‘scared S–tless’: Republicans Brace For Trump’s Primetime Speech

President Donald Trump is promising to reveal “really big news” on election security. Many Republicans wish he wouldn’t.

The president’s speech, expected to be delivered in prime time Thursday from the White House, comes amid renewed hostilities with Iran, which are once again driving up fuel prices ahead of an election that most strategists still expect to turn on cost-of-living issues.

But instead of touting the recent good news on declining inflation or hyping the new housing law, Trump plans to talk about 2020 and “free and fair elections,” alarming some in the GOP who worry he will continue to make baseless claims or repeat debunked conspiracies.

“The people I talk to are scared shitless,” said a former Trump administration official, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “It’s not scared shitless about the text of what he's going to say, it’s, what does he add to the text?”

Republican operatives, including those in Trump’s inner circle, have pleaded for months for an unrelenting focus on the economy. And while the president has talked up his tax cuts and Trump Accounts during campaign stops, his decision to use a rare prime time address to focus on election integrity is a missed opportunity, the former official said.

“From the White House, they would prefer to be talking about economic conditions improving,” the former official said. “And any second of the day that’s not spent talking about that right now I’m sure frustrates many in the administration.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said he’d reserve judgment until he heard what the president says but stressed that the economy is what’s top of mind for most voters.

“If you’re asking me, when moms and dads lie down to sleep at night and can’t, what are they mostly worried about? I would say cost of living,” he said. “That’s what I believe, but he’s the president and he was elected by the people and he can talk about whatever he wants.”

Rehashing grievances about the 2020 race, which President Joe Biden won, could motivate the Republican base and help close a yawning enthusiasm gap between the two parties. Some of the president’s most die-hard supporters have argued that core MAGA voters need to see movement on the president’s 2024 campaign trail promises, like mass deportations and prosecuting voter fraud, or else they may stay home come November.

“The election integrity revelations coming on Thursday and thereafter will be the exact tonic the MAGA grassroots base need to fire them up — to remind them of what they are really fighting for in these crucial November elections,” said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

But that strategy does little in races where Republican victory relies on persuading more moderate voters, said Steve Cortes, a former Trump adviser.

“There are a lot of people in our base, as I do, who believe it was a grave injustice,” Cortes said of the 2020 contest. “But I believe for the persuadable voters, the non-MAGA people, talking about an election from six years ago sounds like sour grapes.”

The White House hasn’t previewed the announcement and press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on speculation that Trump would talk about the 2020 election.

“As usual, anonymous sources are speculating about what President Trump will say during his speech on Thursday evening. The truth is, nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say, which is why everyone should tune in,” Leavitt said.

Trump, however, is fixated on the 2020 election, which he insists was stolen. And in Trump’s telling, it’s an ongoing plot. Trump over the last several weeks has accused Democrats of cheating Spencer Pratt in the Los Angeles mayoral primary.

He has used these allegations to press Republican lawmakers to pass the SAVE America Act, an election reforms bill that would require voter ID and documentary proof of U.S. citizenship, and is expected to do so again Thursday night.

“If the Senate doesn't act on [the SAVE America Act], there's going to be great disappointment. A lot of elections are going to be decided by very close margins,” said Trump pollster John McLaughlin. “If the Republicans disappoint their base in a turnout election, it'll be really bad for us.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune maintains there are not the votes to pass it while some of his MAGA allies in the Senate, like Sens. Rick Scott (Fla.) and Mike Lee (Utah), have pushed the upper chamber to deliver it for the president by ending the filibuster.

“I have no idea what the president will talk about tomorrow night, and nobody does because he hasn't talked yet. Am I concerned about election integrity? Yes. Do I think that we should pass voter ID in this body? Yes, we should,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “If you go poll Missourians, ‘Do you like voter ID or not?’ you're going to find it's overwhelming. It's like 80 percent of Missourians want voter ID.”

A POLITICO poll from May found that key provisions of the SAVE America Act are popular among Americans overall. But that does little to allay concerns that Trump will veer into misinformation and personal grievance surrounding 2020 at a moment when most in the GOP are eager to attack a slate of Democratic socialists who’ve grabbed the mantle on the left.

“Republicans won Hispanics, swing voters, and young Americans in 2024 by exposing that extremism and offering a better alternative to open borders, the Green New Deal, and left-wing identity politics,” said a GOP senate campaign official, granted anonymity to speak about intraparty dynamics. “If we spend our time looking in the rearview mirror instead of through the windshield, we’ll drive our coalition right off a political cliff.”

Thune said on Wednesday that he didn’t know what Trump will say in his speech but that he also wants to look ahead.

“The only thing I can tell you is we are focused on the 2026 election — at least I am and I think most of my colleagues are,” Thune said.

In one of his first acts as president in 2025, Trump pardoned Jan. 6 defendants who were jailed for their role in the riots at the U.S. Capitol and earlier this year he subpoenaed 2020 election records.

Meanwhile, Democrats have asked Trump’s administration nominees about the 2020 election, testing if they agree with the president’s view that the race was stolen while it’s treated as a litmus test among MAGA. Director of National Intelligence nominee Jay Clayton was asked several times by Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday who won the 2020 election. Clayton responded, “I’m not going to do this with you.”

“Isn’t it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president’s delusions? Ossoff said. “We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it?”

Trump said on Tuesday the speech will “concern” the subject of election machines and integrity. He called the announcement, without previewing it, “really big news.”

“Our country has to shape up,” the president said. “What we're going to be talking about Thursday, is, it doesn't get bigger because without free and fair elections, you don't have a country.”