At a Glance
- President Donald Trump sent a midnight fundraising email titled “I’m alone and in the dark” on January 13, 2026.
- The email warned the MAGA movement will “crumble” if donors miss the mid-month goal.
- A $47 donation within 30 minutes promised a limited-edition 2026 Trump Calendar.
- Why it matters: The message landed one day before Trump told Reuters the U.S. should “cancel” the 2026 midterms.
President Donald Trump emailed supporters minutes after midnight on January 13, 2026, with a bleak subject line: “I’m alone and in the dark.”
The appeal, archived by the Archive of Political Emails, opened with the line “Some people are saying: This is SAD!” and painted a picture of a solitary commander-in-chief laboring over a “dying laptop” while staff had long since left.
Inside the Email
- Location: “the war room”
- Props: one dying laptop, a 72-hour countdown clock
- Mood: “I’m sitting here. Alone.”
Trump, 79, claimed the “radical Left” will flip the House and Senate unless the campaign “crush[es] my first mid-month deadline.”
He listed consequences if Republicans lose:
- Borders open “forever”
- Firearms confiscated
- Children “brainwashed”
- Another “FAKE impeachment” of “your favorite President (ME!)”
The pitch escalated: Democrats are “spending BILLIONS (Dirty Money, I bet)” and “we need a small sacrifice from every red-blooded American.”
Fundraising Offer
A $47 gift within the next 30 minutes would secure a “limited-edition 2026 Trump Calendar,” though Trump shrugged it off as “nothing compared to losing the country.”
A big blue button summed up the urgency: “This is it. No second chances.”
He closed with: “The woke mind virus is infiltrating more Americans every day. This could be our last chance!”
Screenshots posted by political commentator Harry Sisson on January 13 racked up 1.4 million views within hours.
Election Comments Spark Backlash
One day later, in a January 14 Reuters interview, Trump suggested the nation scrap the 2026 midterms altogether.
“It’s some deep psychological thing, but when you win the presidency, you don’t win the midterms,” he said, adding that his second-term start had gone so well that “we shouldn’t even have an election.”
The remarks followed a Lincoln Project report that 18 House races have recently trended Democratic and that Senate control is also in play.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president was “speaking facetiously” and insisted he had been “joking.”
The walk-back did little to quell criticism, especially as Trump continues to hint at a constitutionally barred third term and the White House gift shop already sells “TRUMP 2028” hats.
Key Takeaways
- The midnight email marks one of Trump’s most dramatic fundraising appeals to date.
- Linking donations to the survival of the MAGA movement sets a high-stakes tone heading into the midterms.
- His election-cancellation musings, brushed off as humor by aides, align with ongoing suggestions he may seek to extend his time in office.
- With battleground polls tightening, both the fundraising urgency and the rhetoric are intensifying.
