Back in 1979, radio or vinyl record listeners might have at first bopped their heads to “I Don’t Like Mondays” by The Boomtown Rats, with its upbeat, almost theatrical piano-pop melody and soaring, choir-backed chorus. However, lead singer Bob Geldof wrote the track, which spent four weeks atop the U.K. singles chart, after reading a news report about an elementary school shooting in San Diego. The 16-year-old shooter, Brenda Ann Spencer, was asked by police why she committed the crime and notoriously replied, “I don’t like Mondays, this livened up the day.”

In 1991, Elvis Costello’s “The Other Side of Summer” sounded to many at first like a bright, upbeat, sun-drenched power-pop song in the vein of The Beach Boys’ “Wall of Sound” production style. Yet the song, which reached No. 1 on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart, actually explores a dark, cynical underbelly of the “California Dream.” The song’s major-chord melody is juxtaposed against grim lyrics about pollution, wealth disparity, and social chaos.

Six years later came “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind, with an infectious “Doo, doo, doo” chorus. Often remembered as a feel-good ‘90s anthem, the song, which peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, is really about a couple’s descent into crystal meth addiction.

Now, Trump’s own political version of this theme between two opposing, seemingly irreconcilable parts is accelerating as the 2026 primary season hits full swing. Fealty to Trump in the GOP base gives him the power to knock off elected Republicans he doesn’t like. At the same time, Trump’s approval ratings are nosediving into dangerously low territory amid spiking gas prices and other related affordability issues. With the midterm elections five months off, House Democrats have a good shot at winning a majority, and Republican Senate control no longer looks so secure.

To be sure, Trump and his political team already have serious political bragging rights for the 2026 election cycle. Starting with five of seven state senators in Indiana who defied Team Trump by thwarting a proposed new congressional district map. The redistricting plan aimed to turn the current 7-2 Hoosier State House delegation advantage into a 9-0 shutout.

Then came the desultory third-place primary finish of Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Cassidy voted to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, during the president’s interregnum as a private citizen.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was next. In recent months, the libertarian iconoclast grew increasingly critical of Trump and congressional Republican leaders. Massie touted his opposition to the war in Iran and his work with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to release Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who was once a friend of Trump. The president blasted Massie as “a third-rate grandstander” who deserved to be ousted from the party. That’s just what happened in his deep-red, northern Kentucky district, where suburbs, exurbs of Cincinnati, and more rural areas converge. Massie lost the May 19 Republican primary against Ed Gallrein, a retired Navy SEAL officer.

Trump’s month of revenge reached its peak with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s victory in the state’s May 26 Senate Republican primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who has been a senator for nearly 24 years. Trump saw Cornyn, previously the No. 2 Senate Republican for eight years, as insufficiently loyal, despite a voting record reflecting near-total support of his administration’s agenda.

“Donald Trump is in complete and total control of the Republican Party,” GOP pollster Frank Luntz wrote on X, moments after Cornyn conceded to Paxton. “He can beat just about any Republican in just about any state in just about any primary.”

Fresh off Trump’s string of wins against Republican foes, he has no shortage of targets for the 2028 election cycle, when his presidency will be winding down. How politically potent Trump is by that point, with the Republican base and broader election, remains to be seen in what’s political light years away. But Trump has already made his distaste known for several current GOP lawmakers.

Rand on the run? Highly unlikely

The Massie primary defeat wouldn’t seem to bode well for another Bluegrass State libertarian leading light: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Trump repeatedly attacked Paul for supporting Massie, who shares the senator’s libertarian instincts.

Trump also has criticized Paul for voting against the administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, its sweeping 2025 tax and spending law. Paul, who was first elected to the Senate in 2010 and faces reelection in 2028, said the Trump plan would worsen an already exploding national debt, due to the inclusion of hundreds of billions in new spending.

Paul, like Massie, has also criticized Trump’s decision to attack Iran. That’s an unsurprising position for Paul, a practicing ophthalmologist before entering politics. Paul strongly opposes foreign entanglements, nation-building, and prolonged military interventions. All part of a limited-government ideology inherited from his father, former Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the Libertarian Party’s White House candidate in 1988 and a contender for the Republican presidential nominations in 2008 and 2012.

Yet Rand Paul, 63, wouldn’t likely be the inviting Kentucky Republican primary target that Massie became this year. While his legislative tactics and unpredictability have riled his Senate Republican colleagues, he’s not quite the intraparty antagonist Massie has proven over nearly 14 years in the House. It’s a Senate version of his father, who during his third and final House stint, from 1997 to 2013, seemed to have a tacit agreement with GOP leaders to back the party on procedural votes, even if the elder Paul, now 90, was likely to vote no on spending bills and other proposals he considered profligate and/or unconstitutional.

