By Sarah Roderick-Fitch
The Center Square

As the country is about to embark on a pivotal election year, President Donald Trump addressed the GOP U.S. House of Representatives retreat.

During a nearly 90-minute speech held at the newly renamed, Trump-Kennedy Center, the president laid out what he calls a “roadmap to victory for the House GOP.

He spotlighted election reform, his administration’s success on the border, health care and energy among issues for the Republicans to run on as they begin to hit the campaign trail ahead of this year’s midterm elections, when each House seat is on the ballot.

The president began his speech remarking on the sudden death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., announced Tuesday morning, narrowing the GOP majority in the House to five seats.

Trump briefly noted the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots, accusing the media and Democrats of failing to mention that the president told supporters on Jan. 6 to “walk or march peacefully and patriotically to the Capitol.”

He also highlighted Saturday’s early morning strike and raid in Venezuela, underscoring its success, while noting the organized protests that followed.

The president spent some time discussing the autopen scandal surrounding former President Joe Biden, which segued into the elections, pressing the representatives to pass the SAVE Act, requiring ID to vote. The president suggested renaming it the Save America Act.

“If you would put that up for a vote, it’s got my total endorsement, and all it is common sense things about the election, and they’ll fight it like crazy because they cheat. That’s the only way they can win,” the president told the members.

Trump touted his immigration and border policies, telling the members: “We can’t let them forget that we did such a great job on the border.”

The president touched on his decision to declare a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., leading him to label the shooting of two National Guard members the evening before Thanksgiving a “terrorist attack” – despite no official terrorism charges.

Trump warned the members that if Republicans don’t win, the country is “going to go to hell…So we can’t play games.”

He highlighted his administration’s efforts to lower drug prices, stressing the resistance he faced from European leaders, defending his use of tariffs. Trump says the prior high drug costs were “subsidizing the entire world.”

Trump told the members that they need to focus on health care.

“One thing on health care, it’s never been our issue. It should be our issue,” said the president.

Trump told the members that Republicans “have all the policy,” but that they have to “stay together.”

“If you look at what we’re trying to solve, the health care problem, we’re trying to get better health care at a lower price,” the president told the members.

“You work on favorite nations, you work on borders, you work on all the things we talked about, but now you take the health care issue away from them, and they want to fight it. You know why? They’re all owned by the insurance companies and cannot fight it successfully,” Trump claimed.

However, he cautioned the members to be flexible on the health care issue, citing the Hyde Act.

He instructed the members to approve a plan that would allow the money to go directly to the American people, enabling them to buy their own health care instead of letting it go directly to insurance companies, whom he called “big fat cats.”

He suggested the money “goes into a health care account,” adding “there are numerous things you can do, but you have to let no money for the insurance companies.”

He also stressed that members tout lower energy costs while out on the campaign trail, pointing to lower costs at the gas pumps since the president took office a year ago.

In closing, he told the members that it is essential for them to stick together, noting it as a strength for Democrats.

“We have great, solid, commonsense policy. They have horrendous policy. What they do is they stick together. They never have a no vote,” he told them. “You have so many good nuggets. You have to use them. If you have to sell them.”