President Donald Trump's recent warmth toward two of his party's favorite villains — Chinese President Xi Jinping and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — has Republicans openly questioning his strategy, according to The Hill.
Trump's lavish White House welcome for Xi drew immediate pushback from his own party, coming just after U.S. officials said China had helped Iran target American troops.
Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker didn't mince words, telling reporters, "Quite frankly, had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington."
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) separately warned that Beijing shouldn't be trusted simply because Trump was pursuing dialogue with it, The Hill report noted.
Then there's Mamdani, the democratic socialist Trump spent months attacking before an Oval Office sit-down turned into what onlookers described as a love fest.
Trump called Mamdani "a very rational person" who "really wants to see New York be great again," and said he'd be "cheering for him" if he can turn the city around. When asked whether he was standing next to a "jihadist" — the term outgoing Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has used for Mamdani — Trump simply replied, "No, I don't."
“Frankly, it’s inexplicable,” one unnamed Republican strategist told The Hill. “Not because as president you shouldn’t meet with the Chinese president or event the mayor of New York, but given their toxicity with the base that you were desperate to try to turnout at higher than normal levels to try and offset your vulnerabilities with every other layer of the November turnout populace.”
With an eye on the upcoming midterms, they added, “You need to fire up your base and instead you’re kind of deflating them in the homestretch.
The dual outreach leaves Republicans in an awkward spot four weeks before the election, forced to defend a president who seems more interested in charming his adversaries than rallying his base — a pattern some GOP lawmakers say is actively splintering the coalition he needs to hold Congress.