Trump’s Midterm Convention ‘Mess’ May Be Signaling a Larger Comms Problem

You are reading a special free preview of Mediaite’s daily newsletter — the Mediaite One Sheet: a fast, five-minute briefing that curates the best of the media newsletters. Subscribe today at a special new (lower) price to get the One Sheet delivered direct to your inbox five days a week!

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

TOP STORY

TRUMP’S MESSAGING PROBLEM

The GOP will hold a midterm party convention in Dallas next week, an event that’s been dubbed “Trump-a-palooza” and that’s generating more questions than answers. The fledgling event is a signal that President Donald Trump may have a messaging problem. The convention was supposed to be the venue where he was going to deliver the midterm message, but it is having trouble getting off the ground. And not only that, his comms department is missing a quarterback right now, with Karoline Leavitt gone.

So how can Trump and the White House formulate — and push — a message that will land with voters? That’s the top story in our today. Despite RNC Chair Joe Gruters’ insistence that the convention “will unite Republicans,” it seems the reality is anything but.

THREE TAKES

The Bulwark’s Press Pass, Joe Perticone — There’s an “easy way to determine how concerned House Republicans are about Trump dragging them down in this fall’s midterm elections,” Perticone wrote today. Just “ask them whether they plan to be seen at the GOP’s 2026 national convention that will take place next week. It turns out the president’s “cratering approval ratings” will lead to a lot of  no-shows, and those ratings have “spooked vulnerable House Republicans into staying far from the grand celebration of all things Trump.” The list of those who don’t seem keen to go includes Rep. Juan Ciscomani  (AZ), Rep. French Hill (AR), Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA), Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (FL), Rep. Rob Bresnahan (PA), Rep. John McGuire (VA), Rep. Eli Crane (AZ), and Rep. Nick LaLota (NY).

POLITICO Playbook, Megan Messerly, Dasha Burns, Adam Wren, and Will Steakin — POLITICO surveyed even more GOP candidates and members (over 70 in all) and also found that “most either don’t plan to attend or are still weighing whether to go to Trump’s midterms convention in Texas next week.” They cited any number of reasons they plan to eschew Trump-a-palooza, as the event is being privately described. For some, the exorbitant price tag – $25,000 — is too high; for others, the event will simply be “a waste of time.”

The Poynter Report, Tom Jones — Jones’s focus was more on day-to-day messaging. The White House plans to hold a press briefing Thursday, Sept. 2, but “we don’t know is who will hold the briefing.” Karoline Leavitt departed the role at the end of August, and so far, Trump hasn’t named a successor. There’s also no telling why that is, and Jones posed several possible outcomes, including that the president himself could take the podium, mostly because it’s possible he “has his mind on a million other things and figures that replacing Leavitt isn’t a priority, particularly when he is often available to talk to the press.”

TAKEAWAY: The closer we get to the midterms, the more it seems Trump is, in true Trumpian fashion, increasingly focused on himself: his messaging, his plans, what he thinks is correct and true. But it appears that some within the party are beginning to take a cue from the president — if not the one Trump wants. They’re looking out for themselves first.

And this ties back to the story we covered earlier in the week about the president’s fiery reaction to Kristen Welker’s commentary challenging the power of his endorsements. A mass no-show from Republicans at the convention will signal their decreasing fear of Trump. The president is trying to sell Americans into voting for the red team in November. But before he can do that, he’s got to bring that increasingly fractured team together.

📰 TOP SCOOPS & ANALYSIS 📰

SCOOP 🍨 Breaker, Lachlan Cartwright — The View will return for its 30th season next week with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as the show’s first guest, Cartwright reported. Cruz will be promoting his upcoming book about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. This comes as the show and ABC/Disney remain locked in a lawsuit against the FCC that centers in part on the network’s accusations the agency has made “unreasonable requests,” such as “requiring them to file early for their license and asking for information on the company’s DEI policies.” Cartwright adds, “The suit pays special attention to The View and the FCC’s criticism that the program reflected poorly on the administration and featured guests critical of Donald Trump.” Cruz has made it clear he’s not a supporter of the FCC.

