NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- President Donald Trump implored Republicans to turn around their political fortunes ahead of November’s midterm elections, warning that if Democrats retake control of Congress he would be impeached for a third time.
“You got to win the midterms,” Trump said Tuesday at a retreat for the party’s House caucus in Washington. “They’ll find a reason to impeach me. I’ll get impeached.”
Trump offered a familiar blueprint for majority parties, which historically have lost seats in off-year elections: blaming their troubles on messaging problems and insisting that voters just aren’t seeing their achievements.
Trump predicted the GOP would pull off an “epic” victory and defy those trends. Yet polls showing Americans’ dissatisfaction with his leadership and the state of the economy are a foreboding sign for Republicans’ chances of keeping control of Congress.
Trump at times expressed exasperation with voters who have given him poor marks on his stewardship of the country.
“I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public, because we have the right policy,” he said.
Trump touted his migrant crackdown, sweeping tariffs, efforts to lower drug costs and his landmark tax-and-spending bill. He also offered pointed advice to his party’s lawmakers over their message, urging them to aggressively tout his policy priorities.
“You have so much ammunition, all you have to do is sell it,” Trump said. “You want to turn this thing? You work on favored nations, you work on borders, you work on all of the things that we talked about, but now you take the health care issue away from them.”
As for his tax law, Trump said “there are so many goodies” that “you have to get the word out.”
Trump’s pep talk comes at the start of a pivotal year for the president and his legislative agenda, with November elections that will determine control of both the House and Senate. Approval of his job performance, though, is at 36%, according to a year-end Gallup poll, with 89% of Republicans approving but only 25% of independents and 3% of Democrats. The overall figure is just barely above his personal low of 34% in January 2021.
Trump’s first year back in office saw him flex his executive branch powers, circumventing Congress to achieve a number of his policy goals. Where Trump has sought to enlist lawmakers, he has faced little resistance from Republicans. Still, a poor midterm result and loss of either chamber would dramatically undercut the president’s ability to further his agenda in the second half of his term. Major legislation already faces a tougher path this year thanks to GOP divisions and their slim majority.
Even as Trump sought to rally his party, Republicans in Congress start the year facing immediate challenges this year, including averting a shutdown after Jan. 30 when funds for much of the federal government run out. The address also comes amid swirling questions over the aftermath of Trump’s move to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a military raid over the weekend, as well as a looming vote on Obamacare subsidies with only days before open enrollment is set to close.
Trump highlighted the fight over health coverage, reiterating his opposition to extending those subsidies and insisting to his party’s lawmakers that his stance would be embraced by voters.
“I came out with a statement, let the money go not to the big fat cats in the insurance companies,” Trump said. “Let the money go directly to the people where they can buy their own health care.”
House Democrats seeking to force a vote on reviving expired subsidies for the health-care law. Trump has opposed extending the subsidies, saying he wants to instead deliver that money directly to consumers to make their own health coverage choices, though there are questions about how such an arrangement would work and whether it would deliver better outcomes.
Some GOP lawmakers have questioned whether the party is taking advantage of their hold on both chambers to move aggressively enough to pass their legislative priorities. Others fret that the party has not done enough to promote their policy wins in power such as the landmark tax-and-spending package passed last summer.
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill extended tax cuts passed during his first term along with other new measures the president had promised on the 2024 campaign trail, including exempting taxes on tips and overtime pay. The White House has sought to highlight the law, saying voters will see its benefits in the coming year, and urging that voters give the administration more time to demonstrate that its economic policies are working.
Republicans face a critical challenge making that message break through with voters. Democrats pulled off a series of significant victories in off-year 2024 elections in which worries about affordability were front and center, with voters expressing anxiety over high costs for groceries and housing and the pace of wage growth.
Democrats have pointed the finger at Trump’s sweeping tariff agenda, the end of expanded health care subsidies and growing energy demands from the artificial intelligence sector the president has sought to boost as contributing to the rise in consumer costs. Inflation, has eased from a four-decade high seen in 2022, but prices overall continued to climb last year.
The tensions facing Republicans have been evident in the number of prominent lawmakers who have announced plans to retire, including Representatives Elise Stefanik of New York and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, whose final day in office was Monday. While Stefanik has been a staunch Trump loyalist, Greene a onetime ally has become one of his sharpest GOP critics, splitting with the president over the administration’s handling of files pertaining to the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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