blanche reportedly is behind the controversial move of former Epstein partner Ghislaine Maxwell to a less-restrictive prison.

Political commentator Tara Setmayer, co-founder of The Seneca Project, appeared to agree with Ornstein.

“I’m hearing this Maduro rumor also,” she wrote. “As soon as he was captured, I thought Trump would try this nonsense.”

“Firing [Pam] Bondi, then [Tulsi] Gabbard opened up this scheme with Blanche & [Bill] Pulte as the henchmen,” she explained. Pulte is the acting Director of National Intelligence, who replaced Gabbard.

“I hope this doesn’t happen but it’s more than plausible and would throw the midterms into utter chaos,” Setmayer warned.

Political strategist and California State Senate candidate Christine Pelosi responded to Ornstein, saying, “Co-sign.”

She explained that she had discussed the scenario with journalist April Ryan back in February.

“My personal theory on this is, number one, Donald Trump can’t believe he lost” in 2020, Pelosi told Ryan. “He would like to take every ballot and recount them himself, but he can’t.”

“But I think they seized Georgia [ballots] because he wants to find a way to pardon Maduro,” Pelosi continued. “He wants to find a way for Maduro to admit election fraud in 2020, so he can justify taking over the financial resources of Venezuela. It’s always the money. Yes, it’s the racism. Yes, it’s the xenophobia. Yes, it’s the pulling up the ladder behind it. But ultimately, with Donald Trump, it is follow the money.”

Also responding to Ornstein was investigative journalist Dave Troy, who wrote: “This is insane but totally plausible. We are living in a fact-free world now.”

Image via Reuters