President Donald Trump told a Tennessee rally Saturday that if Republicans lose the Nov. 3 midterm elections, the blame will fall on him — and that he expects little credit if they win — as he pressed loyalists to turn out even in deep-red territory.
“If we don’t win the midterms, they’re going to blame me,” Trump said in Clarksville. “You know that. And if we do win them, I will get no credit whatsoever. It’s true. I won’t get any.” He added that he is “working my ass off” and urged supporters to vote.
Base mobilization and a cash pledge
A person familiar with the president’s thinking said he is in “grind it out mode” and prepared for a worst-case result. Midterms often punish the party in power, and an NBC News average of polls put Trump’s job approval at 38%, with 59% disapproving.
Trump closed an hour-and-a-half speech by reminding the crowd that “with your vote on November 3rd, you’ll get $5,000” — a proposed payment to adults if Republicans keep Congress, with an estimated price tag of about $1.3 trillion. Tennessee was the seventh state he has visited since the start of October; a planned stop in Alabama for a college football game was canceled as Hurricane Isaias approached.
Why visit a safe state?
Republicans are expected to sweep Tennessee’s congressional races, and Trump himself joked that the state’s candidates were already on a glide path. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said the visit still matters because midterms require the base: “That’s what you’ve got to have.”
On stage, Trump rejected talk that his popularity has slipped, calling it a “false narrative,” and highlighted what he described as strong support among MAGA voters. He also recited economic talking points and, in a lighter aside, floated renaming an ocean before leaving office.
Sources & Credits
Reporting based on: NBC News (Peter Nicholas, Oct. 10, 2026).
Image: Donald Trump MAGA rally in Nashville, Tennessee, March 15, 2017 — Dan Scavino / Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
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