Democrats find the mud that finally sticks to Trump
Jessica Gardner United States correspondent
Nov 2, 2026
Weeks out from the 2016 presidential election, the revelation of leaked audio of then-Republican nominee Donald Trump boasting that he could grope and kiss women without their consent caused a political crisis.
His communications aide and confidant Hope Hicks would later testify that she thought the release of the Access Hollywood tapes – exemplified by the repugnant “grab ’em by the pussy” line – would be “devastating” to the campaign.
President Donald Trump with Donald Trump Jnr. The Democratic Party is capitalising on a feeling that Trump and his family are getting rich off the presidency. Bloomberg
And fair enough. The reasonable assumption was that a man could not face what were essentially sexual abuse allegations so close to an election and still win. But Trump evaded the knockout blow most Democrats and even many Republicans thought he had coming.
Then, a little over four years later, when Trump refused to accept the result of the 2020 election, even more grounds to challenge his fitness to serve in future were gifted to the Democrats. His unprecedented campaign seeking to rewrite the 2020 loss culminated in the January 6 Capitol riot by his supporters.
And yet, when he ran again in 2024, Americans shrugged off the still fresh memories of another scandal to return the former real estate developer and reality TV personality to the White House.
Both times, the Democratic Party tried to use the obvious stains on his character to their advantage. In 2016, audio from the Access Hollywood tapes was spliced into targeted advertising with footage of everyday young women and girls, in a bid to highlight the vulgarity and mobilise moderate female Republican and independent voters.
In 2024, the Democrats framed the presidential race as a battle for democracy and repeatedly warned that Trump was an ongoing and existential threat to American ideals forged in the Revolutionary War.
The short history of failed attacks on Trump’s character matters because, in the 2026 midterm election campaign, the Democratic Party appears to have finally found some mud to stick.
In the lead-up to the November 3 midterm elections, the party has landed on a devastating one-two punch that links angst about the cost of living to the growing feeling that Trump, his family and his inner circle are getting rich off the presidency.
Some Democratic candidates have worked to directly tie corruption to the high cost of living. “This corruption is why nothing works for ordinary people,” Georgia senator Jon Ossoff said at a recent rally. “It’s why you pay a fortune for prescriptions. It’s why your insurance company gets away with denying your cancer treatment.”
There is plenty of money behind the message, too. More than $US275 million has been spent on ads about corruption this election cycle, according to AdImpact, with Democrats accounting for about $US173 million and Republicans for roughly $US93 million.
But where Republicans are highlighting corruption issues such as government overspending and welfare fraud controversies, the latter of which amplifies its crackdown on immigrants, the Democrats’ message ties directly into affordability. And this is the issue that has dogged Trump throughout his second term, and ties directly to his tariff agenda and war in Iran.
The most surprising thing, though, is that a broader message about fairness is landing too. That is, Trump’s cronies are getting richer while you are doing it tough.
As one Ohio voter put it to me last week: “I voted for him to run the country as a business, and he hasn’t done that. [He has focused on] self-glory and to make himself richer”.
Mick Mulvaney, who acted as Trump’s chief of staff for 15 months in the first administration, says, “Americans have always suspected their government’s a little corrupt”. When the times have been good, they have turned a blind eye.
For a ruggedly libertarian place, where the pursuit of individual wealth and self-ownership is paramount, that is perhaps not surprising.
But with inflation back at 3.7 per cent, and artificial intelligence causing angst, American eyes are opening.
US correspondent Jessica Gardner explains what you need to know ahead of the midterm election on November 3.
Conflicts of interest
“You combine some of the very high-profile things that this administration has done, that the Trump family has done, the Trump inner circle has done, and you combine that with the economic hardships created by inflation, and you get these polling results,” says Mulvaney, who is a special adviser to former treasurer Joe Hockey’s Bondi Partners. A poll by the firm found that 83 per cent of voters agreed that cracking down on corruption in Washington should be a priority to bring down prices.
There is certainly a whiff of corruption in the US capital, or at least a stench of conflict of interest.
Some of the smelly stories include Trump’s eldest son Donald Jnr holding a stake in a rare earth magnet maker that received a $US620 million loan from the Pentagon. Then there was Don Jnr’s wedding bankrolled by a Russian oligarch. And Trump’s son-in-law and foreign policy envoy Jared Kushner used talks with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine to broker the sale of oil fields and other energy assets to a group that includes a Trump donor. The New York Timesfound that 14 companies working with the federal government on mining deals have ties to the Trump family, or the family of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
As for Trump, his wealth has increased by roughly $US2.7 billion since he won the 2024 election, which Forbes puts down to cryptocurrency ventures and overseas deals. Even his posts on Truth Social help earn him money through a data feed sold to traders.
If Democrats win the House on Tuesday, which feels inevitable at this point even though the Senate remains too close to call, the newfound political message will be enough to throw Trump off balance as he embarks on the last stretch of his decade-plus dominance of the US political landscape.
Expect the party to hammer the message in every oversight committee they control and on the campaign trail all the way to 2028.
Mulvaney says Democrats run the risk of blunting their message if the next two years descend into a series of show trials of cabinet secretaries, but he still expects there to be fireworks.
“The headlines will be scandalous, and there may be some scandal to uncover.”
