Trump team focuses on economy as top issue in midterm strategy meeting

It’s all about economics.

That was the message that senior members of President Donald Trump’s political team met with members of the Trump administration’s cabinet and their top aides in a closed-door strategy session about how best to sell the president’s agenda to voters in this year’s midterm elections.

The meeting, confirmed to Fox News by sources familiar with the meeting, was hosted by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, who directs Trump’s political strategy, and Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair.

The message during chief pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio’s slide presentation was that the economy would be top of voters’ minds and that the White House should pay attention to efforts to ease affordability, sources said.

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The meeting comes as the GOP seeks to maintain control of the Senate and its House majority in November’s midterm elections. Republicans face traditional political adversity in midterm elections, where the party in power typically loses House and Senate seats.

Republicans are also concerned about the president’s continued approval ratings and a number of polls, including a recent Fox News poll, that say Americans are pessimistic about the economy and that things have not improved since Trump returned to the White House.

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Democrats, meanwhile, have racked up a string of ballot box victories and outperformance in off-year and special elections during Trump’s second administration, thanks to their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation.

President Donald Trump takes the stage to speak at a rally at the Horizon Events Center in Clive, Iowa, on January 27. The president noted his administration’s efforts to lower prices. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

According to sources, Trump was not at the meeting. But on Thursday, he is expected to highlight the economy and his administration’s accomplishments by holding a political event in Georgia, a battleground state where key elections for Senate and governor will be held this year.

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And it will be in an even bigger spotlight when the President delivers his annual State of the Union address next week.

Vice President J.D. Vance offered some of those messages in an interview Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Story.”

Pointing to former President Joe Biden’s administration, Vance argued: “We’re still trying to dig out the hole that the Democrats put us in. And I think the question we’re going to ask the American people is: Do you want to give the government back to the people who, frankly, burned the house down and made most Americans much less wealthy and much less safe? Or do you want to double down on the president’s leadership?”

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The Tuesday evening meeting took place at the Capitol Hill Club, a private venue popular with political insiders located next to the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol.

Sources say the meeting focused on messaging as well as voting and the 2026 election map, with Trump’s top political aides guiding meeting attendees through new data on key midterm battlegrounds. They also emphasized the importance of Cabinet officials stepping in as key surrogates to sell the president’s agenda.