October 12, 2026
DIANE FRANCIS
Donald Trump is on the ropes, electorally, because the majority of Americans in both parties believe he, his family, and his network are corrupt. Polling shows that he will lose both houses in the midterms on November 5. Discontent is widespread, which is hardly surprising. Exhibit A is his praise and kid-glove treatment of Vladimir Putin, who wages a bloody and genocidal war in Ukraine. This year, Qatar gave Trump a $400-million jet, and public filings revealed that the Trump family made $2.2 billion buying stocks in defense, tech, energy, and other companies that profited from presidential policies. In May, it also came to light that a Russian oligarch close to Putin gave Donald Jr. hundreds of thousands of dollars as a wedding gift. Now two more shady deals with Putin are underway: A $20-billion purchase of Russia’s oil giant LUKOIL by a Trump-backed consortium and Arab friendlies; and the lifting of sanctions on Russian diesel, which will help Putin finance his slaughter but which Trump believes foolishly will bring down American pump prices before the midterms.
Respected pollster Nate Silver projects a 92.9% chance that Democrats will win the House and a 73.9% chance they will win the Senate. Corruption is the top issue, and is why many Republican candidates distance themselves from Trump. In September, a Gallup Poll showed a record-high 89% of US adults believe government corruption is widespread, up from 73% in 2024. The Economist/YouGov poll of registered voters found that 53% labeled Trump primarily as “corrupt”, 51% as “dangerous”, as opposed to 23% who described him as “honest”. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in August found: 69% of Americans believe Trump’s private business interests influence his presidential decisions. Another survey showed that 63% deemed it inappropriate that Trump and his family earned $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency ventures.
Such polling points to failure, but add reports that Fox News is cutting back on coverage of Donald Trump’s campaign rallies. It appears that Fox executives – like many Republican candidates — realize the president has become a political liability. Condemnation is widespread and blunt. “The President here is using the power of the office to vastly enrich himself, and I think it’s unprecedented in American history,” said Brendan Ballou, who runs the Public Integrity Project. “In some ways, Trump is the Picasso of corruption. He comes up with schemes that just wouldn’t occur to the rest of us.”
Trump’s approval ratings are also rock bottom because of inflation, tariffs, and his war in Iran, which is turning into a “forever war”. On top of it all, Trump is openly and unjustifiably helping Putin, not his victims, the Ukrainians. Americans may not be sophisticated followers of foreign policy, but they know injustice when they see it on television and understand that David, not Goliath, is the victim. Trump’s bullying of Ukraine’s Zelensky and his praise toward the venal Putin are continuous. Here are recent examples of Trump’s duplicity and questionable judgment:
- Trump blames Ukraine’s bombing of Russia’s oil facilities for high oil prices which is untrue. Trump’s war in Iran is the cause.
- Trump ordered Ukraine to stop bombing Russian infrastructure, which is bombing Ukraine’s civilians.
- Trump does not order Putin to stop bombing or to stop his war against Ukraine.
- Trump announced on October 11 an “energy ceasefire” between Ukraine and Russia after saying Zelensky should go because he was the reason the war had not ended. But hours after, the “ceasefire” immediately collapsed because Russia began bombing again.
- Trump’s removal of sanctions so that Putin can flood markets with diesel won’t lower energy prices leading up to the midterms. Russia isn’t capable of flooding markets because of Ukraine’s success in deep strikes on Russian refineries, ports, and pipelines. Facts are that Russia has not exported diesel for months, and has been forced to import it. Trump doesn’t understand energy markets.
- When Trump announces benefits to Putin, he never demands concessions in return or commitments to de-escalate.
- On October 10, Trump threatened to suspend Ukraine’s access to US intelligence if it continued to ignore his requests not to bomb Russian oil facilities. He then blamed Zelensky for not ending the war even though only Putin can stop the war because he launched it. Then Trump stated that Ukraine, not Russia, needs a new leader to bring about peace.
- Putin’s negotiators now discuss with Americans an energy deal to rebuild Russia’s Nordstream pipelines – with US investment and no European input — that would once more make Europe totally dependent on Moscow’s fossil fuels again, advancing Putin’s war against Europe.
Most odious is that Trump aims to reward Putin for starting a war by offering generous incentives to stop it. There’s talk of giving Moscow $100 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets. The New York Times recently reported that Trump and his negotiators offered to buy parts of LUKOIL (owned by Putin oligarchs) for a staggering $20 billion or more. “The leading group seeking the deal includes American investor Todd Boehly, who has donated $2 million to President Trump’s political causes; two Middle Eastern groups that have done business with Mr. Kushner or Mr. Witkoff’s family; and an arm of the US government itself.”
The Times reported that Putin initiated the LUKOIL deal when he met with Witkoff and Kushner on September 5, representing it as a way of showing Russians that they can do business with the US. Naturally, Trump fell for it because he considers Russia “a tremendous opportunity” and not a mafia run by a megalomaniac who wants to conquer Europe and destroy America. It is irrational to believe that rebuilding economic ties will convince Putin to compromise in Ukraine. American voters get this, and Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska politely described Trump’s complicity: “The president has always had a moral blindness when it comes to Putin, and propping up Russia’s war economy is terrible”.