LEILA FADEL, HOST:
There is something that Donald Trump can't quite wrap his head around.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: But I wish you could explain to me what the hell's going on with the mind of the public because we have the right policy.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
That was the president speaking to House Republicans on Tuesday about the possibility of losing the House in this year's midterm elections. He was trying to offer his party a road map to win, as he called it.
FADEL: So was he successful? NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro watched the speech, and he joins me now. Domenico, good morning.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
FADEL: So what are the headwinds Republicans are facing at the start of this year?
MONTANARO: Yeah. I mean, never mind the headline-changing action in Venezuela. You know, right at the beginning of his speech yesterday, Trump acknowledged the vulnerable position that he and his party are in simply because of history.
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TRUMP: We won everything. But they say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm.
MONTANARO: And it's true that midterms are hard on a president's party. You know, on average, they lose more than two dozen seats, and it's worse when a president's approval rating is below 50%.
FADEL: Right. And we know Trump's approval rating - certainly, it's been below 50% for a while.
MONTANARO: Yeah. And he's facing his lowest approval ratings of his second term, and it's been in large measure because of the cost of living.
FADEL: Yeah.
MONTANARO: But Trump didn't offer much yesterday in his speech on that. In fact, it took him 48 minutes before he even started talking about the economy at all. And when he did, it was about the stock market being at historic highs, and he touted his tariffs, which have actively raised prices on many things. And people have been telling pollsters for months that they feel Trump's policies have made the economy worse.
FADEL: So if he didn't talk about strategy on prices, what did he talk about?
MONTANARO: I mean, it's culture issues mostly. That's, you know, hardly unusual for Trump. He's always - seems to be weaving back to that, as he calls it. He said being against transgender athletes in sports is such a winning issue that he'd save it for the week before the election. He did an imitation of a woman lifting weights, one he said that his own wife doesn't like. She says it's not presidential, but he went on to do it anyway. He talked about pushing for voter ID laws, immigration and crime, which in his mind are all related, he said, and his attempts at lowering drug prices on weight loss drugs, which he referred to as fat drugs. And he complained a lot about how he doesn't get the credit he feels he deserves. And he lamented at one point, what have you done for me lately? - is the way you have to run your life nowadays.
FADEL: Now, Trump was speaking on the same day that Republican Congressman Doug LaMalfa of California died. He was 65. Republicans already had a historically small majority. Will it be even harder now for Republicans to pass legislation?
MONTANARO: Well, it would if there was a clear legislative agenda from Republicans in Congress, but there really isn't one right now. And a lot of those culture issues are things that Trump has gone around Congress on using executive powers. Now, one area where they could do something would be on health care. Here's what Trump said about that.
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TRUMP: You can own health care. Let - figure it out. Let the money go directly to the people.
FADEL: OK. Own health care. How feasible is that?
MONTANARO: Well, Republicans, as we know, have had a long time to, quote, "figure it out" - more than a decade - and they haven't been able to, and they've been against extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. But it's one thing to campaign on a slogan like, let the money go to the people. It's very different to be president and to try to legislate on it. So if you're a Republican in a swing district, when the ACA is about as popular as it's ever been, you got to be scratching your head wondering, what is the strategy?
FADEL: NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Thank you, Domenico.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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