The suburban Republican who bucks Trump

Trump, in late May, tore into Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) for voting “against me all the time.” That’s nowhere close to true — Fitzpatrick cast votes aligned with Trump about two-thirds of the time in 2026.

Still, it’s not hard to see the origin of Trump’s anger against Fitzpatrick. The former FBI agent, 52, who was first elected to the House in 2018 and now represents a district that includes all of Bucks County, a mostly suburban, politically split area north of Philadelphia, and a sliver of Montgomery County, which strongly voted against Trump in 2024, even as Trump won Pennsylvania for the second time in three presidential campaigns. Fitzpatrick’s district, in fact, is among three that elected a Republican House member while backing Trump’s vanquished Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Fitzpatrick recently said he is going after Trump’s proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund,” which critics are calling a “slush fund.”

Fitzpatrick and Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) have introduced the “Bipartisan Transparency for American Taxpayers Act.” It would prohibit the use of federal funds for payments made through the Justice Department’s newly created fund, maintained by the federal government for the purposes of paying court-ordered remedies.

Critics contend the fund could be used to pay convicted Jan. 6 participants, all of whom have already been pardoned by Trump. Fitzpatrick isn’t having it. The day before he and Suozzi introduced the legislation, Fitzpatrick had sent a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche seeking immediate transparency on three questions: Where is the money coming from? Who is eligible to receive the money? Under what legal authority is DOJ creating a discretionary compensation fund of this scale without explicit congressional authorization, court approval, or judicial oversight?

For Trump, it’s too late to move against Fitzpatrick this election cycle, because the Republican primary has already passed. Fitzpatrick faces Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie, the Democratic nominee, in the general election. It’s a top-tier race for House Democrats, who need to net three seats to win a majority in the 435-member chamber.

Fitzpatrick’s seat is one of four in Pennsylvania held by Republicans that House Democrats are heavily targeting. But should Fitzpatrick survive, as he has in several previous high-profile contests, Trump is unlikely to forget ahead of the 2028 GOP primary.

Rocky Mountain bye?

Filing deadlines are thwarting Trump’s wishes to find a Republican primary challenger against a different incumbent, and one who was long among his most loyal and prominent allies: Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO).

The Colorado primary is June 30, but the filing deadline was March 18, so it’s too late for the president to use his political clout against Boebert in Colorado’s 4th Congressional District, covering eastern Colorado and Denver exurbs.

Boebert’s political sin? At least in Trump’s eyes? Campaigning for Massie in his doomed Kentucky GOP primary bid. The pair of House Republicans have been allies on the Epstein files and related matters.

Boebert, 39, was among a handful of House Republicans who signed a bipartisan discharge petition to force a floor vote on the release of the files. The Trump administration attempted to stop her, even taking Boebert into the White House Situation Room to urge her to remove her name from the petition, but she refused.

When it became clear the proposal had enough support to pass, virtually all Republicans joined House Democrats in support, and lawmakers voted 427-1 to release the documents.

After the unredacted files were released, Boebert posted to social media to sound the alarm on the contents, describing them as “sick” and highlighting “emails about torture” and child trafficking.

Trump has never forgiven or forgotten. Late last year, he vetoed a bipartisan water infrastructure bill co-sponsored by Boebert for her home district in Colorado. The president made clear that the Epstein files episode was the primary motive for his veto.

On May 16, Trump took to Truth Social to solicit a primary challenger to Boebert, calling her “weak-minded” and “very difficult.” Yet even if Trump still bears a grudge against Boebert heading into the 2028 election cycle — a pretty good bet — Colorado’s political complexion may be starkly different, based on how House districts are drawn.

WHY DOESN’T TRUMP JUST FINISH THE JOB IN IRAN?

In 2018, Colorado voters adopted an independent redistricting commission. The House delegation stands at four Democrats and four Republicans. Amid a national redistricting war, Democrats in the increasingly blue state have proposed a measure for the November 2026 ballot that would impose a new map for the remainder of the decade.

Should the measure qualify for the ballot and pass, the evenly split House delegation would likely turn into a 7-1 blue romp. Boebert would likely be a top target, particularly over her — until recently at least — indefatigable support for Trump and confrontational political style since joining the House in January 2021.

David Mark (@DavidMarkDC) is the managing editor of the Washington Examiner magazine.