WASHINGTON — The president’s cabinet has been criss-crossing the country over the summer, taking 500 domestic trips to talk directly to the American people about the administration’s achievements ahead of crucial midterm elections that could derail its agenda.
President Donald Trump’s Cabinet members made a total 500 domestic trips to between Memorial Day and Labor Day, touting the victories of the administration. The goal is to communicate what the administration is doing to “everyday Americans” across the nation in the weeks leading up to the midterm elections, and for the trips to the heartland to “inform future policymaking,” White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told The Daily Wire.
Cabinet secretaries went to Texas 46 times, to Pennsylvania 42 times, to New York 40 times, to Iowa 28 times, and to Michigan 25 times, a White House official shared. They also visited Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Arkansas, Wisconsin, and New Jersey — with at least 10 visits to each state.
Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler had the most trips of the summer, a White House official shared.
“President Trump has assembled the most talented Cabinet in history who work every day to implement his commonsense agenda and deliver wins for the American people,” said Wales, who added that their presence around the country provides “a strong contrast to the record of failure by radical Democrats on the border, inflation, and crime.”
“In nearly two years, the President has made our country stronger than ever before with the most secure border in history, the largest middle-class tax cut ever, trillions in investment commitments, more than a million jobs created, and the lowest level of violent crime in nearly a century.”
Trump has promised to hit the campaign trail for Republicans in 35 key races in the final weeks before Americans head to the polls, battling for the GOP in an election year in which history suggests the odds are against Republicans.
“I’ll be with you 100%,” he vowed in early September during a White House Rose Garden dinner for lawmakers in competitive races. “We’re going to do something like I did for myself in the last presidential election. Four months out I said, ‘Ok. No days off.’ If I didn’t make four or five speeches a day, it was very bad. … All I’m gonna do is work, work, work, and fight, fight, fight, and win, win, win.”
The Cabinet travel comes with a flurry of announcements and new initiatives. Just this week, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Todd Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel stopped in Kansas City, Missouri to announce major fraud victories. The same day, Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced that the United States will start refilling U.S. emergency crude reserves in only a few months. Last week, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy launched a new space body and then announced that the Federal Aviation Administration will deliver $1.1 billion in airport improvement grants across the nation.
While critics and commentators suggested that Republican lawmakers in narrow races should stay far away from the president, Trump is making the case that Republicans should want this administration’s track record on the ballot with them.
At the Republican Midterm Convention last week in Texas, Republicans highlighted the administration’s successes, arguing that Americans should vote for lawmakers who can help the president carry out his agenda. Trump himself told voters to behave as if it were a Trump election once again.
“I’m asking you to pretend that I’m on the ballot,” the president told the convention on night one. And on the second night, he joked to the crowd, “You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell.”
His supporters argue that he is the unequivocal leader of the Republican Party, committed to maintaining the Republican majority in Congress. A White House official predicted to The Daily Wire that with Republicans in control during the next two years, there will be major legislative wins that couldn’t be achieved with a divided government.
“There are some voters that only he can motivate to get to the polls,” the White House official said. “And any Republican candidate would agree with that reality.”
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