The midterms

I would agree with Ezra that it appears that Trump has given up on the idea of Republicans winning the midterms via participation in "free and fair" elections.

But I don't agree that he's ok with losing the midterms. I think he just plans to stay in control using other methods than winning the hearts and minds of voters.

So what might he do? He's already trying to reduce the Democratic vote by making voting harder. And I wouldn't be surprised if he staffed all polling places with military/ICE or even declared martial law in order to suspend the elections.

Ezra doesn't understand why Trump doesn't do the obvious things he could to regain the support of voters. I think what Ezra's misses is that when you are a despot, you don't have to care about being popular. In fact, part of what proves how powerful you are is that you can force people to bend to your will whether they like it or not.