Steve Schmidt predicts Parti Républicain losses in mid-November
Steve Schmidt said the parti républicain is headed for defeat in mid-November, arguing that Donald Trump is in "Dans une situation politique irréparable" and that Republicans will lose both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The former Republican strategist made the remarks while pressing the case that Trump has damaged the party beyond repair.
Schmidt also said that with Donald Trump, "le choix n’est pas entre la droite et la gauche, mais entre le bien et le mal," and added, "Le niveau de corruption et de stupidité est sans précédent." He said he has been warning since December that Trump was on a trajectory toward "30% d’approbation," a level he said had already been visible in the political signals around the former president.
Steve Schmidt and Donald Trump
Steve Schmidt brings a long Republican record to the warning. He worked on George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign, later became a cofounder of the Lincoln Project, and helped build a major anti-Trump campaign in 2020 to help Joe Biden. He is also one of Donald Trump’s farthest-reaching opponents in the United States.
That history gives weight to his present argument about the parti républicain. Schmidt was not speaking as a detached critic who appeared only after the fact. He had already been publicly pressing the same line in May 2024, when he said, "Si des élections avaient lieu demain, Donald Trump gagnerait et ce serait la faute de Joe Biden, le seul candidat démocrate qui pouvait perdre contre Trump."
From Biden to Harris
Schmidt’s current view sits against a fast-shifting Democratic field. In June 2024, Joe Biden collapsed in a debate and later withdrew from the presidential race in the summer. Kamala Harris was chosen about 100 days before the election without primaries. Schmidt later criticized Biden’s decision to run for a second term and helped Dean Phillips challenge Biden’s nomination for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In May 2024, Schmidt was interviewed in Toronto, where he said he considers Donald Trump a fascist and complained about the White House renovation fight. "Prenez la fusillade au dîner des correspondants. Le soir même, Trump s’en sert pour promouvoir la construction de sa salle de bal à la Maison-Blanche. Ce n’est pas sa maison, c’est la nôtre. Il a détruit l’aile Est. Je veux qu’elle soit restaurée," Schmidt said.
Mid-November election test
The immediate political consequence is simple: Schmidt is predicting a Republican wipeout in the mid-November elections, with losses in both chambers of Congress. That places Trump’s standing at the center of the party’s electoral problem, not at its margins.
The next fixed political test is the mid-November vote itself, when Schmidt’s forecast will either track with the result or become another marker in a running argument over how far Trump’s dominance has reshaped the parti républicain.
