Donald Trump told Republican lawmakers he plans to zero in on 35 key races during the final stretch before the midterm elections, urging the party to campaign aggressively on what he described as his record of accomplishments.
The GOP is fighting to preserve its broad control of Congress as the November elections draw closer, with Trump warning that Democrats would move to impeach him again if they win back power.
Speaking Wednesday from the White House Rose Garden, Trump laid out the contours of what he suggested would be an intense campaign schedule in the closing weeks of the election season.
‘I’m gonna take the final 30 days, maybe a little bit more than that, because it’s all about 35 races,’ he said.
In a lighter moment, Trump jokingly appealed to safe incumbents with comfortable leads, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, not to ask him to stage campaign events on their behalf.
‘I’m gonna go to every one of those 35 places and I’m gonna see if we can get everyone elected,’ Trump told the crowd, drawing applause.
He also said he could boost several candidates in a single evening through telephone-based ‘tele-town halls,’ estimating that the format would allow him to campaign for seven to 10 contenders a night.
Trump added another joke about the demands of campaigning, saying the effort would not match the pace of his push to return to the White House, when he claimed he went four months without playing golf.
Donald Trump told his fellow Republicans that he’ll be focusing on 35 races in the final month before the midterms has he urged his party to run on his accomplishments
Trump jokingly pleaded with incumbent members with big leads, like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (pictured), to not ask him to hold an event
The President told his party’s most vulnerable lawmakers that they had a triumphant story to tell voters.
‘All you have to do is talk about it, and you´re going to win and you’re going to win big,’ Trump said a week before the party gathers in Dallas for an unusual midterm convention.
The audience of Republican lawmakers listened quietly to Trump’s speech, occasionally offering applause as many sipped on cocktails ahead of their dinner.
Menus checkered in yellow gingham called it an ‘end of summer BBQ’ featuring cheeseburgers.
Trump talked up economic investment in the United States and lower drug prices, using significantly inflated figures, as well as diminished border crossings.
He specifically listed Senate races in Alaska, where Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan faces Democratic former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, and Texas, where Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton is running against Democratic state Representative James Talarico.
Trump backed Paxton in this year’s primary despite a scandal-plagued past, but he poked fun at his style of dress and presence on the campaign trail on Monday.
‘You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews,’ he said.
Vice President JD Vance attends a Rose Garden dinner hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington
US White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles listens to Trump’s speech
‘But he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps. He was one of the best in the entire country. And that speaks a lot louder than the suit he´s wearing that doesn´t look so great.’
Republicans’ midterm struggles, he suggested, were simply following a pattern that virtually all modern presidents have faced.
‘Whether you´re a good president or a great president, you lose the midterms,’ Trump said. ‘We´re going to turn that around because there´s no reason for it.’
An exclusive Daily Mail/JL Partners poll in July showed that voters said they’d vote for a Democratic candidate in the upcoming November midterm elections – by over nine points – a full point increase from a month earlier.
And even Trump himself has casted doubt on the GOP’s chance at success with concerns about whether conservative voters will show up to vote this fall – especially because he’s not on the ballot.
‘If I don’t run, will those people go out and vote, and that’s the one thing I can’t tell,’ Trump said recently.
Despite this, Republicans are trouncing Democrats in fundraising, both nationally and in key battleground races.
It’s an indication that control of Congress will be decided not by Washington insiders, but by the voters who turn out in battleground districts nationwide.
