Call the interior decorators. The White House has changed hands again.

You might not know it from the way he spent months trying to overturn the
results of the 2020 election, but Donald Trump actually hated being
president. �I loved my previous life. I had so many things going...this is
more work than in my previous life,� he told Reuters in 2017. �I thought
it would be easier.� Yes, it was an extremely rude awakening for the
reality TV show host to learn that being president was an actual job and a
pretty difficult one at that. Necessarily, he made some changes to the gig
to make it more palatable to him�reportedly watching hours of TV a day,
rolling up to the Oval Office at noon, not reading his intelligence
briefings�but when it came to the actual work of running the country, he
was not a fan. What he did like about being POTUS was the power, and he
especially loved holding rallies where his supporters would hang on his
every incomprehensible word and aside like he was an authoritarian ruler.
So naturally, he�s bringing them back.

The New York Post reports that Trump�s team �is in the process of
selecting venues� for a pair of rallies in June, with a third expected to
take place around the Fourth of July. While Trump has done interviews
since leaving Washington, he�s yet to address his base via the campaign-
style rallies he held during his four years in office, as the Post noted,
the last one being the �Stop the Steal� speech he gave shortly before his
supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Joe Biden from
becoming president.

What can one expect from the trio of summer events? Certainly, there will
be long, rambling claims about how he won the election and that the
Democrats and fake-news media stole it from him. Obviously he�ll also
undoubtedly blather on at length about the terrible job Biden is
supposedly doing, like he did at some poor couple�s wedding in March:
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Elsewhere, odds are high to extremely high he�ll complain about not
getting enough credit for the COVID-19 vaccines; attack Liz Cheney and
other Republicans who had the audacity to blame him for January 6; mock
the lower third of Mitch McConnell�s face; and revive his one-sided feud
with showerheads and toilets. He�ll most likely also continue to tease a
2024 run for the White House.

And speaking of Trump and bids for office, Bloomberg reports that as
Republicans hope to regain control of Congress in the 2022 midterms, data
reveals that an endorsement from the ex-president may be the kiss of
death:
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The former president is studying races and plans to bestow his
superlative-laden endorsements around the country in many 2022 primary or
general election contests for the U.S. House, Senate, and governorships,
according to a person familiar with his thinking. While those nods can
still be the golden ticket in a Republican primary and solidly GOP
districts, they also can energize independents and Democrats who don�t
like Trump in competitive districts�risking defeat for Republican
candidates in the general election and with it possible control of the
House, according to studies of the 2018 and 2020 campaigns.

In Colorado, Trump�s endorsement last year of Republican senator Cory
Gardner in a race that leaned Democratic helped shore up his standing
among Republicans, according to David Flaherty, a Colorado�based
Republican�leaning pollster and founder of Magellan Strategies. A Magellan
poll in October showed Gardner had 89% support among Republicans. But
Flaherty said Trump�s backing alienated unaffiliated voters who turned out
in large numbers in the general election, and Gardner lost to Democrat
John Hickenlooper by more than 9 percentage points. That dynamic means
Trump could swing a close race the wrong way for Republicans in a suburban
district by shifting blame for his actions and policies onto the GOP
candidate.

Earlier this month, Trump announced his support for Susan Wright, who
was running in a special election to replace her late husband,
Representative Ron Wright, in a safe Republican district in Texas. He
claimed that �Susan surged after I gave her an endorsement last week.�
Wright was the top vote-getter but failed to avoid a runoff. In fact,
almost 70% of the votes cast for Republicans in the crowded field were for
someone besides Wright.

�Certainly on balance, this would suggest that an endorsement from Trump
could be hurtful in the general election with independents,� Northeastern
University professor David Lazer told Bloomberg. Thus far, Trump has
endorsed 22 individuals for House, Senate, and statewide races, per
Bloomberg, backing that may turn out to be a death blow for the
candidates.v