"BUT DEMOCRATS ARE WORSE": WHY TRUMP WON'T EVEN BOTHER TO ADDRESS VOTERS' DISSATISFACTION IN 2026

Here were the top stories at FoxNews.com at 9:15 this morning:

I don't know what to make of the lead story. It says,

A report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently revealed billions in taxpayer funds that went to "questionable" rental assistance recipients under former President Joe Biden....

HUD officials told the Post that a "large concentration" of the funds went to New York, California and Washington, D.C., with deceased recipients getting funds in all 50 states.

The story cites a 183-page HUD report claiming " questionable payments totaling $5.8 billion" in fiscal year 2024 -- but this is reported under the heading "OTHER INFORMATION (UNAUDITED)." Would a formal audit reveal that much of this "questionable" funding was legitimate? Is this a greater or lesser amount of "questionable" funding than in other years? And if a "large concentration" of the "questionable" funds went to evil liberal hellholes -- New York, California, Washington -- why do we need to hear it from unnamed HUD officials? Why isn't that in the report?

The two stories below this one focus on reported fraud in Minnesota -- the right's favorite story at this moment. Tim Walz! Somalis! It's got everything right-wingers hate.

This is how you know that the White House and congressional Republicans have no interest in addressing the issue of affordability in 2026. The right-wing press works hand in glove with the GOP, and the message here is clear: You think Trump is why you feel broke? Nahhh. It's Democrats who are really picking your pockets!

The Republican message going into 2026 is what it always is whenever the GOP is vulnerable: But Democrats are worse. Republicans might not be solving America's problems, but Democrats are taking heartlanders' money and giving it dishonestly to Those People.

I don't think this can do more than establish a floor for the GOP's popularity, but it might limit the party's losses in the House and might help save the Senate for the GOP, and it will probably keep Trump's approval rating from permanently slipping below 40%.

Republicans gave up on selling their economic agenda a while back. For decades, they've wanted to slash the social safety net, including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, so they can give more and more money to the rich and to large corporations. Fifteen or twenty years ago, they still believed they could persuade Americans to go along with this agenda, telling us that America needed to have "an adult conversation about entitlements," or words to that effect. Americans weren't having it. The country rebelled against Social Security privatization during the George W. Bush presidency. A proposed "grand bargain" in the Barack Obama years never happened. Republicans stopped trying to sell their agenda directly.

Now they try to win every election with culture war. But they got Roe overturned already. They have trans people under assault in red states, and some Democrats are abandoning them in blue states, but an emphasis on the alleged trans menance failed spectacularly for the GOP in the Virginia gubernatorial election last month.

And the Donald Trump/Stephen Miller war against immigrants has led to a backlash, with, as Gallup reported this summer, "a record-high 79% of U.S. adults say[ing] immigration is a good thing for the country."

What can Republicans do when their usual cultural attacks seem stale and tired? In theory, they could change their economic positions -- but that's unthinkable for the party of the Koch network and fascist techno-libertarians like Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

So they're going to keep running nationwide against Tim Walz, Joe Biden, Zohran Mamdani, and other Democrats who won't appear on congressional ballots next year. And for Fox viewers at least, it will undoubtedly work.