Some Republicans Are Worried About Trump's Speech

President Trump is teeing up a primetime address expected to focus on election security, and Politico reports that plenty of Republicans wish he'd pick a different topic. With gas prices climbing again amid tensions with Iran, GOP strategists say voters are fixated on the cost of living, and they've urged Trump to emphasize easing inflation instead of repeating debunked claims about the 2020 election. "The people I talk to are scared s---less," one former Trump administration official tells Politico.

• "From the White House, they would prefer to be talking about economic conditions improving," the former official says. "And any second of the day that's not spent talking about that right now I'm sure frustrates many in the administration."

The White House hasn't previewed the speech, scheduled for 9pm Eastern on Thursday, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt insists "nobody knows yet" what Trump will say. But Trump has recently been alleging new episodes of Democratic cheating and pressing Republicans to pass the SAVE America Act, which would tighten voter ID requirements. Sources tell the Washington Post that Trump is expected to allege that China and Venezuela interfered in the 2020 vote. Allies like Steve Bannon argue an election-integrity push will energize the MAGA base, while others, including former Trump adviser Steve Cortes, warn that revisiting a six-year-old race sounds like "sour grapes" to swing voters.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, remain short of the votes to pass Trump's election bill, despite pressure from some in his own party to scrap the filibuster to do it. Republican Sen. John Kennedy says the president can "talk about whatever he wants," but he believes the cost of living is at the top of most voters' minds when they "lie down to sleep at night and can't." Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he doesn't know what Trump is going to say. But "the only thing I can tell you is that we are focused on the 2026 election, at least I am, and I think most of my colleagues are," he says, per the AP.