By Aaron Zitner

OXON HILL, Md. -- On Capitol Hill, some Republicans worry that President Trump's blitz of government layoffs has cut too deeply. Angry voters are turning up at constituent meetings. Trump's approval rating turned negative in several recent opinion polls, a potentially ominous sign for the 2026 midterms.

The MAGA faithful have a response: Keep pressing ahead, and don't worry about the next election.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference, one of the premier annual gatherings of conservatives, several thousand Trump supporters gave a hero's welcome to Elon Musk, Trump's assigned budget-cutter, as he brandished a chain saw on stage and promised to cut through the federal bureaucracy.

They roared approval when House Speaker Mike Johnson said there was "no appetite" to send more funds to Ukraine. They cheered at the news that Kash Patel, who has said he wants to investigate the president's perceived enemies, had just won Senate confirmation to lead the FBI.

"Fix bayonets, we're charging again," Trump ally Steve Bannon urged the crowd, adding: "You're unstoppable."

Many here said Trump's approach to Washington has fulfilled their wildest ambitions. That would make any midterm losses worth it. But they also believed Trump would have a winning message by 2026, based on their hopes he would cut taxes, reduce illegal immigration and deport immigrants with criminal records who entered the country illegally.

"It's not worth holding on to power with white knuckles and saying, 'Oh, we're scared we might lose the midterms, so let's not do anything,'" said Christopher Kelly, 67, president of a telecommunications services company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

To fix the country's finances, he said, Musk's Department of Government Efficiency needed to make drastic and deep budget cuts.

The president's party has lost House seats in 18 of the last 20 midterm elections, a Brookings Institution tally shows, including a Republican loss of more than 40 seats in 2018 during Trump's first term. The GOP's narrow margin in the House, currently an edge of three seats, is giving Democrats hope that they can win a majority in two years.

Kelly said he knew that political fortunes can change quickly, citing former President George H.W. Bush's collapse from a near-90% approval rating to his loss in the 1992 election.

"We're riding a wave right now, but we know we have to evangelize to our fellow citizens the richness of what we're doing, and how it's conducive to human flourishing," he said.

Dennis Mayo, 75, a horse breeder outside Eureka, Calif., believed that voters would reward the party if Congress extended the tax cuts that Trump signed into law in his first term and that expire this year.

Mayo, who wore a droopy mustache and a cowboy hat with arrowheads in the hat band, said he wasn't worried that Trump and Musk would compromise national security, air-travel safety or other essential functions as they cut the federal workforce. "You have to sweep out the dirt before you find the good stuff and put it back," he said.

Edward Young, 65, of Brick Township, N.J., who said he had attended 109 Trump rallies over nine years, wants Trump to increase his government-overhaul efforts. He was at CPAC with a friend he met last year at the 67th rally, Michael O'Neil. The pair lined up at 4:45 a.m. Saturday to be sure they had good seats for Trump's expected speech later in the day.

"A true leader doesn't care about ratings. Lead from the front," said O'Neil, 54, of Concord, N.H.

Johnson, the House speaker, gave an upbeat assessment of his party's political standing.

"We're going to defy history, and we're going to grow the House majority in two years," he told the crowd Thursday.

Democrats will be defending the larger number of seats next year in places where voting preferences are fluid. Some 13 House Democrats represent districts that Trump won in 2024, while only three Republicans hold seats in districts carried by Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the former vice president. The Democrats' prospects are far more remote for winning control of the Senate.

Some 55% of voters approved of Trump's performance in a CNN survey in January. That fell to 46% this month. Trump's rating also flipped from net approval to disapproval in Quinnipiac University surveys. But polling consistently finds that he retains overwhelming support among Republicans.

That was apparent at CPAC, where a succession of administration officials and Trump allies were celebrated. Bannon provoked controversy by ending his speech Thursday with a raised-arm salute. He later said the gesture was a "wave," but a French right-wing party leader called it "a gesture referring to Nazi ideology" and canceled his planned speech at CPAC.

Gabriel Augustin Garcia of Miami, convicted of several offenses in the Jan. 6., 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, greeted well-wishers who congratulated him for his pardon by Trump. Garcia, who wore a shirt saying "Political Prisoner 215948509," his prison ID number, said he was at CPAC because "I love my president and I'm thankful to have my life back and be free."

Fans lined up for selfies with Mike Lindell, the MyPillow chief executive known for spreading false claims of election fraud.

"Not many people stand by their principles," said Lisa Ruth, 59, of Washington state, explaining why she wanted a photo. "They usually melt."

Write to Aaron Zitner at aaron.zitner@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2025 10:00 ET (15:00 GMT)

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