'Scared s-tless': Republicans brace for Trump's primetime speech

Source: Politico

07/16/2026 04:45 AM EDT


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.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/16/republicans-brace-trump-speech-election-fraud-00999640