President Donald Trump’s senior political team met behind closed doors Tuesday night at the Four Seasons in Washington, where advisers worked through the final pieces of their strategy for the fast-approaching midterm elections.
The private dinner brought together some of the most influential figures in Trump’s orbit, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair, longtime pollster Tony Fabrizio, campaign adviser Chris LaCivita, Senator Joe Gruters and several key Cabinet officials.
People familiar with the discussion told the Daily Mail that Fabrizio walked attendees through a presentation on the midterm battleground map. Blair, meanwhile, gave a brief assessment of the fight to keep control of the House of Representatives, telling those in the room that Republicans “have a chance.”
“It was a realistic meeting. But there was this overarching theme, that was like, look guys, it’s not over. We can still make this work,” one insider close to the group said.
Still, that sense of cautious optimism is colliding with a difficult set of numbers.
A Daily Mail/JL Partners poll found Democratic candidates ahead of Republicans by 9 percentage points among likely voters looking toward the 2026 midterm elections.
In the survey, 50 percent of likely voters said they would back the Democratic candidate if the midterms were held tomorrow, while 41 percent said they would support the Republican. Another 9 percent said they were undecided.
The polling lands as the Iran war continues to dominate the President’s second year in office, showing little sign of easing and adding to the political headwinds facing Republican candidates on the campaign trail.
The high-powered dinner gathering included White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles (pictured with Trump at the White House)
White House Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair provided a concise three-minute briefing on how to hold on to the House of Representatives , telling the room that ‘they have a chance’
Another source familiar with the meeting revealed that Trump’s team focused one chunk of their conversation on data centers, emphasizing that they need to ‘pay for their own power and water’ and have ‘any leftovers go back to the state and local communities.’
The seemingly small issue has been on Americans’ minds across party lines, with a silent voter crisis threatening the Republican majority: skyrocketing household electric bills driven by the boom in artificial intelligence data centers.
Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin expressed dissatisfaction with the structures in an interview with the Daily Mail.
‘I told the AI companies, look, you’re barging into these small towns, and it’s not appreciated. So I don’t support putting data centers anywhere where the people that actually have to live there with them don’t want it,’ Orden said.
Anger against massive tech installations is uniting voters across both red and blue regions, with elected officials facing political backlash if they fail to address the issue.
To neutralize this economic threat before election day, Trump brought utility company executives to the White House this week.
He unveiled an expanded version of his Ratepayer Protection Pledge originally introduced in March.
The updated policy ensures that the tech companies building and utilizing data centers are forced to pay above normal retail electricity rates, creating an economic firewall around regular consumers so that grid upgrade costs are not passed on to average households.
President Donald Trump’s top political minds gathered at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington Tuesday night to map out their final strategy ahead of the looming midterm elections
This photo shows the Digital Realty Data Center in Ashburn, Virginia. To neutralize the economic threat before election day, President Trump is bringing utility company executives to the White House today
A map of data centers across the United States
Congresswoman Nancy Mace told the Daily Mail that, in her state of South Carolina, they are running out of land.
‘We want to conserve our land for our wildlife, our beaches, our way of life. We don’t even bring data centers all over the place. I mean, Elon wants to put them in space. China is putting them in the ocean. Certainly, there are other ideas we could look at,’ Mace suggested.
Behind closed doors, White House aides continue to stress the critical importance of Trump’s AI policy to maintain global technological dominance, but they are insisting that Silicon Valley, rather than working-class voters, must fund the expansion.
As Trump’s campaign machinery prepares to deploy its $530 million treasury across crucial swing districts, forcing tech giants to foot their own energy bills has emerged as one part of their midterm message to keep costs down for Americans.
By stepping in to relieve household utility debt, the administration hopes to alleviate voters’ grievances ahead of November.
