Trump and Republicans Ensconce Themselves in 2020 in Lieu of Any 2026 Midterms Strategy

This is your TPM evening briefing.

Jul 29, 2026

Dr. Anthony Fauci pleads the fifth as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) berates him. TPM illustration/Getty Images

By now, you may have seen the headlines about Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) dragging former Trump and Biden administration health official Dr. Anthony Fauci before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — during which he berated him for pleading the fifth and kicked Fauci’s attorney out of the hearing.

While the senator is not exactly an orthodox MAGA zealot, Paul has been fixated on Fauci — as many MAGA-aligned conspiracy theorists were back in 2020 — for years. Fauci became the target of far-right meltdowns over mask mandates, social distancing guidelines, quarantine procedures, vaccine requirements and questions about the virus’ origins — and more generally a scapegoat for any and all political angst with the nation’s response to and handling of the sweeping global catastrophe.

It’s been clear for some time that various components of the MAGA movement are out for blood when it comes to Fauci. Republican fixation with the doctor is part of why President Biden issued Fauci a preemptive pardon at the end of his term.

During his opening statement to Paul’s panel on Wednesday, Fauci outlined his intention to “invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions” due to Paul’s “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me” and Paul’s recent decision to release Fauci’s personal diary publicly.

“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this committee is to get me to say something — anything — that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words — quote — ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said.

“Any reasonable person who has followed his unhinged obsession with me would readily come to the same conclusion,” he continued. “Therefore, although it pains me to do so because of the respect I have for the legislative branch of government and my decades-long record of cooperating with Congress, under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”

At one point during the hearing Paul had Fauci’s lawyer removed from the hearing room for trying to speak. That attorney, David Schertler, later told NBC News that all he was trying to say was that Fauci “has a valid Fifth Amendment privilege, and he has the right to assert it.” During his line of questioning, Paul also suggested that Fauci would face “repercussions” for pleading the fifth during his testimony.

“The committee will have to consider after this hearing what appropriate action should be taken against you for the failure to testify after being directed to do so,” Paul said. “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions to your refusal to testify today.”

Paul’s obsession with Fauci may border on pathological, but dragging Fauci before his panel, now, just a few months out from the midterms, is in line with a broader phenomenon among elected Republicans: they’re rolling back the tapes to the glory days of the MAGA movement, when Trump’s fervent base of supporters had plenty of time to indulge his conspiracy theories.

In 2020, Americans had not yet been slammed by the waves of inflation the pandemic set off. There was no new, extremely unpopular war. 2020 was a time when MAGA was united amid the anger and chaos of a global pandemic, an ultimately short-lived reckoning with systemic racism, and Trump’s attempt to steal an election. It was an environment in which conspiracy theories thrived, and which elected Republicans now seem to miss.

Absent any other coherent midterms strategy — which Trump is denying Republicans by living and dying by his attachment to the SAVE Act passing before the midterms — the president, more than anyone, is returning to the past of 2020.

“Many more people died of Covid under the Biden Administration than under the Trump Administration,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday morning, lending his support to Paul’s plans for antagonizing Fauci. “‘Operation Warp Speed’ was a SPECTACULAR SUCCESS, in fact, many say, one of the most successful things ever done by an American President. I overrode Fauci on this. His ideas were CRAZY! Also, I said from the beginning that the Virus came from the Wuhan Laboratory in China. Fauci strongly disagreed, always trying to protect China.”

Of course, it’s not just COVID grievances that Trump is hellbent on resurrecting. While he is throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks in terms of disenfranchising millions and trying to unconstitutionally exert federal power over election administration before the midterms — he is primarily focused on using his administration’s investigative latitude to re-litigate the 2020 election, and his conspiracy theories that go along with it. His DOJ has sent grand jury subpoena for election records to one major county that was a hotbed for Trump’s 2020 conspiracy theories, and the FBI has raided Fulton County, Georgia. And his billed-as-major primetime speech supposedly meant to present new evidence to the public about election fraud ended up being, mostly, a rerun of all his 2020 election grievances.

Six years later with his approval rating the lowest it’s ever been, Trump appears to be yearning for a simpler era when he — and his delusions — were at the height of their influence and relevance.

Speaking of That Unpopular War

Some key findings from a new Quinnipiac University poll on President Trump and his detested war with Iran:

Thirty-four percent of voters support the U.S. military action against Iran and 60 percent oppose it, which is the lowest support of the U.S. military action against Iran and the highest opposition to it since Quinnipiac University first began asking this question in early March after the U.S. – Iran war started.

And:

Thirty-two percent of voters approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president, while 58 percent disapprove, with 10 percent not offering an opinion.
Trump’s 32 percent approval is an all-time low approval rating for him in a Quinnipiac University poll.

Odd Bedfellows

The Alex Jones conspiracy theorist community and Democrats continue to agree on some things. Similar to the Tucker Carlson following recently breaking with Trump over his war with Iran, Alex Jones has been beating this drum for a bit too.

While ominously warning his viewers that Trump is supposedly preparing to launch a national draft to put boots on the ground in his ongoing campaign against Iran, he said that Trump should be impeached. (Earlier this year Trump’s White House did not rule out the possibility of a draft, which is what, it appears(?), Jones is referring to with this.)

“The big issue is how to stop Trump. And we have to have Congress go for the war powers. They’ve tried three times to vote on war powers — they’re supposed to authorize a war. This is a war; they’re getting the draft ready. If this isn’t a war, nothing’s a war. I mean, this is absolutely out of control,” Jones said during a live broadcast on Twitter. “And so I’m calling for it right now: 25th Amendment, impeachment, whatever needs to happen to get this front and center, to get control of our country.”