What happened
President Donald Trump on Tuesday told House Republicans “you got to win the midterms” or “I’ll get impeached.” If Democrats retake the House, “they’ll find a reason to impeach me” for a third time, he said, claiming that his two first-term impeachments were “for nothing.” The GOP “can own health care” as an issue in the midterms, he told House Republicans at their annual retreat in Washington, but “you gotta be a little flexible” on abortion funding to reach a deal on health insurance subsidies.
Who said what
Trump’s remarks were a “rare acknowledgment” of his “political vulnerability as Republicans prepare to face a Democratic Party buoyed by a string of off-year election victories, favorable polling and voter anxiety over an economy now fully under Trump’s stewardship,” The Washington Post said. A Democratic victory “could stall his agenda and expose him to congressional investigations,” Reuters said.
“They say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm,” Trump said. “I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public.” Trump’s 84-minute “election-year pep talk,” Roll Call said, “veered between familiar topics” from his rallies and “verbal jabs at longtime political foes,” plus first lady Melania Trump’s advice that he stop dancing. “I think I gave you something,” Trump concluded. “It’s a road map to victory.”
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What next?
Trump’s exhortation to lean in on health care puts House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “in a bind,” Axios said. The “vast majority of House Republicans” oppose extending Affordable Care Act credits without added abortion restrictions and “many Republicans see health care as a losing issue for the party, especially in the 2026 midterms.”
