Earlier in September, President Donald Trump promised to hit the campaign trail and help Republicans preserve their House and Senate majorities in the upcoming midterms. He presented himself as the party’s closing act, ready to visit dozens of places during the final stretch.

“I’m going to take the final 30 days, and maybe a little bit more than that, because it’s all about 35 races,” Trump said Sept. 2 at a White House dinner. “I’m going to go to every one of those 35 places, and we’re going to see if we can get everyone elected.”

Trump specifically named Alaska and Texas among the states he intended to visit. Republican nominees are struggling in both states, despite each traditionally being Republican territory.

But the emerging campaign schedule tells a much less triumphant story. Rather than sending Trump into those difficult contests, the White House is dispatching him to Alabama and Oklahoma, two states considered reliably Republican.

The retreat reflects Republican concerns that Trump is too unpopular and politically radioactive to provide useful help in Alaska or Texas. His presence, Republicans fear, could cause more trouble than it solves.

That leaves Trump holding rallies in places where Republicans believe he cannot do enough damage to flip seats. It is less a showcase of political strength than a carefully managed containment strategy with campaign music.

“Midterm rallies in Oklahoma and Alabama are the political equivalent of palliative care,” Democratic strategist John Hagner wrote in a post on X.

The mockery is not limited to Democrats. Michigan Republican consultant Dennis Lennox offered an equally blunt interpretation of why Trump is being directed toward safe Republican territory rather than the contests he originally highlighted.

“Why is Trump going to Oklahoma and Alabama? Anyone who has ever worked on a campaign knows the move. When a problematic volunteer, donor or surrogate with the principal’s ear wants to help, you exile them somewhere they can’t do real damage. This is that,” Lennox wrote in a post on X.

As political operatives compared the rallies to fulfilling Trump’s Make a Wish desires, the White House attempted to put a more flattering gloss on the itinerary. The claim was that rallies in Alabama and Oklahoma could influence competitive contests in nearby states.

The Republican National Committee argued that an Oklahoma rally would receive coverage in neighboring Texas. It also claimed that an Alabama appearance would reach voters in the Florida panhandle.

“Durant, Oklahoma sits on the Texas border, next to the Dallas–Fort Worth media market, letting President Trump boost statewide candidates in both Oklahoma and Texas with a single stop,” an unnamed RNC official told CNN’s Patrick Svitek.

The official continued: “The Mobile, Alabama media market reaches into the Florida panhandle, a Republican stronghold, powering up Senate and Governor’s races in two states at once. And this is just the start. More October rallies are coming in the weeks ahead.”

There is one rather inconvenient problem with that explanation. Durant, Oklahoma, is not in the Dallas media market, puncturing the RNC’s attempt to portray the stop as an efficient way to boost candidates across state lines.

The party’s spin is especially strained because Republicans in the states facing difficult races say Trump himself is contributing to their troubles. Instead of serving as the obvious solution, he is part of the political problem they must navigate.

“It’s going to take a Herculean effort to hold the seat,” an unnamed “veteran Texas GOP operative bracing for a Talarico victory” told Politico.

That operative also predicted an extraordinary round of recriminations if Republicans lose. “The Monday morning quarterbacking is going to be biblical. … The hand-wringing and the blaming. Paxton will blame Cornyn. Trump will blame Paxton. Trump should blame himself.”

Trump began the month vowing to travel to every one of 35 places and rescue Republican candidates. The developing plan instead sends him toward Alabama and Oklahoma while party officials scramble to explain how appearances in safe territory are somehow meant to solve Republican problems elsewhere.