Trump’s midterm promises come with a catch: The GOP has to win
Por Megan Messerly — POLITICO – TOP Stories
President Donald Trump is touring the country, sprinkling his stops with parochial promises of new manufacturing plants, settlements for veterans and legislation to help farmers.
But there’s a catch: He’ll only follow through on those promises — some of which are granularly specific — if Republicans win in November. It’s hardly unusual for politicians to make promises in an effort to win votes, but they’re usually all carrot, no stick.
Some Republican operatives are warning the strategy risks backfiring amid heightened voter concerns about government corruption. A recent Fox News poll found that 60 percent of voters were extremely concerned about corruption, putting it ahead of anxieties over inflation and health care.
Michigan GOP strategist Jason Roe, who is working on the reelection campaign of Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.), added that it “is definitely novel.”
“I don’t know that it’s the best look, and I don’t know if it’s a credible message,” Roe said. “President Trump is certainly somebody that likes to think out loud on a lot of things, and it is at best a 50-50 proposition that something he says he’s going to do is something he’s actually going to do.”
Trump’s tour-de-gifts started in September in Dallas, where the president promised to send every adult U.S. citizen $5,000 if Republicans won in November. Since then, he has promised a $100 million Pentagon-funded pharmaceutical facility in Kentucky, the permanent year-round sale of E15 fuel in Kansas and the settlement of all claims related to the water contamination at a Marine Corps base in North Carolina — all contingent on Republicans winning in November.
“With Roger Marshall in the Senate, we will make year-round E15 permanent. But if Adam Hamilton is in, I’m not doing it. That’s it. I’m only doing it for him,” Trump said. “That’s a big deal for Kansas, actually.”
Some of these proposals Trump could do now. The Pentagon has already announced an $80 million conditional loan to the pharmaceutical company in Kentucky from its Office of Strategic Capital. And the Justice Department is already processing settlements for veterans and their families who were exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, where carcinogenic industrial chemicals contaminated the drinking water supply for more than three decades.
As of September, the department had made more than $1.1 billion in settlement offers under a law President Joe Biden signed in 2022. While that legislation does require congressional reauthorization, Trump told voters in North Carolina that the remaining compensation wouldn’t be handed out unless they delivered GOP victories.
“If we don’t win, there’s no money. If we do win, you’re getting it,” Trump said. “It’s going to be finally over with — that nightmare that’s been going on for so many years.”
Others would require Congressional approval — like the $5,000 proposed dividend checks, which would also require a substantial source of funding — or legislation to make the year-round sale of E15 permanent.
RNC spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre, in a statement, said that “President Trump knows that Democrats will obstruct his entire agenda” and that he is “simply highlighting what’s at stake this cycle and encouraging voters to support Republican candidates that will work with the Administration to advance his agenda and deliver for the American people.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Together, the promises have become a central part of the president’s closing message to voters ahead of Nov. 3, pairing the promise of tangible financial benefits if Republicans win with dire warnings about what could happen if Democrats take control of Congress. And they come amid worsening approval ratings for the president, whose administration has been battered by voter concerns about high prices and the war in Iran.
The spiraling voter sentiment has meant Trump has spent the final weeks of the campaign barnstorming traditionally red states he won by double digits in 2024 but where Republicans now face competitive Senate races, including Alaska, Iowa and Ohio, as he tries to gin up GOP enthusiasm.
“Successful campaigns in midterms are the ones that go local,” said Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist and former NRCC communications director. “So, he’s going into these places talking about local issues, local projects, local infrastructure — like, that’s important, that’s what winning campaigns do, especially if you’re running as the party in power in a midterm.”
Gorman is one of several Republicans who argued the president wasn’t saying that he wouldn’t follow through on these promises if the GOP fails to keep control of the House and Senate. In Kansas, they argue, if Marshall loses, that likely means Republicans have lost the Senate writ large.
“If Kansas goes, I think the president is maybe admitting that that means the Republicans don’t have a majority in the Senate,” said Danedri Herbert, chair of the Kansas Republican Party.
Trump’s unusual promises are tempting Democrats who are already eyeing ways to use their investigatory power should they take control of the House. In Kentucky, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s office has called for a federal investigation if the Pentagon investment is indeed conditioned on Republican victories.
“If investments from the Department of Defense — or Trump’s ‘Department of War’ — are conditioned on the outcome of an election, it’s time for the Department of Justice to investigate,” Beshear spokesperson Scottie Ellis told the Kentucky Lantern.
Other Republicans close to the White House are skeptical not only that Trump will deliver on the promises, but also that they will prove effective in driving turnout.
“There seems to be two issues: first, will he actually do it and second, is it a motivating strategy to get voters out,” said a Republican person close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “Unfortunately I think the answer to both is no.”
Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories