Everything is about the midterm elections.
If Democrats win, they will impeach Trump again and launch witch hunt investigation after witch hunt investigation.
If Republicans win, the Democrat party will go into full implosion and will need to do even more soul-searching.
Mark Halperin reported on the meeting.
Last night on Capitol Hill, the senior Trump political command briefed its core team on the midterms.
Some of what occurred was previously reported on by @SophiaCai99 of @politico.
Here is a more detailed account, according to one of the attendees at the meeting at the Capitol Hill Club.
The group was served a chicken and steak buffet.
The program went for almost two hours, starting at 530pm.
This was a veteran group, not panicked or shaken. Just focused on the work and the task at hand.
There were about 75-100 people in the room.
Many cabinet members were there, including Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, RFK, Sean Duffy, along with their most senior aides.
The meeting was hosted by Susie Wiles, who spoke briefly.
The pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio presented with about 25 slides on the data on what voters care about — the demographics, the issues, what messages resonate and what do not.
The economy will be THE issue in the election, he said. Messages that break through: Banning stock trading for Congress, transparency on health insurance data (including on pricing and claims reimbursement), lowering prescription drug costs, the Trump tax cuts.
Housing affordability is a huge issue for voters, especially young people.
Taking credit for closing the border does not resonate much.
Men, moderates, true independents, and Hispanic voters are the true persuadable voters.
His message was not pessimistic.
He made recommendations to spend time on podcasts and social media more than national news interviews. Paid media should go on targeted media, not broadcast or even cable.
Facebook is still king for voters, then Instagram and TikTok.
There are currently 36 targeted House races and 7 key Senate races.
The only way Republicans will lose the Senate majority is if Democrats take 50 House seats.
Then political czar James Blair spoke and presented the historical data of how rare it is for a president’s party to not lose a lot of seats in a midterm.
Tennessee 7 special was going to be lost before a huge push for Election Day, from which they have taken lessons about messaging and grassroots.
Trying to argue about wages being up will not help; voters have to feel it, he said.
He acknowledged that Donald Trump will do what he wants to do, say what he wants to say, not be data driven. Everyone else has to stay on message and be driven by the data. In effect, two separate but related campaigns.
They expect Democrats will run in large part on the “Stop Trump” message.
I have to say, it appears the Trump team understands what they need to do. From now until election day they have to understand Americans care about one thing, the economy. This isn’t just the GDP, jobs number or inflation rate. This is whether or not they full better about there future and their families future.
They are also correct that Democrats are going to run on a “Stop Trump” message.
Democrats understand the midterms are going to be all about getting voters to the ballot box. The best way for them to get there voters to the ballot box is by focusing on Trump.
They can’t run against any specific agenda item because the American people side with Trump over them.
