Trump to House Republicans: If we don’t win midterms, I’ll get impeached

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Republicans must win the 2026 congressional midterm elections – or else he will get impeached by Democrats.

“You gotta win the midterms ’cause, if we don’t win the midterms, it’s just gonna be – I mean, they’ll find a reason to impeach me,” Trump told Republican lawmakers at a retreat in Washington. “I’ll get impeached.”

Ahead of the November elections, which could stall his agenda and expose him to congressional investigations, Trump teased and prodded allies who narrowly control the U.S. House of Representatives. He told them to put aside their differences and sell his policies on gender, healthcare and election integrity to an American electorate angry about the cost of living. 

“They say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm,” Trump said. “I wish you could explain to me what the hell’s going on with the mind of the public.”

FEW REMARKS ON COST OF LIVING

Fresh off an audacious military operation against Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro, Trump has come under pressure to pivot toward domestic issues, especially concerns about inflation and prices. On Tuesday, Trump said little about the latter issue, except that he had inherited the problem from Democrats and that Republicans should run on strong U.S. stock market gains.

He made only brief mention of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters, while Democrats in Congress marked the fifth anniversary of the riot by accusing Republicans of a “whitewash” of history.

The lawmakers met at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, an institution chartered and named by Congress. Trump purged its board of Democratic appointees last year, and the remaining trustees voted in December to rename the center to include Trump’s name alongside former President Kennedy’s.

There, in an unstructured speech lasting 84 minutes, Trump reflected on his wife’s advice that he stop dancing in public.

He repeated several falsehoods, including that Washington had seen no homicides in seven months. Washington police reported a murder on New Year’s Eve and said 127 homicides took place in 2025. He said “I don’t get to play much” golf after doing so as recently as Sunday and regularly throughout his time in office.

Trump predicted Republicans would beat the odds and deliver an “epic midterm victory,” but also groused about some members who don’t fall in line.

Every seat in the House and a third of those in the Senate will be contested in November. Sitting presidents have lost House seats in every midterm since George W. Bush in 2006.

Trump urged his party to more forcefully push back on Democrats’ near-unified message on healthcare, as the minority party advocates to extend expired subsidies that made Obamacare insurance more affordable for millions of Americans.

He said conservative members should be “a little flexible” about their insistence to include Hyde Amendment provisions in their healthcare plans, which would prevent taxpayer dollars from going to abortion services. 

“All of these issues are very important issues, but you can own healthcare,” he told lawmakers. “Figure it out.”

TRUMP HAS MOVED TO EXPAND EXECUTIVE POWER

Trump was impeached twice by the Democratic-led House of Representatives during his 2017-2021 term in office. Democrats faulted his Ukraine policy and the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol by his supporters. The Senate voted to acquit him in both cases.

Some House Democrats have already introduced articles of impeachment accusing Trump of abuses of power in his second term, allegations the White House denies.

Republicans currently control the House by five votes, a narrow margin that has frustrated both Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson. Trump has moved to expand his powers to act alone in realms ranging from immigration to military action and federal regulation. He faces an important Supreme Court ruling soon on whether his broad use of tariffs usurped a power the Constitution granted to Congress.

House Republicans have shown enormous deference to Trump, ceding much of Congress’ authority over spending and other matters to his administration. But they have started to show glimmers of independence. The House could vote this week to override a veto Trump issued last month that canceled infrastructure projects in Colorado and Florida, though it is not clear whether the effort will get the two-thirds majority needed.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Trevor Hunnicutt, Bo Erickson, Andy Sullivan, Doina Chiacu and Richard Cowan, Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Alistair Bell)