One of Fox News’ most respected voices is now warning that Donald Trump’s campaign push may be doing Republicans no good at all.
Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume, 83, told host Bret Baier on Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, that President Donald Trump’s campaigning does not appear to be making any difference for Republicans.
“The president has been out campaigning vigorously, but I’m not sure it’s making any difference, and what difference it makes, I’m not sure is helping,” Hume said on “Special Report with Bret Baier.” Election Day sits two weeks away, with the midterms set for Nov. 3.
Putin, Talarico and a Press Room “Fiasco”
Hume used the same broadcast to criticize Trump’s nickname for Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, whom Trump has been calling “Tala-freak-o.” “You see him, he seems mild-mannered, he seems pleasant, he’s not an unattractive candidate, whether you agree with him or not,” he told Baier.
He turned next to the president’s posture toward Russia. “This cuddling up to Vladimir Putin at this moment, and his turning his back seemingly once again on Volodymyr Zelensky, I don’t think that plays well,” Hume said. Trump suspended a package of Russia sanctions that Congress passed last month late Friday, Oct. 16, days after agreeing to buy Russian diesel, and on Monday he told reporters he was open to peace talks with Putin and Xi Jinping without Zelensky at the table.
Hume also called a White House press secretary episode a “fiasco,” a reference, according to The Daily Beast, to Katie Zacharia, who left the role Oct. 16 after less than a week. “They sent the poor person out there with no time to prepare, really, only a matter of a day or two, and it didn’t go well,” he said.
Hume Reaches Back to 1994
Hume laid out the broader danger for his party’s allies on Wednesday, Oct. 14, on the same program, with the network’s own new poll on screen. “The Republicans have to worry that something like that might happen to them in this race, where not only do they lose the close ones but they lose a lot that weren’t even thought to be close, and you get a big washout,” Hume said, adding: “I’m not saying it’s gonna happen, but I think it could happen.”
He had raised 1994 earlier in that broadcast, before the turn to the new numbers. An unpopular then-President Bill Clinton toured the country that year, and Republicans captured both houses of Congress for the first time in four decades — an election 32 years ago, which Hume covered as a reporter at the Clinton White House. Trump, 80, is on the road now as Clinton was then.
Democrats Lead on Inflation and Gas
Republicans trail far behind on the issues voters rank first, Hume said. The Fox News poll gave Democrats a lead of 54 to 45 percent on foreign policy, 55 to 43 percent on gas prices and 57 to 41 percent on inflation, which Hume called “the three major issues.” Baier noted that Democrats now lead in areas where Republicans used to hold the edge, foreign policy above all.
The survey also put Trump’s approval at 36 percent, with 64 percent disapproving. “That is really bad at this stage when he’s out there front and center,” Hume said, adding that the president’s support among Republicans has slipped and that he “might get 36 percent of the vote out.”
Trump has insisted voters treat the midterms as though his own name were on the ballot. Hume said that is “fine if you’re simply trying to turn out Republicans.” The president’s standing, he said, may lead some to wonder whether he should be the face of the campaign at all. Trump has not scaled back, holding rallies in places such as Bullhead City, Ariz., and Wasilla, Alaska.
Power Rankings Project a House Flip
Republicans are clinging to a narrow House majority, and Fox News’ own power rankings project Democrats taking the House back, with the Senate also up for grabs. The Oregon governor’s race has tightened, and Republicans see an opening there. Hume stopped short of writing off his party. “They may be able to overcome it, but it won’t be easy,” he said on Oct. 14.
