One of Donald Trump’s closest aides just hit the big red panic button as the president’s standing with the American people plummets before this year’s midterm elections.
Susie Wiles, Trump’s former campaign manager who now serves as White House chief of staff, has summoned dozens of top GOP operatives from multiple states to attend an urgent closed-door summit in D.C. on Monday, according to Politico’s Playbook newsletter.
A source with knowledge of the plans told the outlet that the meeting comes amid a wider push to “intensify preparations” in “a challenging midterm cycle,” providing consultants with an opportunity to share “data and strategy” on “how best to support candidates” ahead of the midterms.
Wiles looks to be joined at the summit by James Blair, who formerly served as her deputy in the administration and has now temporarily stepped away from public office to focus on streamlining GOP strategy in the run-up to November.
That reassignment came on the heels of another D.C. session in February that brought Wiles and Blair together with other Cabinet officials and top MAGA advisers to discuss GOP prospects and strategy.
Politico reports that the overall pattern underscores “growing urgency inside the White House about the midterms,” with the president’s overall approval ratings now hovering at a miserable 37 percent. Two-thirds of voters hold a negative view of his second term so far, tarnishing Trump’s reputation as an election winner.
Trump’s ratings have taken repeated hits since he recaptured the White House last January after the Justice Department’s bungled handling of the Epstein files release, his hardline immigration crackdown, and economic turbulence sparked by his sweeping tariffs regime and unpopular war on Iran.
The president has further tested the depths over the past week with his savage attacks against Pope Leo XIV and his misjudged decision to repost an image of himself as Jesus Christ, prompting uproar even from Trump stalwarts on the religious far right.
The Silver Bulletin, a forecasting and polling analysis platform, has Republicans with an almost-6-point disadvantage going into the November elections, with Democrats likely to seize control of both the House and the Senate if current patterns hold.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
