Trump told GOP donors to press for 2018 Senate supermajority: report
President Trump is asking GOP donors to set their sights on a 60 Senate seats for Republicans in 2018.
Speaking at the Republican National Committee’s spring retreat Friday in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump largely avoided policy issues and rallied enthusiasm for massive GOP victories in next year’s midterm elections, according to Politico.
“I need you guys to step up and overwhelm them,” the president reportedly said.
{mosads}Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the Senate and have a favorable map in 2018. The GOP is only defending nine seats, compared to 25 for Democrats and Independents. Ten Democrats up in 2018 are in states Trump won last year.
But the president has also suffered from historically low job approval ratings in his first month in office, and sitting presidents’ political parties often lose seats in midterm elections.
Trump, however, has overcome election odds before, and he reminded donors of that at the retreat.
“He was talking about the election, how against all odds he wasn’t supposed to win. I think that was his theme for the night, how he won and won big,” one donor, healthcare executive Mohammad Qazi, told Politico.
The event, which was closed to the press, was held about five miles south of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, where the president has spent several weekends since taking office. He refers to the property as the “Winter White House.”
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