Republican strategist Doug Heye on Monday issued a dire assessment of the GOP’s prospects in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.

“Look, they’re bleak,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “And they’re bleak because history tells us that this is what happens in midterm elections. They’re also bleak because of where the president’s [polling] numbers are.”

“Republicans know that their back is against the wall,” said Heye, who highlighted two particular challenges facing GOP candidates this fall.

First, he noted that “the Trump campaign has not been spending money to help Republican candidates like it needs to.”

Trump’s political action committee, MAGA Inc., has a reported $400 million war chest, and Trump has claimed he will spend most of it on the midterms “because we don’t want to lose our country.”

But the money is yet to start flowing.

Collins asked why.

“Donald wants to spend money on himself,” Heye replied. “He doesn’t want to give things away. He wants Republicans to earn it. So we still have ‘The Apprentice’ playing out here, to some extent.”

The second problem, Heye said, is Trump’s messaging.

“The other issue is then what Donald Trump talks about, whether he’s off topic or not, or when he’s on topic, he tells voters, ‘We’ve never been hotter or richer,’ and voters don’t feel hot or rich right now,” he said.

Watch the exchange here: