Republicans concoct a new game plan to avoid a midterms disaster

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters during a briefing in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 12, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Democratic strategists are hoping that President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" will be a major liability for Republicans in the 2026 midterms. And they are attacking the megabill, which Trump signed into law over the 4th of July Weekend, for defunding Medicaid while giving major tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and increasing the United States' already-huge federal deficit.

But Trump's allies, according to Politico reporters Meredith Lee Hill and Rachael Bade, have a game plan for promoting the megabill and avoiding what Democrats hope will be a midterms disaster for Republicans.

Democrats are attacking the legislation as the "big, ugly bill."

Meanwhile, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama) is describing the megabill not as the "big, beautiful bill," but as the "working families tax cuts bill."

"During a morning briefing," Hill and Bade explain in an article published on September 3, "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and James Blair, the president's top political aide, are set to walk House Republicans, and later their staffs, through the most popular pieces of the megabill that Trump wants them to tout ahead of next year's midterms. Tony Fabrizio, a top Trump pollster, will also present a slate of fresh polling on the tax cut and spending law that Trump signed on July 4, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss plans for the private briefing."

The Politico reporters continue, "The core message, according to one of the people who was briefed on the planned presentation, is that Republicans should focus on the bill’s tax cuts for 'working families' — including the elimination of income taxes on some tips and overtime and increases to the child tax credit and employer child care tax credit."

That source, quoted anonymously, told Politico, "The overarching point is that Republicans can control their own outcomes in the midterms if they just talk to key voters about what voters care about and highlight for those voters what we have done for them so far and what we’re planning to do next…. Just keep the main thing the main thing."

Read Politico's full article at this link.