House Republicans are in a celebratory mood in the lead-up to President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress Tuesday evening.
The president is slated to highlight his administration’s early wins on border security, domestic energy production and cutting wasteful spending in a speech titled, “The Renewal of the American Dream.” House Republicans, fresh off a major win with the passage of a budget resolution — the first step to advancing Trump’s first-year legislative priorities into law — are eager to highlight how their conference is already delivering on the president’s agenda.
GOP lawmakers are also optimistic that their quick victories on border security and support for the administration’s cost-cutting efforts will allow the conference to defy historical odds and expand their slim majority during the 2026 midterms.
The administration has lowered encounters at the southern border to a rate not seen since the 1960s. Congressional Republicans are currently working to send additional funding to federal immigration authorities through the budget reconciliation process and steered immigration enforcement legislation to the president’s desk.
“We’re in a very strong position to defy what is the norm,” Johnson said during House Republicans’ leadership press conference Tuesday. “It’s not traditionally expected for a new president to pick up seats in the first two-year midterm for his party, but we are going to grow the majority next year.”
“We will be riding the wave of the popularity of President Trump’s policies,” Johnson added. “Polling continues to show us that the American people are with us on the issues.”
Americans’ approval rating of congressional Republicans is at a record high since Quinnipiac began asking voters about Congress’ job performance in 2009. Congressional Democrats’ favorability ratings are conversely at an all-time low, according to the February Quinnipiac survey.
While Democrats remain divided over how to chart a path back to winning elections after the party’s bruising losses last November, some congressional Democrats are strategizing about ways to disrupt the president’s prime-time address. Republican lawmakers appear confident that congressional Democrats’ potential theatrics will face backlash from voters who elected a GOP trifecta if Democrats decide to disrupt the proceedings.
“I’m going to be delighted to see the Democrats lose their ever-loving minds,” Republican Texas Rep. Randy Weber told the DCNF. “There’s a new sheriff in town, and good things are happening.”
GOP lawmakers are also eager to combat congressional Democrats on the issues, arguing that Republicans’ vision for the country is far more popular than what Democratic lawmakers have offered thus far.
“They are defending wasteful government spending right now,” Johnson said Tuesday. “They are opposing tax cuts for working families. They are supporting open borders and sanctuary cities.”
“While House Democrats struggle to find a message that hasn’t already been rejected by the American people, House Republicans are going to continue to deliver for the country,” Johnson added.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer told the DCNF that Democrats’ opposition to the president’s Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting efforts will prove foolish in the long run.
“What are the Democrats — they’re [Democrats] defending waste, fraud and abuse?” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer asked Tuesday. “They’re fighting against that?”
“They don’t have a message. They don’t have a leader. It’s a broken party with a broken brand.”
GOP lawmakers are also dismissing their Democratic colleagues’ attacks over inflation and the high cost of eggs despite the president being in office for just over a month. Democrats have opposed an array of GOP-backed measures to help address inflation by repealing some of the Biden administration’s anti-energy regulations.
Several House Republicans asserted that the Trump administration’s actions to boost domestic energy production through executive orders and Congress’s efforts to roll back some of former President Joe Biden’s regulations will ultimately slow inflation.
“Anytime you’re able to unleash the energy resources that we have here in this country, as President Trump has set out to do, you’re going to begin to see energy prices, gas prices come down,” Republican North Carolina Rep. Mark Harris told the DCNF.
“The other side [is] saying they don’t see any impact, I would argue that it takes a little while for those impacts to be seen,” Republican Virginia Rep. Rob Wittman told the DCNF. “Under the previous administration, we saw those impacts continue to grow as far as inflation, and they did nothing to be able to stem the flow of inflation. We are already seeing some good leading indicators there with energy prices.”
Andi Napier contributed to reporting.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)
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