Trump Tries to Rally House GOP         01/07 06:19

   President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that Republicans have "so many good 
nuggets" to campaign on this year as they try to hold onto their razor-thin 
margin in the House.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump insisted Tuesday that Republicans 
have "so many good nuggets" to campaign on this year as they try to hold onto 
their razor-thin margin in the House.

   But the president's nearly 90-minute speech before House Republicans had 
little in the way of a fresh policy agenda or a cohesive new message to guide 
the year. Instead, he meandered from defending his actions during the Capitol 
riot five years ago to joking about being liberal-minded to win the votes of 
transgender people to making head-scratching references to Franklin Delano 
Roosevelt's use of a wheelchair.

   As he promised political "ammunition" to help Republicans, Trump emphasized 
the success of his 2024 presidential campaign, reminding the audience that he 
carried every swing state as he pondered why voters tend to turn against the 
party in power during midterm elections.

   "They say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterms," Trump 
said in remarks at the Kennedy Center, the performing arts venue that his 
allies recently renamed for him. "I wish you could explain to me what the hell 
is going on with the mind of the public."

   He warned that if Democrats regain control of Congress, "they'll find a way 
to impeach me."

   Trump's appearance at the GOP's policy forum was meant to ensure House 
Republicans and the White House were aligned on their agenda ahead of the 
November midterms that will determine control of Congress and the course of 
Trump's final two years in office. Rising health care costs, Trump's expansive 
foreign policy pursuits and other issues are dramatically splitting the GOP, as 
some Republicans become more comfortable crossing party lines to bypass House 
Speaker Mike Johnson and join proposals from Democrats.

   It all points to a difficult year ahead for the president and his party, 
especially as the House's slim majority narrowed Tuesday with the sudden death 
of California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, which was announced to lawmakers as they 
traveled to the performing arts center, and the resignation of former Georgia 
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which took effect at midnight.

   But Trump spent more time rehashing past grievances during the appearance 
than articulating a broad election-year strategy or offering specifics on how 
he's addressing affordability concerns of voters.

   "We won every swing state. We won the popular vote by millions. We won 
everything," Trump said, recounting the 2024 presidential election.

   Trump mused about unconstitutionally seeking a third term as president and 
claimed it was never reported that he urged his supporters to walk "peacefully 
and patriotically" on Jan. 6, 2021, to the Capitol, where they rioted to try to 
overturn his election loss. He used his wife, first lady Melania Trump, to poke 
at Roosevelt, the former Democratic president who used a wheelchair.

   According to the president, Melania Trump thinks the dancing he does at his 
rallies is not presidential.

   "She actually said, 'Could you imagine FDR dancing?' She actually said that 
to me," Trump said. "And I said there's a long history that perhaps she doesn't 
know."

   Trump did try to rally the conference at times, asserting that his first 
year back in office was so successful that Republicans should win in November 
on that basis alone. He briefly touched on Venezuela and the dramatic capture 
of deposed president Nicols Maduro -- calling it "brilliant, tactically." He 
talked about money coming into the U.S. through tariffs and direct investment, 
and negotiations to bring down drug prices.

   "You have so many good nuggets. You have to use them. If you can sell them, 
we're going to win," Trump said. He claimed that "we've had the most successful 
first year of any president in history and it should be a positive."

   House Republicans convened as they launch their new year agenda, with health 
care issues in particular dogging the GOP heading into the midterm elections. 
Trump declined to publicly counsel GOP lawmakers on how they should handle this 
week's vote -- pushed by Democrats and a handful of Republicans who broke from 
their party -- to extend insurance subsidies that expired at year's end, or on 
how to deal with the next potential government shutdown just weeks away, all 
with a narrower majority.

   "You can't be tough when you have a majority of three, and now, sadly, a 
little bit less than that," Trump said after paying tribute to LaMalfa, noting 
the challenges House Speaker Mike Johnson faces in keeping their ranks unified.

   The president also noted that Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., was recovering after a 
"bad" car accident, further slimming Johnson's vote margins.

   Votes on extending expired health insurance subsidies are expected as soon 
as this week, and it's unclear whether the president and the party will try to 
block passage. Trump urged Republicans to own the issue of health care, a 
policy that Republicans have long struggled on, and said the party should be 
"flexible" on abortion restrictions that have been well-established federal 
policy.

   "You have to be a little flexible" on the Hyde Amendment, Trump told House 
Republicans. "You gotta be a little flexible. You gotta work something. You 
gotta use ingenuity." The Hyde Amendment is a decades-old policy that bars 
federal money from being spent on abortion services.

   GOP lawmakers were hosting a daylong policy forum at the Kennedy Center, 
where the board, stocked by Trump with loyalists, recently voted to rename it 
the Trump Kennedy Center. The move is being challenged in court. Trump and 
Johnson are trying to corral Republican lawmakers at a time when rank-and-file 
lawmakers have felt increasingly emboldened enough to buck Trump and the 
leadership's wishes on issues such as the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.