{"id":477997,"date":"2026-02-19T14:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477997\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:32:14","slug":"trump-heads-to-georgia-as-republicans-look-for-midterm-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477997\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump heads to Georgia as Republicans look for midterm boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 He is weighing military action against Iran<\/a>, leading an aggressive immigration crackdown<\/a>, and teasing a federal takeover<\/a> of state elections.<\/p>\n

But on Thursday, President Donald Trump\u2019s team insists he will focus on the economy when he visits battleground Georgia in a trip designed to help boost Republicans\u2019 political standing heading into the high-stakes midterm elections. <\/p>\n

\u201cGeorgia is obviously a very important state to the president and to the Republican Party,\u201d said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on the eve of his visit. Trump\u2019s remarks in Georgia, she said, will highlight \u201chis efforts to make life affordable for working people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s destination in Georgia suggests he has something else on his mind too. He\u2019s heading to a congressional district previously represented by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former supporter who resigned in January after feuding with Trump. There\u2019s a special election to replace her on March 10. <\/p>\n

The White House has long said Trump would focus more on the economy, and he frequently complains that he doesn\u2019t get enough credit for it. But recent months have been dominated by other issues, including deadly clashes during deportation efforts in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n

As a reminder of his divided attention, Trump is scheduled to begin Thursday with one of his passion projects. He\u2019s gathering representatives from some of the more than two dozen countries<\/a> that have joined his Board of Peace<\/a>, a diplomatic initiative to supplant the United Nations.<\/p>\n

False claims of voter fraud<\/p>\n

The Georgia visit comes less than a month after federal agents seized voting records and ballots from Fulton County, home to the state\u2019s largest collection of Democrats. <\/p>\n

Trump has long seen Georgia as central to his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen by Democrats and President Joe Biden, a fabrication that he reiterated Wednesday during a White House reception on Black History Month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won by millions of votes but they cheated,\u201d Trump said. <\/p>\n

Audits, state officials, courts and Trump\u2019s own former attorney general have all rejected the idea of widespread problems that could have altered the election.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans are now pushing for Georgia\u2019s State Election Board, which has a Trump-aligned majority, to take control of elections in Fulton County, a step enabled by a controversial state law passed in 2021. But it\u2019s unclear if or when the board will act.<\/p>\n

Leavitt, in the White House, said Wednesday that Trump was \u201cexploring his options\u201d when it comes to a potential executive order he teased on social media over the weekend designed to address voter fraud.<\/p>\n

Trump described Democrats as \u201chorrible, disingenuous CHEATERS\u201d in the post, which is pinned to the top of his social media account. He also said that Republicans should feature such claims \u201cat the top of every speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leavitt, meanwhile, insisted Trump would be focusing on affordability and the economy.<\/p>\n

Greene has not gone quiet<\/p>\n

Trump may be distracted by fresh attacks from Greene, once among the president\u2019s most vocal allies in Congress and now one of his loudest conservative critics.<\/p>\n

In a social media post ahead of Trump\u2019s visit, Greene noted that the White House and Republican leaders met earlier in the week to develop an effective midterm message. She suggested they were \u201con the struggle bus\u201d and blamed them for health insurance costs that ballooned this year. <\/p>\n

\u201cApproximately 75,000 households in my former district had their health insurance double or more on January 1st of this year because the ACA tax credits expired and Republicans have absolutely failed to fix our health insurance system that was destroyed by Obamacare,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd you can call me all the petty names you want, I don\u2019t worship a man. I\u2019m not in a cult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early voting has already begun in the special election to replace Greene, and the leading Republican candidates have fully embraced Trump. <\/p>\n

Trump recently endorsed Clay Fuller, a district attorney who prosecutes crimes in four counties. Fuller described Trump\u2019s endorsement as \u201crocket fuel\u201d for his candidacy in a weekend interview and vowed to maintain an America First agenda even if he remains in Congress after Trump is no longer president.<\/p>\n

Other candidates include Republican former state Sen. Colton Moore, who made a name for himself with a vociferous attack on Trump\u2019s prosecution in Georgia. Moore, the favorite of many far-right activists, said he\u2019s been in communication with Trump even after Trump endorsed Fuller, calling the choice \u201cunfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s the greatest president of our lifetimes,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n

The top Democrat in the race is Shawn Harris, who unsuccessfully ran against Greene in 2024. Democrats voice hope for an upset, but the district is rated as the most Republican district in Georgia by the Cook Political Report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 He is weighing military action against Iran, leading an aggressive immigration crackdown, and teasing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[164749,23,1927,220992,12,1070,9092,793,681,801,3319,17153,13409,3,111,220993,8638,795,3438,21,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":{"0":"post-477997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-clay-fuller","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-elections","14":"tag-ga-state-wire","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-georgia","17":"tag-iran","18":"tag-joe-biden","19":"tag-karoline-leavitt","20":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-shawn-harris","24":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-u-s-republican-party","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-united-states-of-america","29":"tag-unitedstates","30":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","31":"tag-us","32":"tag-usa","33":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477997","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=477997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}