Trump advisers privately strategize around a new midterm push: Democrats would be worse

By Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s political team knows voters aren’t thrilled with the current state of affairs. But they’re betting they can convince them things will get markedly worse if Democrats win back power in November.

Top Trump advisers are plotting an electoral push centered on messaging the midterms as a stark choice between the two parties’ platforms, rather than a direct referendum on the success of Trump’s presidency, according to four people involved in the private planning.

The strategy is driven by internal polling showing that Republicans still hold a trust advantage over the Democratic Party on some key issues, even as Americans have soured on Trump and his performance overall.

Chief of staff Susie Wiles and James Blair, who is leaving the White House to run Trump’s political operation, were among those who outlined the planned approach during a meeting with close allies at Washington’s Waldorf Astoria hotel earlier this week.

“[Democrats] want to make it a referendum on, ‘Do you think everything is perfect?’” one person in the room said, describing the overall message. “For us, it’s about, do you want to go forward and continue the work that is being successful and finish the job? Or go backwards to record inflation and high crime?”

Republicans are searching for ways to salvage their congressional majorities despite mounting headwinds, including an unpopular war in the Middle East and deep voter dissatisfaction over the cost of living.

That effort appeared to get even more challenging on Tuesday night, after Virginia voters approved a redistricting referendum that could net Democrats an additional four congressional seats in November. Republicans currently hold 217 seats in the House to Democrats’ 212, and one independent caucuses with the GOP.

In an interview Wednesday with CNN’s Dana Bash, Blair called the redistricting result “very close” and predicted a voter backlash against the effort come November.

He added that he expects redistricting efforts across the country to ultimately give Republicans a narrow advantage in gained seats, though he declined to say whether Florida should push ahead with its own GOP-led attempt at redrawing its electoral map.

“These are no slam-dunk districts for them,” Blair said of Democrats and the potential changes to Virginia’s map. “They unloaded a lot of cash and they’re going to have to fight for them in November.”

The Trump team’s plans seem to tacitly acknowledge that the president has lost significant ground with voters over the last year, and that more energy needs to be put toward attacking Democrats as a result. Trump’s diminished approval ratings were not the subject of any extensive discussion during the Waldorf meeting, people in the room said.

Instead, advisers stressed the need to better elevate popular GOP policy accomplishments, while simultaneously portraying Democrats as obstructionists with no significant agenda of their own.

“It’s all forward looking and it’s not really about the White House,” said another person in the room. They described a key element of the approach as warning voters that if Democrats win control of part of all of Congress, “it means gridlock, it means nothing gets done at all. And we don’t believe that’s what the American public wants.”

There are several areas where Trump advisers believe Democrats are particularly weak, including their blanket opposition to the GOP tax policies in last year’s “big, beautiful bill,” as well as the party’s record on issues like border security and crime.

Still, advisers acknowledged that a key challenge remains lashing individual Democrats to the most unpopular parts of the party’s overall brand, the people in the room said. That’s even more complicated given the lack of a clear leader atop the Democratic Party who might serve as a singular representation of its agenda.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. In a sign of the heightened secrecy surrounding Trump’s political operation, attendees at Monday’s meeting were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements, people in the room said.

Blair confirmed the NDA policy, which was first reported by The Washington Post, telling CNN they were required “because we’re running an operation, not a social club.”

On Wednesday, he alluded to key elements of the Trump team’s midterm strategy, arguing Republicans maintain an edge when it comes to the “main issues that people are voting for.”

“The midterms are going to be about: Who do you trust more to deal with these issues that they care about, Republicans in Congress or Democratas in Congress?” Blair said.

Among those who attended the meeting: Chris LaCivita, a top GOP operative who helped steer Trump’s 2024 campaign; longtime Trump political adviser Jason Miller; and Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio.

The session was the latest in a series of private presentations led by Blair and Wiles in recent months, as the White House prepares for a midterm cycle that Trump has portrayed as critical to the future of his presidency.

Should Republicans lose their narrow majority in the House, Trump and GOP allies have warned it would effectively halt the administration’s agenda and expose it to a slew of investigations — potentially including fresh impeachment efforts.

Trump advisers had initially drawn up plans to put the president on the road nearly every week in a bid to bolster GOP candidates and promote his accomplishments, especially among the lower-turnout Trump voters who Republicans will need at the polls come November.

But that early blueprint was disrupted by Trump’s decision to strike Iran, kicking off a war that has now dragged on for two months with no clear end in sight. The conflict has further weakened Trump and Republicans’ political standing, while deepening the party’s affordability challenges by pushing the price of gas above $4 per gallon — which has reverberated across the wider economy.

Trump advisers have downplayed the impact of the war even amid growing anxieties throughout much of the GOP, insisting that midterm races will be determined primarily by voters’ domestic concerns. And as Trump has sought to wind down the fighting, the pace of his team’s electoral planning has picked up once again.

Trump announced earlier this month that Blair plans to temporarily leave the White House to helm the president’s deep-pocketed outside operation, in a move that allies described as critical to closely coordinating political activities across the party.

Alex Meyer, a former senior Trump campaign official who now runs the White House’s intergovernmental affairs office, is also expected to depart the administration to aid the outside efforts, two people familiar with the matter said.

The staffing moves have renewed speculation among GOP operatives over how Trump advisers are planning to deploy the nearly $350 million that the president’s central super PAC, MAGA Inc., has racked up so far.

MAGA Inc. officials have not yet widely telegraphed plans within the party about its strategy — including how much it will put toward boosting House and Senate candidates and when that spending will begin.

Blair on Wednesday declined to offer any new specifics, saying only that he was confident Republicans would maintain a spending advantage over Democrats.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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