Emboldened by rising approval ratings and possible foreign policy breakthroughs, President Trump has begun blazing his own path on the campaign trail, hoping a message that extends beyond tax cuts will boost vulnerable Republicans in the final six months before the midterm elections.
Side-stepping the advice of party leaders, who have urged him to focus on Republicans’ big legislative accomplishment from last year, Trump has instead spent significant time during recent campaign appearances complaining about Democratic obstruction and touting his accomplishments abroad.
“I think it’s going to be a very big success,” he said of his upcoming summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a rally in Elkhart, Ind., earlier this month. The comment came minutes after he greeted senatorial candidate Mike Braun on stage and blasted incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly.
Eventually, Trump shifted back to domestic issues. He slammed Democrats, criticizing their refusal to help change “the worst immigration laws in the history of mankind,” touted low unemployment rates across the U.S., and reminded the crowd that Americans are saying “Merry Christmas again.”
“Obviously tax cuts should be a consistent message, but there are things that are currently happening on the world stage and at home that can and likely will influence voters,” said a former senior White House official when asked about Trump’s messaging strategy. “Whether it’s the potential historic talks in North Korea, continued negotiations on NAFTA, re-negotiations of trade issues with South Korea, potential progress with China — there are so many things going on right now that he has made clear he wants to address.”
In a meeting last month with GOP donors, a top ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., attributed the recent decline in Democrats’ generic ballot advantage to the growing popularity of the Republican-passed tax cuts. A source involved in the meeting said “about 80 percent” of the pitch to donors focused on the tax bill — which lowered the corporate rate to 21 percent and lowered taxes on middle-income families — and the rest was spent talking about deregulation.
Republican strategist Andy Surabian, who served as a special assistant to the president until last September, cast the party’s laser-like focus on tax cuts as a mistake. Trump and congressional GOP candidates should discuss the benefits of tax reform, he said, but not to the point where other issues and accomplishments are being ignored.
“It’s hard to energize the base based on something that you’ve already accomplished. Voters already got their tax cuts, [so] there’s no fear of a loss,” Surabian explained. “There’s definitely a fear of a loss of American jobs because of unfair Chinese trade practices, or of more crime because the borders aren’t secure enough.”
“So Republican candidates should be touting the tax cuts as part of a broader strategy to highlight the positive Trump economy, and they should also be talking about issues that voters see a Republican House, Senate and White House as being able to accomplish if they allow them to continue running Washington after 2018,” he said.
In addition to nationalizing the midterms and broadening his party’s election message, Trump has worked hard on the campaign trail to paint congressional Democrats as the enemy. Using his favorite epithet — “obstructionist” — the president has cast the opposition party as one that stands for nothing and against everything. And some GOP strategists believe it’s working.
“He’s found a way to pigeonhole [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats as extremists,” said one Republican close to the White House, who pointed to the race in Colorado’s Sixth congressional district, where incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Coffman is being heavily targeted by progressive groups in his bid for reelection.
“This is the definition of a moderate swing district that Hillary Clinton won [in 2016]. To some people in that district, supporting Trump might be seen as extreme… but what’s more extreme in a moderate district is the idea that Democrats might impeach the president. So if he and others highlight issues where you can portray the other side as being the true extremists, or obstructionists, it really does help in certain races,” the source said.
Some Republicans have become frustrated watching Trump out on the trail. At a recent tax round-table, for example, the president tossed a set of prepared remarks in the air and informed the crowd they would have been “boring” anyway.
“To hell with it,” Trump said as he proceeded to do his own thing for the remainder of the event.
One GOP campaign aide, who requested anonymity in order to speak candidly, told the Washington Examiner he was asked to submit a request to Vice President Pence’s team about scheduling an appearance with the candidate even though Trump won the district in which his boss is running.
“It’s not that we didn’t think we could get [the president],” the aide said, “I just got the feeling we didn’t want him.”
But that decision may have had more to do with the congressional map and less with a reluctance to invite Trump, who could veer off-script at any point during a campaign rally, according to one former White House official.
“Not every district is going to make sense for him to come to,” the official said, suggesting that Trump set his sights on Montana, West Virginia, and Indiana, where Democratic senators could face stiff competition to hold onto their seats.
Aside from developing his own midterm message, Trump appears to be mostly cooperating with GOP leaders. He recently urged West Virginia voters to oppose insurgent Republican candidate Don Blankenship in the state’s primary, after the ex-convict released an inflammatory ad but nevertheless appeared to be gaining steam. And he has refrained from criticizing GOP lawmakers in tweets — something several senators had become accustomed to during the Obamacare and tax fights last year.
“With the polls we’re now seeing, there’s a real opportunity to grow the Senate and make sure we do everything to hold our majority in the House, and I have been pleased so far with the president’s assistance,” said the former White House official, who added that voters should expect to see more of Trump on the campaign trail in the coming months, “and that’s never going to become a negative thing.”
