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| President Trump walks along the West Wing Colonnade before a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House on April 10. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) |
WASHINGTON POST
More Americans disapprove than approve of President Trump’s job performance. His White House is in a perpetual state of turmoil. Fellow Republicans control Congress, but no signature legislation has passed. And in ruby-red Kansas last week, the Republican candidate in a special election got a scare from a turbocharged Democratic base, winning a House seat by a far slimmer margin than expected.
For a Republican Party already starting to strategize ahead of next year’s midterm elections, the turbulent, inchoate environment as the Trump presidency nears its 100th-day mark could be a cause for concern or even alarm.
Yet party leaders and strategists are preaching patience, not panic.
These Republicans — who acknowledge that their political brand will be shaped by the 45th president as long as he holds office — say their political fortunes will be told over the next year and a half in the answers to two overriding questions: Does Trump project strength? And does he achieve progress that amounts to more jobs and higher wages?
“What matters is a record of accomplishment,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster who has been conducting focus groups of Trump supporters. “People can disagree over the details or the significance of the change, but if you have a record of accomplishment, that fixes everything. . . . If you don’t, no rhetoric will fix it.”
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