Tommy ChristopherMay 8th, 2026, 10:50 am

CNN commentator and New York Times bestselling author Maggie Haberman told CNN anchor Jake Tapper that all of her sources complain President Donald Trump “hasn’t been there” on the midterms as gas prices threaten his party politically.

On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Haberman — who is considered an expert on Trump with deep experience reporting on the subject and a network of Trumpworld sources that give her up-to-the-minute insights — said “everyone” she’s spoken to told her Trump hasn’t “been there” on engaging with the midterms:

TAPPER: Yes. And as you know, President Trump hates to appear weak. It does look like he is more eager to end the war than the Iranians are. He obviously is also in an actual democracy with midterm elections coming up, and the Iranians not so much with the actual democracy part. Project Freedom, which is what they’re calling this U.S. Navy guiding ships through the Strait of Hormuz, that appears at least as of this moment to have failed. Trump announced it on Sunday, went into effect Monday. Early Tuesday, [Pete] Hegseth praised it. [Marco] Rubio said this is what the U.S. is focused on. Hours later, Trump paused it, supposedly because the Pakistanis wanted him to do it (ph) for peace.

Okay. You know, how do you see this playing out here?

HABERMAN: I see it as very confusing. And I think the amount of, you know, complicated, contradictory things the president has said himself that he has said versus what intermediaries have said, what the Iranians have been saying, either publicly or privately, it’s a huge gulf, and it is very hard to know what is actually happening, frankly, from either government.

In terms of the Iranians, I will say, look, they are facing economic difficulties. There’s no question about that. But gauging exactly what that means is quite hard. And as you say, the economic issues that are being created by the energy crisis from this war are pretty measurable in terms of the cost of gas at the pump.

And so we’ll see if President Trump gets more engaged in the midterms and feels as if there’s some personal interest in it for him. He has not been there for the most part, according to almost everybody I talk to. Maybe he will decide he wants to travel. But as long as gas prices remain where they are, it’s not a great climate for his party.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper.

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