Part II of Steve’s argument is that Trump no longer needs his voters.

He doesn't need them, but he still is paying an awful lot of attention to things he think will be popular. He's obsessed with getting interest rates down. He's pivoting to affordability, even though he doesn't give a rip about it, because that's what his MAGA voters seem unhappy about.

And he absolutely doesn't want the GOP to lose the House - it diminishes his power and gives the Democrats leverage to tie up his administration in a lot of hearings and other carp.

And even if you conclude that Trump is totally done with conventional political motivations, he still has zero "grifter" interest in high oil prices, and an awful lot of "grifter" interest in avoiding chaos in the Middle East (where he has a lot of deals brewing).

Plus, Trump has nothing but a keen sense of self-preservation. He knows, at some level, that he's torn down the walls around DOJ independence. He also has to know that, should a Democrat retake the WH in 2028, the DOJ might be unleased on all of his business interests, his family, and everyone who's ever done a favor for him...in a way that makes his self-pitying delusions of "lawfare" during his interregnum seem like a gentle caress. So he has an interest in not inviting a blue wave that keeps a GOP successor out of the WH.