New York — Nearly two weeks after the Republicans lost massively In the elections In Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia, many GOP leaders insist there is nothing wrong with the party’s policies, message or president. Donald Trump command.
Trump says Democrats and the media are misleading voters Concerned about rising costs and Economy. Republican officials aim to avoid Another defeat In next fall’s midterm elections, candidates are encouraged to fully embrace the president and talk more about his accomplishments.
These are the key takeaways from a series of private conversations, briefings and official talking points involving top Republican decision-makers across Washington, including inside the White House, following their party’s November 4 losses. Their assessment highlights how tied the fate of the Republican Party is to Trump, a term-limited president he insists on Economy Under his watch he had never been stronger.
This is despite the fact that a growing number of voters speak of a different reality in their lives.
But with few exceptions, the Trump aides who lead the Republican Party’s political strategy have no desire to challenge his wishes or beliefs.
“Republicans enter next year more united behind President Trump than ever before,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Kirsten Bales said. “The party is fully aligned with its ‘America First’ agenda and the results it delivers for the American people. President Trump’s policies are popular, he drives voter turnout, and standing with him is the strongest path to victory.”
However, Trump’s approval resembles that of former Presidents Barack Obama, a Democrat, and George W. Bush, a Republican, on the same point in their terms. Their parties suffered heavy losses in the midterm elections.
Since the election, the White House has quietly decided to shift its message to focus more on affordability.
Much of the first year of Trump’s second term has been dominated by his trade wars, his crackdown on illegal immigration, and his decision to send immigrants to the United States. National Guard forces In American cities and Longest government shutdown In the history of the United States.
Trump talked more about affordability in the days after Election Day. Friday, it is Reduced tariffs on beef and other commodities that consumers say are too expensive. But Trump’s main message is that the economy is better and consumer prices are lower than the media reported. It’s the same message that Democratic President Joe Biden and his allies have spent years promoting, with little success.
“We have a great economy and prices are going down,” Trump told reporters Sunday night before boarding Air Force One on his way back to the White House from his resort in Florida.
He blamed Democrats for the economy, which he described as having “the highest rate of inflation in the history of our country. I have now brought it down to a normal level and it is falling even further.”
In a social media post on Friday, Trump said of the Republican Party: “We are the party of affordability!”
He also claimed that the cost of Thanksgiving dinner this year would be reduced by 25%, but that number is Stopped. Grocery prices are 2.7% higher than they are in 2024.
Economic concerns were voters’ top concern in this month’s election, according to an AP Voter poll.
Republican strategist Doug Hee said Trump’s approach is not necessarily helpful for the GOP or its candidates, who already face a difficult political environment in 2026 when voters will decide the balance of power in Congress. Historically, the party that occupies the White House suffers significant losses in non-presidential elections.
“Republicans need to convey to voters that they understand what they’re going through and that they’re trying to fix it,” she said. “This may be difficult to do when the president is taking a non-metaphorical wrecking ball into parts of the White House, distracting much of Washington and the media.”
“Candidates cannot afford to be distracted,” she added. “As we saw in the last election, especially in Virginia, if you don’t talk about what voters are talking about, they will ignore you.”
The reality outside Washington suggests that not every Republican candidate shares Trump’s view.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the Republican leader in the House who began a campaign for governor last week, said there is no doubt about the issue most important to her constituents: affordability. She also reduced her party’s focus on conservative cultural priorities, including transgender athletes, which was a GOP focus in the recent race for Virginia governor.
“I certainly support and protect women’s and girls’ sports, but as you can see in all of our messaging, we focus on the most important issues, with every conversation with voters about high taxes, spending and unaffordability,” Stefanik told The Associated Press.
Stefanik offered a nuanced perspective on Trump’s leadership.
She was not prepared to criticize any of the President’s major policies or governing decisions. But Stefanik, who fought for Trump’s agenda as congressional GOP leader, shifted the focus to New York’s Democratic governor when asked about the strength of GOP support for the president.
“My feeling is that our party is completely united behind firing Kathy Hochul,” Stefanik said before highlighting Trump’s support from New York voters in the recent election.
While Stefanik said it was important for the governor to have an “effective working relationship” with Trump, she declined to say whether she would support Trump’s hypothetical move to send the National Guard to New York City, as he threatened. “That wouldn’t have to happen if there was a Republican governor,” she said.
Last year, Stefanik called on the National Guard to help control pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
The Republican National Committee, which serves as the political arm of the Trump White House, has issued a series of talking points that dismiss recent election losses as a byproduct of Democratic voters’ advantage in states with top races.
The talking points, obtained by The Associated Press, ignore Republican losses in Georgia and Pennsylvania. They also overestimate Trump’s political power, claiming that he is more popular than Obama and Bush were at the same time during their terms.
This claim has been echoed across conservative media in recent days.
An AP poll analysis concludes that Trump’s approval is no higher than that of Obama or Bush at a similar point in their second term.
Trump’s approval was 36% in a November poll The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Slightly higher than at this stage of his first term. But both Obama and Bush’s approval ratings were in the low 40s at this point in their second terms, according to Gallup polls, which is similar to where Trump stood in the last Gallup approval poll in October.
As for Obama and Bush, their parties suffered heavy losses in the midterm elections that followed.
However, the Republican messaging crafted by the Trump team amplifies support for the president and his policies.
The Republican National Committee’s talking points point out that the last election “was not a referendum on President Trump, Republicans in Congress, or the MAGA agenda.” To win in 2026, “Make America Great Again” voters will need to show up at the polls; “President Trump and Republicans will work to make this happen.”
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Associated Press writers Chris Megerian in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Amelia Thompson Defoe and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.