House Republicans are using President Donald Trump’s State of the Union as a midterm election reset, countering Democratic messaging on immigration and the economy with a media blitz meant to set the table for his Tuesday night address.
In a series of interviews and press conferences at the Capitol on Tuesday, Republicans painted a rosy picture of lower gas prices, cooling inflation, and a clampdown on illegal immigration that has erased a crisis at the southern border.
“Tonight, President Trump will demonstrate that Republicans are the only team working seriously to bring common sense back to our broken system,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters.
“It’s promises made, promises kept, and he’s working, and we’re all working together, to make the country stronger, safer, and more affordable and more prosperous for all Americans,” he added.
It’s a message Johnson says is tailor-made to win the midterm elections, when Democrats hope to flip the House and need to net just one seat to do so. But Republicans are approaching November with the president’s approval ratings at new lows and their party divided over how to course correct.
The Supreme Court’s decision to rebuke Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs on Friday has revived fears that the economic turmoil is a political gift to Democrats. Republicans are simultaneously finding themselves on defense over immigration, traditionally a GOP issue, after the death of two Minneapolis protesters at the hands of federal immigration agents last month.
Trump is the singular force that has kept the party together since Republicans took unified control of Washington last year, and they expect his speech before tens of millions of prime-time viewers will help make the case for a GOP-run House.
“President Trump, to me, is one of the greatest locker room speakers I’ve ever listened to,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) told the Washington Examiner on Tuesday. “He comes in, and he gets people on their toes. He gets them excited and inspired for more.”
Yet Trump is also known for veering off-script, and Democrats have arranged a series of protest events and rebuttals meant to blunt the GOP’s message. In particular, Democrats are eager to revive a controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein files, inviting survivors of sexual abuse. They are similarly inviting guests meant to highlight what they say are the unlawful tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“The state of our union under the presidency of Donald J. Trump is a complete and total disaster,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said in a Tuesday press conference. “And the American people know it.”
“Costs have gone up, job creation has gone down, and ICE is totally out of control,” he added.
House Republicans arranged a media row on Tuesday to counter that rhetoric, floating from camera to camera to blame Democrats for the lingering effects of inflation and an Epstein firestorm they say is contrived.
“Jeffrey Epstein? They had four years when they had both chambers, and they had the White House to talk about Jeffrey Epstein,” Emmer said.
On the economy, Republicans repeatedly came back to their flagship policy achievement — a tax law they hope will convince voters to give them another two years in power.
“This is an opportunity for us to tell our own story, as opposed to having it filtered through the media, which generally disagrees with us on everything, and gets to print the final word, whether it’s true or not,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) said.
Implicit in their remarks was an acknowledgment that voters aren’t feeling the effects of an economy that has appeared to achieve a soft landing after the COVID-19 pandemic. Perry said it will take more than a year to fix an affordability crisis, while other Republicans explicitly accused former President Joe Biden of mismanaging the economy.
“This is what always happens,” Emmer said. “They come in and spend like drunken sailors and break everything, and then you gotta get Republicans, and this time with the leadership of our great President Donald Trump, to come in and clean it up.”
Clouding that message is a rolling set of controversies that have plagued House Republicans for months. In the hours before the speech, GOP leaders were fielding intraparty calls for Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) to step down after allegations he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
IRAN BUILDUP HANGS OVER TRUMP STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
But Republicans believe the State of the Union gives them a bully pulpit that will help recalibrate their message, both in Washington and on the campaign trail. Trump is expected to make the cost of living a centerpiece of his speech, including the announcement of new steps to keep down energy costs. Later this week, Trump will also travel to Texas to help drive turnout for a slate of March 3 primaries.
In terms of Democratic programming, there will be a rebuttal from newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), plus a National Mall event that will be attended by dozens of progressive Democrats who refuse to sit in the chamber with Trump.
Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
