Fears confirmed.

President Donald Trump talks to reporters during a tour of White House Ballroom construction at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

YOU TELL ME TEXAS w/Paul Gleiser
Fears confirmed

My September 24 column on this site, and my on-air commentary the next morning, was, as I look back, an expression of fear that I had in the pit of my stomach starting to emerge fully into the open.

I said that I was put out with President Trump over several things.

I said though I was still giving him the benefit of the doubt as to its necessity, the timing of military action in Iran couldn’t have been worse. What I didn’t say – but what I was feeling as I wrote the piece – was that black, Hispanic and working-class voters that voted for a Republican for the first time ever in 2024 might be unlikely to stick around in 2026 if they were having a hard time affording a tank of gas.

In an interview with the Daily Mail on March 1, two days after the war began, Trump confidently predicted that it would be “about afour-week process.” On Election Day, that “four-week process” was two days into its 36^th week.

On the Iran war Trump whipsawed us. “We have a deal.” “We don’t have a deal, but they want to make a deal.” “The regime is done.” “It’ll be over soon.” It all started feeling like Iraq 2.0 (the war that destroyed the last Republican president).

My September piece also expressed irritation with the resurgence of Trumpian narcissism that I thought had been consigned to the memory of his first term. There was no political or policy benefit to putting his name on the Kennedy Center. His base may like it. But more moderate voters – the voters without whom neither party can win an election – were put off by it.

Also on the narcissism front, at his midterm convention in Dallas, he called himself, “…the greatest president in the history of the United States.” All due respect, that’s just unseemly and, again, off-putting (even to some diehard supporters). Yes, the base may have loved it. But that’s the kind of foolishness that can cost you the vote of that 33-year-old mother of two in Plano who voted Republican in 2024 but only after having to painfully wrestle with herself about it.

Take these things and add in the Trump-centric campaign rallies. Again, the base got jazzed. But those rallies offered nothing to black and Hispanic voters that came over for Trump in 2024 – expecting that his policies would result in it being easier to make ends meet every month – who now stand disappointed two years later.

Then, finish it off by his backing of Senate candidates like Michael Whatley of North Carolina, Darlene Graham of South Carolina and Ken Paxton of Texas – all candidates whose worthiness for the Senate consisted of little more than fealty to Trump – and you have the recipe for the electoral catastrophe that we witnessed Tuesday night.

I had fears on September 24. I expressed them and some of you pooh-poohed me.

But Tuesday night’s bloodbath is brutal confirmation that my fears were valid.