White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has a blunt message for Republicans heading into a bruising midterm cycle: praise President Donald Trump loudly, repeatedly, and without deviation. Appearing on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning, Leavitt said she believes Republicans aren’t doing nearly enough to celebrate Trump’s record — and that the party must “remain tough and smart” by sticking to the administration’s script.
“As President Trump has been screaming from the rooftops, Republicans need to be more vocal about telling the accomplishments of this administration,” she insisted.
Her comments come as Trump’s approval rating crawls upward from historic lows. The president bottomed out at 38 percent last month amid widespread frustration over the cost of living, but a new Reuters/Ipsos survey shows him ticking up to 41 percent — an improvement analysts partly attribute to a modest bump in satisfaction on grocery and housing costs.
Still, the economic picture tells a far darker story than the one Leavitt presented. She claimed rising prices were the product of a Democratic “hoax” designed to smear Trump, and insisted that “inflation has slowed because of President Trump’s economic policies.” She further argued that wages are rising by roughly $1,000 for the average worker.
But independent data sharply contradicts that narrative. GDP growth is projected to fall from 2.8 percent last year to roughly 1.6 percent — a slowdown economists attribute largely to Trump’s ongoing tariff war. Payroll numbers have cratered: 32,000 private-sector jobs were lost in November, unemployment has risen to 4.3 percent, and inflation remains stubbornly high for American families.
Even within Trump’s base, frustration is rising. A recent Politico poll found that 46 percent of Americans blame Trump directly for the affordability crisis. Strikingly, 37 percent of Trump voters said they cannot remember a time when the country felt worse off than it does today.
The messaging war within the GOP is escalating. Former Trump loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accused the president of “gaslighting” the public about falling prices. “People know what they’re paying at the grocery store… they know what they’re paying for their electricity bills,” she told Sean Spicer in November.
None of that bodes well for Republicans heading into the 2026 midterms. A November NBC poll found Democrats leading Republicans by eight points in the race for control of both the House and Senate — the largest pre-midterm advantage recorded for either party in more than five years.
Leavitt’s plea for unity and unwavering praise may signal that the White House sees the economic narrative slipping out of its hands. Whether Republican leaders follow her advice — or continue breaking ranks — could determine how steep the climb becomes for the party next year.
