‘I’ll get impeached'—Sweating over midterm polls, Trump calls on Republicans to unite for victory

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday called on Republicans to rally for the 2026 congressional midterm elections, telling his party members that Democrats would impeach him if the Grand Old Party (GOP) failed to win.

"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 Republicans at a retreat in Washington, as per a report by Reuters.

"I'll get impeached," the US President added flatly at the meeting at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which was recently renamed to include the sitting president's name.

‘Figure it out’

Calling on Republican lawmakers to put aside their differences, Trump told GOP members to sell his policies on healthcare, gender, and election integrity to Americans amid growing concerns about the cost of living in the US.

While Trump predicted that Republicans would beat the trend of sitting US presidents losing in midterm polls, saying that the GOP was set for an "epic midterm victory", he also groused about some members who don't fall in line.

Calling for Republicans to be a "little flexible" in their approach to his administration's healthcare policies, Trump told lawmakers, "Figure it out."

A meandering speech

Having attacked Venezuela in a military operation sanctioned unilaterally, Trump has come under fresh pressure from political opponents, especially given concerns about rising prices.

Trump, however, did not directly address inflation or the cost of living in his 84-minute speech to Republican lawmakers, except to claim that he had inherited the problem from the previous Joe Biden-led Democratic administration.

In a meandering speech, Trump touched upon several unrelated issues, including his wife's advice that he stop dancing publicly and his own frequency of playing golf.

Trump also went on to claim that there had been no homicides in Washington in the past seven months, despite a murder taking place on New Year's Eve and the Washington police reporting 127 homicides in 2025.

The midterm polls

The midterm polls in the US are slated to take place in November, when every seat in the House of Representatives and a third of those in the Senate will be up for grabs.

Midterms have, historically, not turned out in favour of sitting presidents, with every single one of them losing House seats in every midterm since George W Bush in 2006.

While Trump's fear of losing is indeed informed by historical precedents, so is his fear of impeachment: Trump was impeached twice by the Democratic-led House of Representatives during his first term in office. The Senate, however, voted to acquit him in both cases.

Trump's second term hasn't been free of the threat of impeachment either, with some House Democrats already introducing articles of impeachment against Trump for alleged abuses of power.