Trump un-cancels weekend rallies just hours after scrapping them

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Oct 30, 2026

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President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course Friday said he would address weekend campaign rallies backing Republican congressional candidates in red states just hours after scrapping them amid grim midterm polls.

Trump now says he will jet into Kansas and Iowa for in-person rallies on Sunday after all, flip-flopping from his previous claim that he wouldn’t address the events because Republican candidates were leading and no longer need as much support.

That assertion that doesn’t align with the majority of this week’s polls predicting a Democratic blue wave that could sweep his opponents into control of both the House and Senate after Election Day on Tuesday.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that he wants the midterms to be a referendum on his leadership and often tells crowds to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”

But pundits on both sides of the political aisle question the effectiveness of that strategy when voters overwhelmingly say they disapprove of Trump’s performance in his second term and disagree with policies like his war with Iran, trade wars with allies including Canada and his administration’s harsh mass deportation campaign.

Trump planned to address a rally Friday night in Daytona Beach, Florida. He now says he will go ahead with previously planned rallies in Kansas and Iowa on Sunday, just two days before Election Day.

His speeches have mostly drawn relatively small crowds compared to his presidential campaigns, even in deep-red strongholds, suggesting they are not moving the political needle much.

All three states Trump now plans to visit are Republican strongholds that GOP candidates were once confident of carrying by healthy margins because Trump himself won by 13% or more in 2024.

The shifting political climate has propelled Democrats into a virtual dead heat in the Senate race in Iowa and a narrow lead in Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democratic senator in 90 years. Florida’s Senate contest is closer than anyone expected despite the Sunshine State’s dramatic shift to the right.

The story is virtually the same in several red states including Texas, Ohio and Alaska where Democrats have taken leads, giving the opposition party a good chance of winning the four GOP-held seats they need to take control of the Senate.

The outlook is even grimmer for Republicans in the House, where pollsters predict Democrats will easily retake control, perhaps with a significant margin to spare.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance have mostly spent their time seeking to shore up endangered Republicans in once-solid red states and districts.

It’s far from clear that strategy is working, as Democrats claim an edge in early voting in several states, claims the GOP mostly disputes.

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