Topline<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump said he thinks the U.S. \u201cshouldn\u2019t even have\u201d midterms in November, according to an interview with Reuters<\/a> published Thursday, ramping up his attacks on the upcoming election after repeatedly expressing alarm about the possibility of Republicans losing control of Congress.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters aboard Air Force One on January 11.<\/p>\n Getty ImagesKey Facts<\/p>\n Trump claimed to Reuters that because of his administration\u2019s many accomplishments during his second term, \u201cWhen you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election [in November].\u201d<\/p>\n White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later claimed Thursday that Trump was \u201csimply joking\u201d and \u201cspeaking facetiously\u201d by saying that, telling reporters the president was saying, \u201cWe\u2019re doing such a great job \u2026 maybe we should just keep rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n Democrats are favored to make gains in Congress in November, based on polling<\/a> and historical trends showing the party that\u2019s not in the White House typically does better in midterm elections, with Trump lamenting that pattern and claiming \u201cit’s some deep psychological thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has repeatedly expressed concern about the possibility his party could lose control of Congress in the midterms, telling<\/a> GOP lawmakers earlier this month Democrats would \u201cfind a reason to impeach me\u201d if they regain congressional control.<\/p>\n Trump told Republicans in that speech the party has \u201cgot to win the midterms,\u201d but added he wouldn\u2019t say, \u201ccancel the election, because the fake news will say, \u2018He wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Republicans have also undertaken efforts to try and stave off Democratic gains in November, most notably through redistricting efforts that would give states additional Republican-leaning seats in the House.<\/p>\n Big Number<\/p>\n 44%. That\u2019s the share of voters who said they would back a Democratic candidate in the midterms, according to an Economist\/YouGov poll<\/a> conducted Jan. 9-12, versus 40% who would back the Republican candidate. The poll is in line with other recent surveys<\/a> on which party is favored in November, with an average<\/a> of polls by RealClear Polling finding Democrats have a 4.3% advantage over Republicans as of Thursday.<\/p>\n Tangent<\/p>\n In his interview<\/a> with Reuters, Trump broadly dismissed criticism of his administration\u2019s policies from voters, business leaders and even others in his own party. The president waved off polling suggesting his threatened takeover of Greenland<\/a> is politically unpopular, telling Reuters, \u201cA lot of times, you can’t convince a voter \u2026 You have to just do what’s right.\u201d Trump also chastised Republican lawmakers who have raised concerns about his administration\u2019s criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell<\/a>\u2014saying, \u201cI don\u2019t care \u2026 they should be loyal\u201d\u2014and dismissed JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon\u2019s warnings that the investigation could raise inflation. \u201cI don\u2019t care what he says,\u201d Trump told Reuters.<\/p>\n Key Background<\/p>\n Democrats have been broadly concerned that Trump could try to interfere in elections during his second term, after the president unsuccessfully waged a campaign to overturn his electoral loss in 2020. Trump has raised scrutiny by repeatedly making comments<\/a> floating a desire to stay in office past his second term\u2014which would not be legal\u2014though he has not yet overtly said he intends to try to do so and acknowledged<\/a> in October he\u2019s \u201cnot allowed to run\u201d again. The president has also continued to push unfounded claims of voter fraud that critics worry could erode trust in elections and pave the way for increased voting restrictions. Trump urged Republicans in January to pass the SAVE Act<\/a>, which would require voters to provide proof of citizenship every time they register to vote, pushing fraud allegations around noncitizen voting even as evidence suggests<\/a> the practice is exceedingly rare.<\/p>\n Further ReadingForbesTrump And Elon Musk Push Voter ID Laws As Latest Attempt To Boost GOP In MidtermsBy Alison Durkee<\/a>ForbesTrump Says He\u2019ll Be Impeached If Republicans Lose MidtermsBy Zachary Folk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Topline President Donald Trump said he thinks the U.S. \u201cshouldn\u2019t even have\u201d midterms in November, according to an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[11415,23,12,196667,1070,170164,3,19079,196669,196671,21,19,22,20,25,24,196670,196668],"class_list":["post-409481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-2026-midterms","tag-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-election-interference","tag-elections","tag-midterm-elections","tag-news","tag-november","tag-republicans-in-midterm-election","tag-reuters-interview","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-who-will-win-midterms","tag-will-trump-interfere-with-midterms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}