Trump's summer of sabotage

Congressional Republicans are preparing to share the stage with a president who has spent the August recess complicating their efforts to run their races on their own terms.

Why it matters: Republican lawmakers fled Washington for the latter part of the summer, eager to localize their races.

• But President Trump keeps nationalizing the election.
• In the process, he's staking out positions that run counter to GOP orthodoxy on issues including beef imports and child care subsidies.

Driving the news: The Trump administration's plan to extend federal child care subsidies to families with a stay-at-home parent is the latest policy flashpoint.

• His call to rename New Mexico is his most recent cultural one.
• The child care proposal — championed by Vice President Vance — sparked backlash from some conservative lawmakers and pundits who tagged the policy as "socialism" at a time when Republicans have made anti-socialism a central campaign message.
• And whatever the merits of calling New Mexico "New America," it's likely not what Greg Cunningham, the GOP candidate in NM-03, will focus on when he takes the stage at the convention.

Between the lines: Although Trump isn't formally taking attendance at the convention, there will be some notable absences.

• Sen. Susan Collins won't make it — and isn't making an excuse. Sen. Dan Sullivan will stay home to prepare for a Saturday debate.
• More than 100 GOP lawmakers are expected to skip the event.

Zoom out: Trump has repeatedly forced Republicans to grapple with policies that aggravate their constituencies or collide with their own ideological convictions.

• His plan to import up to 300,000 metric tons of beef tariff-free for 90 days inflamed GOP lawmakers in red states.
• More than a dozen GOP senators publicly criticized the move, warning it would hurt American cattle ranchers.

Imposing higher tariffs on Canadian goods threatened to bring a trade war to two must-win border states: Maine and Michigan.

• And his call Monday to target Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier could have outsized economic implications in Kansas, a red state with an increasingly competitive Senate race.
• Trump ally Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) was forced to break with Trump over the call to boycott. Bombardier is a key employer in Kansas.

Republicans are taking an à la carte approach to data centers, which have suddenly become a political liability. Candidates in both parties have been scrambling to distance themselves from the industry.

• But Trump isn't brooking any nuance on the issue, calling communities that oppose data centers "backwards and poor." He doubled down four days later.

Trump reacted to a surprisingly strong jobs report Friday by threatening to cut off trade with certain countries unless the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates.

• Congressional Republicans spent months defending the Fed's independence amid the administration's attacks on then-chair Jerome Powell — even leading to a hold-up on the confirmation of Trump's chosen new Fed chair.
• Trump seems to be wading back into the interest rates fight as inflation and affordability become the GOP's biggest election concerns.

Trump is also restarting hostilities with Iran, dashing any GOP hopes that gas prices will drop before November.

The bottom line: With less than two months to go until Election Day, Trump's coattails are increasingly looking short or nonexistent — and this week's midterm convention could either reverse or entrench that trend.