U.S. President Donald Trump wears a 'Trump Was Right About Everything!' hat, as he visits The People’s House: A White House Experience museum, in Washington D.C., U.S., August 22, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
The White House hosted a meeting with key members of Congress, President Donald Trump's Cabinet members, and his chief of staff to address the 2026 midterm elections.
While Politico reported on the dinner, 2WAY founder Mark Halperin said he got the inside scoop from someone in the room.
Writing on X, Halperin said that pollster and top Trump strategist Tony Fabrizio had about 25 slides in a presentation on which issues voters care about, their demographics, and which messages are working.
Unsurprisingly, the economy will be the top issue in 2026. It's a conclusion every other pollster has been talking about for the past six months.
While Trump has spent the last several months saying that the "affordability crisis" is a "Democrat hoax," one of those top issues is housing affordability, particularly for young people.
Other messages that test well among voters include banning stock trades for members of Congress, transparency around health insurance data, "including on pricing and claims reimbursement," lowering prescription drug costs, and Trump's tax cut.
No one cares about closing the border.
"Men, moderates, true independents, and Hispanic voters are the true persuadable voters," said Halperin.
As AlterNet has reported, Trump has lost ground with all of those groups of voters in the past year. Even Trump loyalists feel "completely betrayed."
Fabrizio told the members to spend more time on podcasts and social media and ignore national news interviews. He also encouraged them to ignore paid media on broadcast TV and cable and instead get more targeted.
"Facebook is still king for voters, then Instagram and TikTok. There are currently 6 targeted House races and 7 key Senate races," wrote Halperin.
"The only way Republicans will lose the Senate majority is if Democrats [also] take 50 House seats," he added.
So-called Trump "political czar" James Blair showed data showing that the president's party always loses seats in the midterms, suggesting he believes the GOP is already predicting they'll lose the narrow House majority.
Trump's efforts trying to argue that he's made the economy so much better "will not help; voters have to feel it."
Halperin said that Blair "acknowledged that Donald Trump will do what he wants to do, say what he wants to say," a hint that Trump won't be much help on the economy messaging.
He encouraged everyone to stay on message and be "driven by the data."
Blair also assumes Democrats will run on "stop Trump" rather than economic messages like healthcare and housing affordability.