JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Fresh off the military operation to seize the president of Venezuela, President Trump took a victory lap in front of House Republicans today. He spoke with the goal of laying out a winning midterm agenda, which raises the question, how will this international intervention be received among the America First wing of his movement? And do Republicans see it as an accomplishment they can tout? NPR's Mara Liasson joins us now from the White House. Hi there.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Hi there.
SUMMERS: So, Mara, tell us, what did we learn from the president's appearance today?
LIASSON: Well, he was told to give a midterm speech, and he did do that after a while. He went to the House Republican retreat, and during what was meant to be a pep rally, he spoke for 80 minutes - a lot of minutes. But after many, many minutes, he detailed what he said was the roadmap to success for Republicans - giving Americans money directly to buy health insurance, lowering prescription drug prices and gas prices and continuing to ban transgender athletes from competition. Here's what he said.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And I think I gave you something. It's just a roadmap. And it's a roadmark (ph) - map to victory. You have so many good nuggets. You have to use them. If you can sell them, we're going to win.
LIASSON: But the biggest news is what he didn't say. He did talk about the Venezuelan raid, but he said nothing at all about what happens next, and that I think is a clear indication that he doesn't want Republicans to run on Venezuela and he hopes that the midterms are not about Venezuela.
SUMMERS: And those who know the anti-interventionist views of some parts of Trump's base might have wondered how his core supporters would view this Venezuelan intervention. What can you tell us so far?
LIASSON: What we know is that in the flush of victory, there are very few Republicans that are critical, even though this was a huge departure from Trump's previous promises to stay out of foreign entanglements and wars. Now, what the raid and its aftermath might tell us is, what is MAGA? Is it whatever Trump wants on a given day? Or does it have core principles like non-interventionism that would transcend Trump? And Trump was asked this very question on NBC News yesterday about what will MAGA think about this? And he said, quote, "MAGA loves it. MAGA loves what I'm doing. MAGA loves everything I do. MAGA is me. MAGA loves everything I do, and I love everything I do, too."
Now, even by Trump standards, that's a stunning statement. He does have a firmer hold on his party's base than any modern president. Now, so far, he hasn't lost support among his base, but then again, his base is only 30% of the electorate.
SUMMERS: And, Mara, as you mentioned earlier, there are so few Republican voices that are freely critical of Trump in the Republican Party today. But what do we know about people who might not identify with Trump's MAGA movement, but who were open to voting for Trump? Do we know how swing voters are responding?
LIASSON: Well, that is the next big political question. We don't have polling yet on that. We do know that before the arrest of Maduro, 70% of Americans told CBS pollsters that they were against military intervention in Venezuela. So they're not so sure. They'd rather have him focusing on the cost of health care and groceries and not spending taxpayer dollars, quote, "running" Venezuela, whatever that means. So Trump clearly communicated today by leaving out Venezuela while rallying Republicans that while he is proud to brag about the raid, he doesn't really want to talk about what comes next.
SUMMERS: Even if the modern Republican Party is, well, whatever Trump says it is, there is still this question about the future of MAGA because President Trump, as we know, is barred from running again for president in 2028.
LIASSON: Yes, and I think the future of the Republican Party will be resolved in a competition between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. Both of them are presidential hopefuls. Rubio now has the main role in Venezuela. He's being called the viceroy of Venezuela. He's also the national security advisor and the secretary of state. Meanwhile, Vance has been conspicuously absent. He wasn't at the big press conference yesterday. But he has represented the non-interventionist wing of MAGA up until now. So we'll see how Venezuela plays out, and that will affect the futures of these two ambitious men.
SUMMERS: NPR's Mara Liasson, thank you.
LIASSON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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