SCOOP 🍨 Status, Oliver Darcy — Apple’s decision to cave and rename Lake Ontario to Lake America is proof positive that “the company is resigned to conceding such points to the White House to avoid triggering the president’s rage,” Darcy wrote. The decision was “small, yet consequential” and there’s “not a soul” who supports it. Employees at Apple were also “irked” by comments Interior Secretary Doug Bergum made to Fox Business about “reaching out directly” about making the swap. One person at Apple told Darcy that “everyone considers it f*cking nuts.”

SCOOP 🍨 Page Six Hollywood, Ian Mohr — Mark Ruffalo is attempting to apologize “for a pair of recent social media posts that cast Larry Ellison as a Lex Luther-esque billionaire oppressing Gazans and drew the condemnation of a broad swath of Jewish groups including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League,” sources told Mohr this week. States United Democracy Center co-founder Norm Eisen helped him with that task, and Ruffalo apparently asked if they could “enlist ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.” Grenblatt told Eisen no, because he was not “interested in laundering Mark Ruffalo‘s reputation.”

SCOOP 🍨 POLITICO Playbook, Megan Messerly, Dasha Burns, Adam Wren, and Will Steakin— More and more Americans might be against data centers, but for the president, they’re his “Golden Goose,” Playbook wrote today. A senior White House official told Playbook that’s because data centers are considered a win by Trump amid a sea of issues he’s losing on. And that’s saying something, because the feedback isn’t great. “He looks at the polling. He looks at what people are saying. Polling isn’t necessarily great on data centers, but it’s incumbent upon us to explain our position. I think that’s part of what he was trying to do,” the source said. A former Trump administration official also told Playbook, “Trump is married to data centers no matter what because it’s the only real job creator.”

SCOOP 🍨 CJR’s The Interview, Ivan L. Nagy — The Michigan Chronicle’s Sam Robinson has been covering Senatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign from “within,” Nagy wrote today. Robinson has been hitting the street and speaking to voters, who are “hesitant” at first to appear on camera. “I’d say the ratio of people who don’t want to talk on camera compared to those who do is ten-to-one,” he explained. Robinson also spoke about the difference between local and national journalism when a candidate becomes a hot commodity. As he put it, “I’m part of a community, whereas others just parachute into mine.”

ANALYSIS 👀 The Bulwark’s Morning Shots, Bill Kristol and Andrew Egger — Jim Swift covered the death of Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian immigrant and Wright State freshman who recently committed suicide. Bel arrived in Springfield, Ohio, in 2024. He played high school soccer, volunteered with the JROTC, and “before graduating with honors, he was recruited by local Wittenburg University to play on the school team.” He hoped to become a doctor, and was pre-med at Wright State. His temporary protected status was revoked, and he was “fitted with an ankle-strapped GPS tracker.” His family has since said that “teasing from classmates about the monitor contributed to the depression that led Bel to park his car on the shoulder of westbound I-70, get out, and step into the path of a Kenworth tractor-trailer tanker.” He twice traveled to meet ICE officials to ask if the tracker could be removed. “Pierre had come here to escape the unrest, to study, to play soccer, and to build a life—not to commit a crime,” Swift noted.

📈BUSINESS OF MEDIA 🎥

Axios Media Trends, Sara Fischer — What’s old is new again: Venture capital interest is returning to digital media startups, provided they prioritize direct-revenue streams like premium subscriptions and events over algorithm-dependent social and search traffic. So… it’s not just like the old days, actually. This shift has led to a better investment market, with digital startup Puck in late-stage talks with RedBird Capital Partners for an investment valuing the newsletter company around $250 million (which One Sheet readers already know), and Semafor having raised $30 million at a $330 million post-money valuation earlier this year. Creator-driven startups focused on industry coverage and B2B creators, such as Workweek and Beehiiv, are also part of the broader VC funding surge.  QUOTE 📣 Per Front Office Sports CEO, “The best media brands today are ones that matter to their audiences and not to algorithms.”

