People in the GOP, White House, and Trump campaign increasingly think they will lose the White House and maybe the Senate too, reports say

• Republicans and White House officials fear that President Donald Trump is headed for defeat, according to a series of recent reports.
• Some fear the GOP could lose control of the Senate in a "blue wave" of Democratic votes in this year's election.
• The gloom from Republicans seems supported by polling data, which paints an increasingly negative picture for Trump.
• Trump's much criticized performance in his debate with Joe Biden, and his behavior when diagnosed with COVID-19, are among factors thought to be alienating voters.

Fears are growing in the Republican Party and the White House that the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, may be on course for a landslide victory in the US election, according to multiple reports.

The weekend brought further gloomy polling data for the Trump campaign, with a poll released Sunday from ABC News and The Washington Post finding Biden leading Trump 53% to 41% among likely voters.

The result matched trends in a series of other recent polls that found the president trailing Biden by 10 points or more.

Swing-state polls brought more bad news, with Biden continuing to hold leads in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, according to data compiled by The New York Times — three states that flipped to the Republicans in 2016.

Though the races in these states are tighter, Biden's lead has been consistent. It led to a rash of bad headlines prompted by worried insiders:

• Citing dozens of White House and Trump campaign officials, the Associated Press on Monday described fears that Trump's widely criticized first debate performance with Biden and erratic response after being diagnosed with COVID-19 could see them lose not just the White House but also the Senate.
• NBC News on Friday reported that Republican donors and operatives worried a "blue wave" was coming. They are said to favor shifting resources from the presidential race — seen by some as a lost cause — to protecting vulnerable seats in Congress.
• GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday warned that the GOP faced "a bloodbath of Watergate proportions" and could lose control of the Senate and the White House.
• Reuters also last week reported that the GOP was increasingly anxious that the Democrats were poised to seize control of the Senate. A senior Senate Republican aide told the outlet that Trump's coronavirus diagnosis was "the nail in the coffin" and that "it's all over" for the party's hopes of defending its majority.

Though Trump's prospects of victory appear to be fading, some campaign officials believe the president will able to claw back ground this week, the AP reported.

The Senate confirmation hearings of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, set to begin Monday, are expected to take focus away from the pandemic and fire up conservatives.

Other officials hope that pollsters are undercounting the level of support for Trump and that he will end up the surprise winner as in 2016.

But so far, many loyalists seem to believe it more likely that Democrats could seize both Congress and the White House.