- Trump urges Republican lawmakers to support him in midterm elections.
- He tells them to campaign on gender issues, health care.
- “We must win the midterm elections,” Trump at the Washington conference.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump warned that his political future could be at stake if Republicans fail to retain Congress in the midterm elections.
Speaking to party lawmakers, Trump said a loss would open the door for Democrats to move quickly to impeach him, and urged Republicans to stay united and win over voters before the polls.
“You have to win the midterm elections because if we don’t win it, it’s just going to be – I mean, they’re going to find a reason to impeach me,” Trump told Republican lawmakers at a retreat in Washington.
“They will accuse me.”
Ahead of the November election, which could cripple his agenda and expose him to congressional investigations, Trump provoked and incited his allies who closely control the U.S. House of Representatives. He told them to put aside their differences and sell their policies on gender, health care and electoral integrity to an American electorate angry about the cost of living.
“They say when you win the presidency, you lose half your term,” Trump said. “I wish you could explain to me what the hell is going on with the public’s mind.”
Some observations on the cost of living
Fresh off a bold military operation against Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro, Trump has come under pressure to pivot to domestic issues, especially concerns about inflation and prices. On Tuesday, Trump said little about the latter issue, except that he had inherited the problem from the Democrats and that Republicans should take advantage of the strong gains in the US stock market.
He made only brief mention of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, as Democrats in Congress marked the fifth anniversary of the riot by accusing Republicans of “covering up” the story.
Lawmakers gathered at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a congressionally chartered and appointed institution. Trump eliminated his board of Democratic appointees last year, and the remaining members voted in December to rename the center to include Trump’s name alongside President Kennedy.
There, in an unstructured speech that lasted 84 minutes, Trump reflected on his wife’s advice that he stop dancing in public.
He repeated several falsehoods, including that Washington had not seen homicides in seven months. Washington police reported one murder on New Year’s Eve and said there will be 127 homicides in 2025. He said he “can’t play much” golf after doing so as recently as Sunday and regularly during his tenure.
Trump predicted that Republicans would overcome the odds and achieve an “epic midterm victory,” but he also complained about some members who do not align.
All seats in the House and a third of those in the Senate will be up for grabs in November. Incumbent presidents have lost House seats in every midterm election since George W. Bush in 2006.
Trump urged his party to more forcefully reject Democrats’ nearly unified message on health care, as the minority party advocates extending expired subsidies that made Obamacare insurance more affordable for millions of Americans.
He said conservative members should be “a little flexible” in their insistence on including Hyde Amendment provisions in their health care plans, which would prevent taxpayer money from going to abortion services.
“All of these issues are very important, but you can own your health care,” he told lawmakers. “Find out.”
Trump has taken steps to expand executive power
Trump was impeached twice by the Democratic-led House of Representatives during his term from 2017 to 2021. Democrats criticized his policy in Ukraine and the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol by his supporters. The Senate voted to acquit him in both cases.
Some House Democrats have already filed articles of impeachment accusing Trump of abuses of power in his second term, accusations the White House denies.
Republicans currently control the House by five votes, a narrow margin that has frustrated both Trump and President Mike Johnson. Trump has moved to expand his powers to go it alone in areas ranging from immigration to military action and federal regulation. He will soon face a major Supreme Court ruling on whether his extensive use of tariffs usurped a power the Constitution gave Congress.
House Republicans have shown enormous deference to Trump, ceding much of Congress’s authority over spending and other matters to his administration. But they have begun to show glimmers of independence. The House could vote this week to override a veto Trump issued last month that canceled infrastructure projects in Colorado and Florida, although it is unclear whether the effort will get the two-thirds majority needed.
