President Donald Trump is already looking ahead to the November 2026 midterm elections, with one eye on how Republicans can maintain or extend their current majority in the House of Representatives.
The GOP currently has a 220 to 212 seat advantage over the Democrats, a narrow margin that means that if only a handful of Republican rebels join the opposition in rejecting a particular bill, it is prevented from passing.
The prospect of Democrats further eating into that eight-seat gap or even flipping the House entirely would further stymie the president’s legislative agenda and open the door to a left-leaning chamber potentially launching new investigations into him – or even further impeachment proceedings.
Trump is already the first president in American history to be impeached twice and will not be eager to endure a repeat of the events of his first term.
In the first four months of Trump’s second stint in the White House, Democrats have already raised concerns over such issues as the possibility of insider trading related to his tariff announcements, his decision to accept a $400m jumbo jet from Qatar and the prospect of Elon Musk profiting from contracts related to his Golden Dome missile defense system, any one of which, they might decide, could merit closer scrutiny.
“[Trump] knows the stakes firsthand,” Republican strategist Matt Gorman told Axios. “He saw what can happen. It’s clear he doesn’t want that again. Investigations, impeachment – he knows it’s all on the table with a Speaker [Hakeem] Jeffries.”
To see off the threat, the president’s team has reportedly embarked on “an early and aggressive behind-the-scenes effort” to hold onto their majority and has pinpointed five key strategies to keep the opposition at bay.
Firstly, they plan to persuade incumbent Republicans to stay where they are and resist the temptation to seek higher office or retire.
That is why Trump recently made it clear to New York’s Mike Lawler that he wants him to sit tight rather than run for governor of the Empire State, withdrew his nomination for Elise Stefanik to represent the U.S. at the United Nations and commissioned a poll to dissuade Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene from pursuing an interest in the Senate.
The president’s $500m political apparatus will also be investing heavily in competitive races via organizations like the Securing American Greatness and Never Surrender PACs, Axios reports, while Trump himself is likely to make a slew of appearances at events with his candidates to help drum up further fundraising.
He headlined a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dinner last month that raised $35m.
That particular mission has taken on a new impetus after Musk, the president’s billionaire special adviser, announced recently that he does not currently “see a reason to do political spending,” a hammer blow to Republicans who had been counting on the tech boss after he donated $288m to Trump’s victorious presidential campaign last year.
The president is further being tipped to make his endorsement of swing district candidates known early in the hope of deterring would-be primary challengers and seeing off GOP in-fighting, which could prove costly and weaken incumbents placed under fire from their own side.
Finally, Trump’s team and the NRCC are said to be ramping up their recruiting efforts to identify and install candidates in swing district races where there are no GOP incumbents to ensure the party coalesces quickly around that person rather than entertains a mudslinging primary.
"A promise of Trump’s help and an endorsement can be key in getting a wanted recruit to make the leap,” Gorman said.
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