With fewer than 30 days until the US midterm elections, Donald Trump seems determined to still be centre stage despite poll fears that after 3 November he may end up a lame-duck president as a Democratic blue wave sweeps the country.

Our Washington bureau chief, David Smith, has been watching how the president is playing to Republican voters at the start of a blitz of cross-country rallies. It’s, at best, a mixed picture.

As David reports, Trump’s self-belief and message to voters to “pretend” his name is on the ballot reveal a man out of touch with ordinary Americans’ worries about the cost of living and whose promises that the war with Iran will soon be over ring ever more hollow.

And then there are the candidates, more of whom are shying away from their earlier allegiances to a president whose approval ratings continue to slide.

Republican analysts view Trump’s contribution to the midterm campaign as more of a hindrance than help, David discovers. And it’s a view shared by some voters Stephen Starr spoke to in Ohio.

All of which bodes ill for JD Vance, whose “one more chance” messaging is unpicked by columnist Sidney Blumenthal as a strategy that only underlines the view of voters, like the ones in Stephen’s piece, who will vote for change and an America that is not like it is now. I hope that this week’s cover story primes you to make sense of the midterms.

And it comes with an early reminder that due to our printing deadlines, Guardian Weekly won’t carry news of the results immediately but we will provide in-depth analysis of what they mean in our 13 November issue. Get the Guardian Weekly delivered to your home address Five