Trump's early midterm stops only touch on lawmakers

John T. Bennett, CQ-Roll Call on Jun 8, 2026

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has yet to embark on a robust midterm campaign schedule, and his handful of initial rallies have been far from targeted messages talking up GOP candidates.

In the most recent two trips to districts that could help determine whether Republicans retain control of the House, the president opted for the meandering signature speaking style he has dubbed “The Weave” and said relatively little about why voters should back those GOP candidates come November.

He was in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon alongside Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who faces a reelection race that Inside Elections rates as Tilt Republican. The Cook Political Report has the race as a Toss Up.

Once onstage for the hour-long event, Trump dove into his conflict with Iran, his theories about interest rates and inflation, as well as an attack on what he called “crooked judges, crooked administrations, crooked politicians” that he has had to “fight.”

About 18 minutes in — or about eight minutes before his first mention of Van Orden — the president justified a project he has been overseeing in Washington, D.C., some 1,021 miles away by car.

“It’s our nation’s capital. That’s what — look at this, graffiti all over it, filthy, disgusting stone. The stone was all horrible. And look over there. That’s before and after,” he said, holding up pictures of the refurbished Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. “Then we had the reflecting pond, 2,500 feet, massive, longer than a building.”

Trump finally mentioned the congressman at the 26-minute mark.

“Derrick. This guy is, he fights like hell. He’s in a little bit of a community that tends to be on, slightly a little bit more than we wanted left,” Trump said of Van Orden’s district. “But he loves them all and he’s very popular and he’s going to win by a lot. … And he’s a real fighter and he’s a great guy.”

About three minutes later, Trump was back to other topics, talking about the first assassination attempt against him, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.

“You wouldn’t trade my life. You wouldn’t want my life. Believe me, you don’t want it,” he told a group of farmers. “Your life is much better than my life. I will tell you, your ear wasn’t a little pierced over here. You didn’t get pierced. You have a nice, safe, beautiful life.”

Trump called on Van Orden to speak, but not until the 51-minute mark. The lawmaker spoke for just over one minute, telling his constituents he often phones the president to talk policy. “You call him, he answers the phone, and he understands these issues inside and out,” Van Orden said of Trump.

Late last month, Trump went to Suffern, New York, to ostensibly campaign alongside GOP Rep. Mike Lawler, who is expected to have a tough reelection fight in the general election in the Empire State’s 17th District. Former Vice President Kamala Harris defeated Trump there in the 2024 presidential election.

Trump praised Lawler for being an ally and a reliable vote in the House.

“With the help of your great congressman … we got your taxes cut,” he said. “Your take-home pay has soared, and all of the other things that we did. … The Democrats, they want to raise your taxes.”

But the native New Yorker seemed more focused on the state’s gubernatorial race. Time and again, Trump kept referring to Bruce Blakeman, the Republican county executive in Nassau County, who is running to unseat Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Trump mentioned Blakeman more than Lawler.

“You have a guy named Bruce Blakeman. Let me just say, he’s a friend of mine, for a long time. He won in landslides in Nassau County. You know, Nassau County, it’s all Democrat. He’s a Republican and he won in landslides. And he just had the biggest election in the history of Nassau County as a Republican,” Trump said with a smile.

“And he’s very conservative, by the way. I don’t want to scare you. He’s right here. Bruce, I’m going to introduce you in a second. You better get ready, Bruce. He’s going to win,” Trump said. “You better watch yourself, Kathy. You got a race — got a big race. So we’re going to start turning New York around. I’m going to work with Bruce.”

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said late last year that her plan was for Trump to “campaign like it’s 2024 again.”

“Typically in the midterms it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House. You localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it. We’re actually going to turn that on its head and put him on the ballot because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters,” Wiles told “The Mom View,” an online talk show, in December.

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