Breaker, Lachlan Cartwright — Time flies: We’re halfway through the three-year content licensing agreement between OpenAI and Axios. Publisher Nicholas Johnston chatted with the Press Gazette and touched on the strategic goals of the partnership. A lot of publishers are trying to navigate different monetization and copyright protections strategies as the AI era goes on, but Johnston sees this licensing arrangement as a more offensive branding attempt than a passive integration. QUOTE 📣  Johnston says, “When people ask what is happening in the Middle East… I want the answer to be ‘this is what Axios says.”

Feed Me, Emily Sundberg — OpenAI has hired Daniella Rabin, a former collegiate creator marketing specialist from Alex Cooper’s Unwell network, to lead its own collegiate initiatives. This is part of a broader push by artificial intelligence developers to capture and solidify their presence among younger demographics. QUOTE 📣 “She must have a unique position in the college market if she continues to hold job titles focused on campus marketing.”

Awful Announcing’s The A Block, Drew Lerner — The departure of veteran anchor Karl Ravech—who wrapped up a 30-plus-year tenure at ESPN by calling the Little League World Series—has reignited a major industry debate over which icons belong on the sports network’s definitive Mount Rushmore. This is the sort of fun, informed chatter a beat-specific newsletter does best. While names like Linda Cohn and Dan Patrick remain in close contention, Awful Announcing ultimately crowned its definitive list of honorees like this: Stuart Scott, Scott Van Pelt, Stephen A. Smith, and Chris “Boomer” Berman, who served as the staff’s only unanimous selection. QUOTE 📣 “Nobody else has symbolized the rise of ESPN and the force that it would become quite like Chris Berman.”

ADWEEK Daily, Kendra Barnett — Meta’s PR and crisis communications team is following an unorthodox playbook following its landmark multi-state legal settlement over teen safety on social media. Rather than adopting a purely defensive posture, Meta has launched a much more aggressive advertising and public relations campaign designed to pressure competitors YouTube and TikTok to adopt the exact same restrictive teen protocols.

OTHER COOL STUFF

Puck’s Line Sheet — Something for our fashionistas: At the Los Angeles premiere of Practical Magic 2, Nicole Kidman debuted designer Pieter Mulier’s highly anticipated first creative vision for Versace. The mini dress, overlaid with black lace and paired with a black lace choker, was giving vibes reminiscent of “Eyes Wide Shut meets Pretty Woman.”

Awful Announcing’s The A Block — Coach Buddy Stephens, hot-tempered star of Netflix’s hit docuseries Last Chance U, has officially been fired from East Mississippi Community College after sharing his thoughts on the playoff schedule.

👀 WHAT GOT MISSED? 👀

Page Six Hollywood, Ian Mohr — Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) will get “his Hollywood close-up” next week, Mohr reported. He plans to participate in a fundraiser in Brentwood. Tickets begin at $500, and co-hosts will donate or raise $7,500 each. “Ossoff is really having a moment,” a political insider told Mohr. “A Democrat winning in Georgia — that’s something in itself.”

🏆 NEWSLETTER OF THE DAY 🏆

POLITICO Playbook, Megan Messerly, Dasha Burns, Adam Wren, and Will Steakin — Playbook showed up quite a few times in today’s newsletter, making a solid case for Newsletter of the Day. Today’s messaging was particularly interesting because of a series of smaller stories the POLITICO team highlighted: Vice President JD Vance’s attempts to “make inroads with Jewish Republicans,” establishment Democrats who are “clapping back” at Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) after he said that some of them are hoping El-Sayed will lose his Michigan race, and the Trump administration is “still in the early learning stages” when it comes to figuring out Iran. It wasn’t one big, dominant item. It was a collection of smaller items that helped propel Politico’s new Playbook authors to the top spot in today’s stack.

This newsletter was produced by Lindsey Ellefson.