U.S. presidential contest is 2 years off, but Trump is already dominating the conversation

Americans are in a bad mood, and that could be good news for Republicans come November.

With high inflation and gas prices putting the squeeze on many people's quality of life, recession around the corner and faith in the government's ability to do anything about it plummeting, it would take a remarkable turnaround to reverse the party's trajectory toward gains in both houses of Congress in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

More than three-quarters of Americans say the country is headed in the wrong direction, including nearly two-thirds of Democrats, according to a poll from the Siena College Research Institute conducted earlier this month for the New York Times.

"It's a staggering number," said Siena's director, Dan Levy. "That doesn't typically bode well for a party who has those conditions."

And while most polls suggest the race for Congress remains close, some have the ruling party trailing by as much as 10 points. 

Former U.S. president Donald Trump tapped into what he called the "incredible opportunity" the midterms present for the Republicans when he returned to Washington this week for the first time since leaving the White House last January. 

Speaking to an audience of Republican lawmakers, former advisers and sympathizers assembled at a downtown D.C. hotel, he painted a bleak picture of a country "brought to its knees" by the Biden administration, beset by crime and diminished on the world stage. 

"Our country is going to hell very fast," he said. "We have become a beggar nation grovelling to other countries for energy."

WATCH | Trump slams Biden record and projects big win in midterms:

A few hours earlier at a separate event, his former vice-president, Mike Pence, promised a "bold and positive agenda" to bring America back from the brink.

While still hesitant to denigrate his former boss, who tried to get him to overturn the 2020 election, Pence did attempt to get a little distance and positioned himself as the forward-looking face of the party.

"I truly do believe that elections are about the future," he told the national conservative student conference. "And it is absolutely essential, at a time when so many Americans are hurting … that we don't give way to the temptation to look back." 

But polls show the former vice-president will have a steep hill to climb to catch up to Trump if both end up vying for the party's presidential nomination.

No one has yet declared their candidacy, but currently, only Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is polling in the double digits against Trump in hypothetical matchups of those who haven't ruled it out. In the Siena poll, 25 per cent of those who say they will vote in the Republican presidential primary chose DeSantis as their nominee over the 49 per cent who prefer Trump and nine per cent who chose Pence.