Republican strategist knocks Trump for not spending more on GOP candidates

Republican strategist Doug Heye slammed President Trump on Monday for not directing more funding from his super PAC to a variety of GOP campaigns as the Republican Party fights to maintain its control of Congress this fall.

Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that the GOP’s prospects in the midterm elections are “bleak” due in part to a lack of campaign funding.

“Donald wants to spend money on himself. He doesn’t want to give things away, and he wants Republicans to earn it,” he continued, likening competition for campaign funding to Trump’s former reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”

The Atlantic recently reported that the president rejected urges from GOP strategists and leaders to expend more money from his super PAC, MAGA Inc. , on campaigns and chose instead to focus on funding TV commercials that boost his own image.

The president and other Republican leaders are scheduled to attend the RNC’s first-ever midterm convention in Dallas this week. The two-day event, which kicks off Wednesday, seeks to drum up excitement among GOP voters ahead of the November elections.

“We’ll see how some of that, if any of that, changes ultimately in Dallas this week,” Heye said.

“But the other issue is then what Donald Trump talks about. … He tells voters we’ve never been hotter or richer, and voters don’t feel hot right now,” he added.

The strategist also pointed to the president’s sinking approval numbers , which remained at 33 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos survey released at the end of August. Heye explained that when he worked at the RNC, Republicans’ “magic number” for former President Obama was 46 to determine whether or not they could retake power in the House.

“Donald Trump is nowhere near that now,” he continued. “The maps are completely different now with redistricting by Democrats and Republicans, so you don’t have a 63-seat pickup opportunity, but Republicans know that their back is against the wall.”

Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a nonpartisan election analyst, forecasts that Democrats have a 68 percent chance of retaking control of the House this fall. The parties are more evenly tied in the fight for the Senate, in which DDHQ finds there is a 50/50 split in the probability that each wins a majority of the upper chamber’s seats.