The West Wing strategy session came as the president faces sinking approval ratings and a fracturing MAGA base.
Donald Trump’s top aides have warned his administration to stay on message as the midterm elections approach in a bid to counter the president’s unpredictable behavior and tendency to go wildly off-script.
At a strategy session for dozens of administration officials on Tuesday night, the president’s inner circle also acknowledged that affordability would remain a major issue for voters, especially if they didn’t feel the gains Trump often talks about.The meeting was hosted by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, with presentations by her deputy, James Blair, and GOP veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio. And while Trump was not in the room, his longstanding concern—that it is rare for the president’s party to win in midterm elections—was front and center, according to sources. During the two-hour session, Blair, a 36-year-old former political consultant, presented historical trends to this effect.He also acknowledged that Trump could be unpredictable and was likely to say and do as he pleased, without necessarily focusing on data. Therefore, he said, it was crucial for everyone else to remain on message, disciplined, and data-driven as the campaign ramped up. He also suggested that there was no point in talking about wages going up unless voters feel the impacts of the administration’s economic achievements. A similar challenge confronted former President Joe Biden, who repeatedly touted the value of so-called “Bidenomics”—even as millions of Americans struggled with cost-of-living pressures.The session, which took place at Washington’s Capitol Hill Club, was attended by dozens of administration officials, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. They were told that they would be required to be more active as surrogates for the midterms, when all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, along with a third of the seats in the 100-member Senate. Losing in November could ultimately dent Trump’s legislative agenda for the next two years and result in articles of impeachment against him and members of his Cabinet.While Trump is not on the ballot for the midterms, Wiles revealed last year that the White House had shifted its strategy and would make him “campaign like it’s 2024” in the hope that more voters would turn out for the GOP. “Typically in the midterms, it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House—you localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it,” she told conservative group Moms of America. “We’re actually going to turn that on its head and put him on the ballot because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters.” But the president faces a number of headwinds ahead of November, from sinking approval ratings and a fracturing MAGA base, as well as firestorms on everything from the Epstein files to ICE and immigration. His bombastic tendency to go wildly off-script is also an issue, such as describing affordability as a “con job” or claiming that the Epstein files are a Democratic “hoax”. Fabrizio took the group through a series of data outlining the issues that matter to voters in targeted seats, with the economy being the top-tier issue, which he said resonated more than border security. He also suggested focusing more on podcasts and social media, rather than traditional interviews and news outlets, to get the message out. Donald Trump spoke about the price of groceries alongside a display table during a news conference at Trump National Golf Club on August 15, 2024, in Bedminster, New Jersey.But whether a more disciplined approach will be enough to counter the president’s unpredictability is yet to be seen, according to some Republicans. “If they stay on message, it’s a good thing,” said Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon. “They get sidetracked… they’ve got to stay focused.” Critics have also accused Trump of “gaslighting” Americans by trying to spotlight affordability and drug prices on the campaign trail.“Republican policies have only made life more expensive for hard-working families, and nothing has made that more clear than the GOP’s catastrophic cuts to health care.”
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