Trump directs Cabinet members to campaign during terms, orders them to drop or silence controversial positions
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President Donald Trump is drafting Cabinet members and top aides — at least those who haven’t been fired or are about to be fired — for a new strategy aimed at midterms.
Key members will be criss-crossing the country, especially in Republican states, trying to reduce the party’s losses in November.
In: The most popular parts of Trump’s agenda.
Exit: The most controversial aspects of Trump’s agenda have become political distractions.
TRUMP IS FIGHTING HARD BATTLES, AT HOME AND ABROAD: WHY HE’S BEEN SPENDING RESULTS
President Donald Trump is drafting top administration brass to take on the midterms. (Alex Brandon/Pool via AP Photo)
It’s a climb. Trump admitted that the president’s party is often beaten in its sixth year. Some Trump loyalists privately admit that the GOP will inevitably lose control of the House, and possibly the Senate.
If Hakeem Jeffries becomes speaker, that will trigger an endless investigation that makes Trump look like an even more lame duck than he is under the Constitution.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he is an outstanding example. He has spent much of the past year championing vaccines, in line with his lifelong anti-vax campaign that is not supported by scientific evidence. Kennedy branded his organization Make America Healthy Again.
He fired the CDC director (who said RFK ordered him to stamp his policies without evidence), fired other agency officials, and never came up with a full-time director.
DONALD TRUMP’S LEGACY: WILL REPUBLICANS RECOGNIZE HIS POLITICAL IDEA, OR LEAVE CONSERVATIVES IN THE DUST?
But as Politico reports, Kennedy “was told by the White House to stay away from other parts of the MAHA agenda, such as doubting the policy, and instead focus on issues like food.”
The campaign must re-engage nearly half of MAHA supporters who say Trump and Kennedy have not done enough to make America healthy, the website said. RFK is a lifelong Democrat, and his party sees an opportunity to influence voters interested in left-identified goals, such as the fight against unprocessed food and less chemicals in the environment.
Trump is not the first president to use his Cabinet as the midterms approach. Jimmy Carter, in 1979, fired his health secretary, treasury secretary, energy secretary, transportation secretary and attorney general. It didn’t help. And when Iran took 52 American hostages later that year, he was beaten.
The White House has reportedly advised Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “break away from some of the most divisive parts of MAHA,” according to Politico. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“Cabinet members will be asked to focus on the many things Trump has done since taking office,” including tax cuts, Axios reports.
He is also considering removing FBI Director Kash Patel and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, according to media reports, but has since backed off plans to fire Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard after discussing it with aides.
The president took a serious shot at one of our aides long ago yesterday:
“We’re rebuilding Germany. What about Germany telling us, Germany telling us that, well, it’s not their war. We had nothing to do with it.” They wanted me to go and tell them everything I was doing. ‘We knew nothing about it.’ Well, if I had told them, they would have leaked it, and we wouldn’t have nearly made it, maybe, right?”
He also blamed the media for disclosing that there was a second crew member missing from the F-15 that was shot down by Iran, although that appeared to be quickly leaked.
“We didn’t talk about the first one for an hour. And then someone leaked something, which we hope we’ll find – the leaker. We’re looking hard to find the leaker. And we’ve talked about a missing person. Basically they say we have one and there’s a missing person. Well, they didn’t know there was a missing person until this leaker found out, so we’ll be able to get the information. you know who we’re talking about.”
Amit Segal, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 12, sent this to X at 11:19 a.m. on Friday: “Western source: One of the American workers was successfully rescued.”
KEEPING COLUMNIST SAYS DONALD TRUMP HAS LOST THE COUNTRY. IT IS COMPLICATED.
A New York Times report on deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, the architect of the mass-deportation campaign, reveals:
“He is facing questions about how aggressively he can pursue deportations, and how ambitious his party and the rest of the country are for strategies that have succeeded in helping to detain immigrants but have sparked a debate about what it means to be an American…
So he pushes all the same policies, even for immigrants with no criminal record, but… quietly.
“Rather than seeing his power run out, Mr. Miller has resorted to other means, seeking policies that will pressure undocumented immigrants to leave.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller “is facing questions about how aggressively he can pursue the impeachment campaign,” according to the New York Times. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Oh, and one more thing.
You may feel that there will be a big blue wave in November.
But Charlie Cook, a veteran and impartial political commentator, explains why not.
Although the Democrats are assured of taking the House, “Only three Republicans were elected in 2024 in districts won by Kamala Harris. Among independents nationally, Trump’s approval ratings have generally fallen into the high 20s and low 30s, but defection and political isolation by population has decreased in a few independent districts. Republican-held seats anywhere are at risk.”
With the Republican endorsement of the president in the 80s, “MAGA voters love him so much and trust him so completely that nothing—not the Epstein files or the attacks on Venezuela and Iran—is going to come off. So the Democrats have a big job to flip many red states.”
That brings us to the numbers. “Only 17 GOP seats are rated as Toss Up or worse. Adding in the next level of competitive seats (‘Lean Republican’) brings only three GOP seats up for grabs—still below the post-World War II average result of losing 26 seats for the president’s party… in 2006 or 2018.”
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What’s more, says Charlie, eight years ago, “the party that lost seats in the House actually gained in the Senate. Since only a third of the Senate goes up every two years and only a few seats are contested most years, results in the upper chamber tend to be idiosyncratic.”
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Trump is sending the Cabinet because he is looking at a big loss in November. But it may not be the explosion many forecasters are expecting.
