Trump plans 32-day campaign blitz ahead of midterms; several Republican candidates distance themselves

Trump's Grueling Midterm Campaign Schedule Raises Health Concerns

Donald Trump is planning to hit the campaign trail for 32 days before the midterm elections, placing him on the campaign trail for more than 94 percent of the time between now and November 3. The schedule effectively positions him at the center of an election cycle in which Republican candidates have increasingly tried to distance themselves from his influence.

The breakneck pace has spurred health concerns for a president who was recently caught out of breath after descending a set of stairs and climbing into his limo.

A growing number of pro-MAGA candidates have broken from Trump and his agenda to curry favor with local electorates, including:

• Florida Representatives Maria Elvira Salazar and Byron Donalds (the latter running for governor)
• Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles
• Texas Republican congressional candidate Carlos De La Cruz

Some candidates have stripped their websites and campaign materials of Trump's name, following advice the White House offered in July when staffers explicitly encouraged midterm-bound Republicans to split from Trump.

Key issues weighing down Trump's popularity include:

• The seemingly endless Iran war
• Rising cost of living
• An economy and supply chain disrupted by the president's tariffs
• Health care costs
• AI and data center encroachment into American communities—a topic Trump has unequivocally backed

A Reuters/Ipsos poll published late last month found that just 13 percent of Americans strongly approve of the president—down from 23 percent in a YouGov poll from the same time last year. Among surveyed conservatives, only 35 percent said they "strongly approved" of Trump's job performance. Additionally, 41 percent of registered voters said they would vote for a Democratic candidate if the presidential election were held today.

Despite these numbers, Trump refused to acknowledge the party's divergence. Speaking with reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump insisted that "they all want me to go. I'm one person. They all want me to go campaign."

Trump Administration Seeks to Deport Hasidic Jew Over Anti-Israel Protest

The Trump administration is attempting to deport Yehonatan Ovadia, a Hasidic Jewish religious teacher in Rockland County, New York, for protesting against Israel.

According to The New York Times, Ovadia had his visa revoked by the federal government for participating in an October 2023 protest against Israel's actions in Gaza, during which an Israeli flag disappeared from a local town hall.

Ovadia belongs to Satmar, an anti-Zionist religious sect that believes a Jewish state cannot be established before the arrival of the messiah. Shortly after the protest, he and another sect member were charged with hate crimes before pleading guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and paying a fine in early 2024.

In August, the federal government revoked his religious worker visa, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Ovadia, an Israeli citizen who has been in the U.S. since 2022, said he took part in the protest but did not tear down the flag. His lawyers sued the government later that month, arguing that the government was punishing him for religious and political expression and conflating that with antisemitism.

"He's against the Israeli government and the existence of the state of Israel for religious reasons, but to claim that he's an antisemite is the peak of absurdity," said Eric Lee, one of his attorneys.

"We demonstrated for Gaza, for the liberation of Gaza, for the rights of the Palestinians and to show to the world that the Jews, real Judaism, want to have peace," Ovadia told the Times in a telephone interview.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement: "It is a privilege to be granted a visa or green card to live in the United States of America. The Trump administration acted well within its statutory and constitutional authority, as it does with any alien who advocates for violence, glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews and steals property."

The White House has targeted noncitizen pro-Palestinian activists for deportation since President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to pursue them for antisemitic activities. When Ovadia applied for an extension to his religious worker visa in 2025, the government demanded court documents and police records, then stripped him of his legal status.

Ovadia's lawyers plan to request his release at a bond hearing Wednesday. If the government prevails, Ovadia could be deported to the country he was protesting against.

Federal Government Using Anti-Drug Program to Collect License Plate Data Nationwide

Thanks to a 1980s anti-drug trafficking program, cities across the U.S. are being forced to turn over their license plate reader data to the Trump administration.

According to 404 Media, the federal government is using the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) program to collect data from Flock, Axon, and other cameras used by local police for a national surveillance program. The plan is to centralize the data on government servers and make it available to other law enforcement agencies. Data collected by HIDTA can also be shared with the National License Plate Reader Program run by the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The program allows the federal government to bypass local and state restrictions against Flock and similar license plate reader companies without oversight. 404 Media learned about the plans through public records and court documents.

The HIDTA program is part of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, which was recently recognized by the Trump administration for "managing an automated license plate reader platform that brings together all levels of law enforcement."

In many states, local police departments cannot set up license plate cameras without agreeing to send their data to the federal government. In Georgia, for example, cities must sign a memorandum of understanding promising to send their data to the HIDTA program.

Flock cameras have faced backlash from the American public over their warrant-free surveillance and data collection. They have been abused by local police to spy on people unrelated to law enforcement investigations and have inspired protests at municipal meetings. The cameras collect far more than license plates: One hacked camera revealed it catalogs people, bicycles, small details such as bumper stickers, and, in one case, an American flag patch on a motorcyclist's bag.

This development shows that the Trump administration could do anything it wants with the vast amount of data these cameras collect, potentially skirting the Fourth Amendment. A centralized database such as HIDTA could be misused by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI, or other Trump administration officials.

Republican Senator Urges Trump Administration to Reduce Immigration Raids

Another Republican senator is asking the Trump administration to scale back its immigration raids.

West Virginia Senator and Trump loyalist Jim Justice—mostly known for parading his massive bulldog around Capitol Hill—drew a line in the sand in a Tuesday interview with Politico. Notably, Justice is not running for reelection and does not currently need to win voters.

"Before you know it, you get people that get carried away in their job and whatever it may be, and all of a sudden, then you're dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years, and I don't know that we need to be doing that stuff," he said.

"To get better, the first thing you got to do is admit you're doing something wrong.… And in this situation, with all that's going on and all the stuff, we probably got to step back from it and say, 'Maybe we're doing something wrong here or there,' and then adjust to that."

"This is a stunning shift from Senator Jim Justice," former Obama and Biden immigration policy adviser Andrea R. Flores wrote on X. "The alternative to ICE sweeps is legalization. People who have lived in your neighborhood for 15 years won't have a path to legal status until both parties come together to create one."

Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall (who is up for reelection) also made headlines for a similar rebuke of the Trump administration last week.

"When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement. Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe," Marshall wrote on X after a spike of ICE activity in multiple Kansas towns.