Trump 'intuition' has GOP threatened with 'nightmare scenario':  White House strategist

Republicans outside the White House were shaken by last week's Democratic election wins, but President Donald Trump remains confident that his redistricting gambit will succeed in keeping GOP congressional majorities, according to a report.

Democrats are making counterstrikes in California and Virginia against GOP mid-decade redistricting in Texas and other states, but the president believes the redrawn maps will still tilt in favor of Republicans – possibly by substantial margins, reported NBC News.

“The president understands intuitively, in a way that other Republicans don’t … that Democrats are always assaulting us, always, and mostly much of the Republican Party never fights back,” said a strategist familiar with the White House approach. “The redistricting fight is proof that they are not that way. So this is in his DNA in a way that is not in other Republicans’ DNA.”

However, two other Republicans close to the White House say doubt is creeping in for some in the party, and they described a "nightmare scenario" to NBC News that Democratic maneuvering could blow up the midterm scheme.

"In recent days, aides have presented Trump with three scenarios for the overall outcome of the redistricting fight, none of which include Republicans losing seats when all the maps are finalized, according to the GOP strategist familiar with the White House approach," NBC reported. "The variables include how the Supreme Court rules on an upcoming case about the Voting Rights Act, which impedes states from diluting the voting power of minorities, and whether courts will block Democratic plans in California and Virginia."

"The strategist said there was a 'bad-luck Republicans, good-luck Democrats' scenario, which would result in 'basically a wash of seats' but with some Republican-held seats in red states becoming more secure than they are now," the report added.

The two other scenarios would result in Republicans picking up at least five seats, that strategist said, while a third could give the GOP more seats well into doubles digits – all of which would allow Trump to continue his agenda and avoid a near-certain third impeachment.

“With a narrow majority heading into a midterm, they need more seats for a buffer in order to hold the House," one GOP strategist said. "If they can ultimately net five or six seats, then it will be the story of the midterms of success for Republicans. If the whole thing here was to net one seat across the country, then it will not have been worth it.”

Erin Covey, a nonpartisan election analyst The Cook Political Report, warned that the GOP redistricting push might not win them as many seats as they hoped, saying that Democrats gains with Hispanic voters could cut into the advantage they thought they had baked into the new districts.

“That does not bode well for Republicans banking on Hispanic voters to help them keep their majority next year — but it doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll see Republican incumbents who would be in safe seats suddenly look vulnerable all of a sudden,” Covey said.

Trump's team believes their Texas scheme will work out as planned, but some GOP consultants said some Republicans in the state already regret the aggressive new map based on last year's presidential election results.

“”Nobody wants to go against Trump in this district map because they fear him. They’ve pushed the envelope and it’s going to come back to bite them in the a--,” said GOP consultant and data scientist John Eakin.