President Donald Trump wants the midterm elections to be all about Donald Trump. Republicans think they have little choice but to go along.

On Thursday night, a group of more than two dozen Republicans went to the White House Rose Garden to hear Trump address them in the run-up to the midterm elections, now 60 days away. There, after telling the assembled members of Congress how the old Rose Garden would ruin women’s shoes and how he invented the insult “Dumocrat,” Trump claimed he would help them win.

“Whether you’re a good president or a great president, you lose the midterms,” Trump said, acknowledging a historical pattern that has existed since the dawn of the republic. “We’re going to turn that around because there’s no reason for it. … I’ll be at every one of your states, your cities, wherever it is that you’re running.”

The Republicans in attendance included the GOP candidates for governor in Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan; the party’s Senate candidate in Georgia and members running for reelection in heavily contested House districts in Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Michigan, Florida, Alaska and Colorado.

Many of those Republicans ― or at least the political operatives working for them ― are fully aware they don’t really want the president to show up in their districts. Trump is deeply unpopular, with voter anger at his decision to launch a costly war in Iran and his failure to lower prices driving his approval rating down into the 30s in most public opinion surveys.

But downballot Republicans, who have seen their majorities in the House and Senate become deeply endangered, are not responding by breaking with Trump. They long ago decided on a midterm strategy of tying themselves to the president in hopes of turning out low-propensity conservative voters, and they are desperate for his political operation to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars he has hoarded so far.

“We need his money and we need his voters,” said one Republican consultant working on a handful of toss-up races around the country, requesting anonymity to speak frankly about his party’s poor standing. “If we can get those things, and convince middle-of-the-road voters Democrats are extremists, that’s how we salvage a good night.”

People listen as Donald Trump speaks at an end-of-summer barbecue event with Republicans in the Rose Garden on Sept. 2, 2026.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images

The consultant acknowledged the plan’s shortcomings, expressing a fear now common among Republicans about Trump keeping most of MAGA, Inc.’s $400 million cash on hand. “Trump is not inherently a generous guy. He could keep all the money.” (Senate Majority Leader John Thune went on Fox News on Tuesday to beg Trump’s super PAC to spend money in Texas, where Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton is trailing Democrat James Talarico in polling.)

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a moderate Republican who is retiring rather than running for reelection, said Trump is bringing down the GOP’s chances of holding his district, which includes the city of Omaha and its suburbs. Political forecasters expect Democrats to flip the seat in November.

“Some of the policies and some of the statements aren’t helpful,” Bacon told HuffPost, referring in particular to the president’s tariffs on imported goods, which can put upward pressure on prices. “You get to see it in polling in my district; he’s in the mid-30s, which just makes it hard on Republicans.”

While former Vice President Kamala Harris won Bacon’s district in 2024, Trump is becoming a problem for Republicans across the map. House Majority PAC, which is controlled by allies of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), has found Trump’s approval rating underwater in every district it has recently polled — including a district in South Texas where he won by 18 percentage points in 2024.

Trump is nonetheless determined to put himself at the center of the midterm conversation. On Thursday, his political operation finally allowed some of its money to dribble out and began airing two ads through a nonprofit group, Keep America Great.

While one largely echoes the messages Republicans prefer, playing up the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime, the other is simply a paean to the president, featuring footage from Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White’s speech at the 2024 Republican National Convention where he called Trump “the toughest, most resilient person that I’ve ever met.”

“I hope the taxes one airs a lot more than the other,” one Republican media consultant, requesting anonymity to speak frankly about the ads, texted HuffPost, adding sarcastically: “I’m not sure if Dana White is a trusted surrogate for voters.”

Former Rep. Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, who became one of the first Republicans to criticize Trump when he was running for president in 2015, pointed to the convention, which will take place over two nights in Dallas next week, as emblematic of the symbiosis between Trump and the GOP.

“They’re going to do that goofy convention down in Texas, and Trump is going to make things about himself because he believes that he’s got all this great power with the voters, while simultaneously ignoring the polling that shows his favorability ratings are in the toilet,” Ribble said.

Many House Republicans told HuffPost they would attend the convention, describing it as a key part of how the party could convince Trump voters who might otherwise sit out the midterms to show up and stop what they view as a Democratic Party controlled by extremists.

“It’s important to use every single platform we possibly can to get the message out and show the contrast between the Republican Party and the Democrat[ic] Party,” Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas) said.

“I’m assuming — bad thing to do — that the president will make the case that he is actually on the ballot, and it is important for people to come out and vote in 2026,” Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) said.

Other Republicans won’t attend. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said he’s taking his daughter to visit colleges. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he’ll be in Dallas, but isn’t sure about this schedule. Rep. Kevin Kiley, who changed his affiliation from Republican to independent to protest his party’s approach to a government shutdown last year, seemed baffled by the question.

“I don’t know much about it. I have no idea,” Kiley said.

One House lawmaker told HuffPost it was “concerning” that the event’s dates overlap with the first two games of the NFL season.

As much as Republicans may be stuck running on Trump’s record, Democrats have said they don’t actually plan on featuring the president much in advertising, in part due to the former reality television star’s media ubiquity. The exception, they said, would be for Republicans in blue areas like Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Rep. Mike Lawler of New York.

So are they going to the convention? Collins has said she isn’t. But Lawler dodged the question when HuffPost asked.

“Got to do a lot of things as a candidate,” he said. “You guys spend so much time on inside-baseball nonsense. It’s comical.”

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Lawler would attend, introducing a constituent whose daughter was killed by an undocumented immigrant.

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