White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles says President Donald Trump plans to campaign aggressively for Republican candidates in the midterms, approaching the elections “like it’s 2024 again.” That strategy breaks sharply from the long-standing Republican habit of sidelining Trump in competitive races out of fear that Democrats could mobilize backlash turnout.
Wiles’ approach reflects a confident rejection of that defensive playbook. Rather than running from Trump, the party intends to run with him — and to unapologetically defend the policies and agenda that delivered his decisive 2024 victory. Trump didn’t just win that election; he dominated it, defeating Kamala Harris despite an all-out effort by Democrats and a friendly media to rebrand her as the next Barack Obama.
The message from the White House is clear: Republicans believe Trump is an asset, not a liability, and they’re betting that the same America First platform voters embraced in 2024 will power GOP wins in 2026 as well.
“Typically, in the midterms, it’s not about who’s sitting at the White House. You localize the election, and you keep the federal officials out of it,” Wiles said in an appearance on “The Mom View” podcast. “We’re actually going to turn that on its head and put him on the ballot.”
“Because so many of those low propensity voters are Trump voters,” she added, noting that some results in 2025 show “what happens when he’s not on the ballot and not active.”
“He’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again…He’s a difference maker, and he’s certainly a turnout machine,” Wiles said:
Susie Wiles, whom President Trump calls the most powerful woman in the world, says she has a plan to save the midterms for the Republican Party.
She says Trump will campaign like it’s 2024 all over again, and admits she hasn’t even told him this yet.
Her strategy is to make the… pic.twitter.com/qXxQdf5x2m
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) December 9, 2025
Wiles joked that she hasn’t quite broken the news to President Trump that he’ll be crisscrossing the country on the campaign trail, but it’s hard to imagine him objecting to rallies, red hats and a few rounds of “YMCA” in support of candidates who actually back his agenda.
For conservatives, the news is a welcome change from the frustration of past midterms. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, Republicans lost the House in a bruising defeat, surrendering dozens of seats to Democrats even while holding the Senate. Party leadership responded then by blaming Trump — not its own lack of conviction or message.
The same cautionary mindset plagued Republicans again in 2022. The much-touted “red wave” fizzled, producing only a razor-thin House majority and no broad mandate, despite voters’ clear dissatisfaction with the Biden administration. In too many battleground races, the MAGA base stayed home, while Democrats turned out and overperformed.
Republicans now objecting to Wiles’ strategy might want to examine that track record before offering advice. Trump has been back in the Oval Office and working at full throttle. The GOP-controlled Congress, by contrast, has often appeared hesitant, divided and slow to deliver.
? WORTHLESS: Congress just set a RECORD for the fewest laws passed and House votes in 2025, the least productive year since at least 1989! (per WaPo)
Only ~38 bills enacted, House barely voted 362 times.
Why? pic.twitter.com/JoYAolNXj8
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 25, 2025
That’s not exactly a record Republicans should be eager to defend.
A post-election study of the 2024 presidential race undercut the media’s favorite excuse for Kamala Harris’ loss: low turnout. Harris didn’t lose because voters stayed home. She lost because Republican turnout surged with Trump at the top of the ticket. The data showed that Trump’s presence energized the GOP base, and that even higher turnout would likely have expanded — not narrowed — his already commanding victory.
Even David Shor, a Democratic data scientist and pollster often cited by the left, dismissed the notion that turnout would have rescued Harris. His analysis directly contradicted the idea that Democrats were one mobilization effort away from winning, and instead reinforced what the results already made clear: Trump on the ballot drives voters, and that dynamic overwhelmingly favors Republicans.
“The reality is if all registered voters had turned out, then Donald Trump would’ve won the popular vote by 5 points [instead of the roughly 1.6+ points],” he explained. “So, I think that a ‘we need to turn up the temperature and mobilize everyone’ strategy would’ve made things worse.”
Excited to join @ezraklein to talk through what happened in 2024.
There's a turnout story this cycle, but not the one we're used to talking about. With less-engaged and less-likely voters becoming more Republican, a larger turnout meant a more GOP electorate. pic.twitter.com/MtqDpIst93
— David Shor (@davidshor) March 18, 2025
