Republicans launch 'aggressive behind-the-scenes effort' to hold the House in 2026

27 May

Four months into Donald Trump's second presidency, some polls are giving Democrats reasons for optimism about the 2026 midterms. Polls released during the second half of May are showing Trump's approval at only 43 percent (YouGov/The Economist), 41 percent (American Research Group) or 42 percent (Ipsos/Reuters). And Democrats are hoping that if 2026 becomes a referendum on Trump, it will be bad for GOP candidates in general.

Democrats flipped both branches of Congress in 2006, and in 2018 during Trump's first term, Republicans held the Senate but suffered major losses in the House.

But according to Axios' Alex Isenstadt, Trump and his allies have "launched an early and aggressive behind-the-scenes effort to maintain the GOP's tenuous grip on the House in 2026 — and avoid his third impeachment."

"Trump allies believe — with good reason — that a Democrat-controlled House would launch investigations of the president and move to impeach him," Isenstadt explains. "That's exactly what happened after Democrats seized the chamber during Trump's first term. Midterm elections are historically tough for the party occupying the White House, and senior Republicans privately acknowledge that retaining the speaker's gavel won't be easy…. Already, some Democrats have signaled they want to investigate Trump's overhaul of the U.S. government, whether he manipulated markets and fostered insider trading with his tariff announcements, and whether he's helped Elon Musk secure deals for Starlink."

The Axios reporter adds, "Then there's that $400 million jet from Qatar. Democrats and other critics say Trump violated the Constitution by accepting the gift. "

If Democrats regained the House in 2026 and impeached Trump a third time, that doesn't necessarily mean he would be removed from office. Trump was acquitted in two Senate trials.

In fact, no president in U.S. history has been removed from office via a Senate trial. Presidents Trump, Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson were impeached in the House but acquitted in the Senate; President Richard Nixon was facing articles of impeachment in the House but resigned.

Nonetheless, Republicans are hoping to avoid a third Trump impeachment if they can.

GOP strategist Matt Gorman told Axios, "Investigations, impeachment — he knows it's all on the table with a Speaker (Hakeem) Jeffries."

Trump, Isenstadt notes, "has built a $500 million-plus political apparatus" and is "already unloading some of it with 2026 in mind."

"Securing American Greatness, a pro-Trump group that works with the White House, has launched a multimillion-dollar ad campaign touting his economic agenda in the districts of eight vulnerable House Republicans," according to Isenstadt. "The commercials also are airing in 13 districts where Trump won in November, but House GOP candidates lost."

Read Alex Isenstadt's full Axios article at this link.

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