How Trump and Republicans can retake the messaging battle with less than six weeks to midterms

FBI Director Kash Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that the bureau has captured all 10 people on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list during President Donald Trump’s second term, a toutable accomplishment after a 2024 general election that drove voters to polls over law-and-order issues.

"Look what President Trump has done in less than two years," Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project recently told Just The News.

"President Trump has secured our border. He has expelled millions of illegal aliens, starting with the worst of the worst, the most vicious, violent ones like Tren de Aragua and MS-13. He has secured our cities. He has made our cities much safer. You're seeing crime drop to record levels in modern history, and there's a clear choice this November." 

Davis spoke with the midterm elections about six weeks away and Trump eager to get potential voters to broaden their perspective about the overall state of the country – beyond years-long, persistently high inflation.

“You can either vote for Roy Cooper to set loose criminals who rape and murder your children and your population, or you can vote for Michael Whatley to protect and defend your children and your population,” Trump said at a rally Wednesday in North Carolina for Whatley, the state's GOP Senate nominee, whose November challenger is Cooper. 

The president even brought along his administration's top law enforcement official, Attorney General Todd Blanche, to speak at the campaign rally.

Still, Republicans will have a challenge. While crime was a top voter issue in 2024, when Trump won a second term, and remains one, the economy, inflation and healthcare appear to be at the top of voters' lists. A poll this week, in fact, found roughly three-quarters of voters still rate economic conditions negatively, and 61% call gas prices a major problem, amid the U.S-Iran war.

Patel said the 10th suspect was taken into custody over the weekend in Venezuela and is being returned to the United States. The FBI identified him as Anibal Alexander Canelon Aguirre, its first “cyber fugitive,” accused of leading an ATM jackpotting scheme that stole millions for the Tren de Aragua gang. 

Further solidifying the law-and-order message, Patel said the FBI captured more than two-and-a-half times as many Ten Most Wanted fugitives as the prior administration and has also arrested six of 10 people on a new most-wanted fraudsters list. He also cited falling homicide rates in notoriously crime-plagued cities such as Baltimore, Memphis and Washington, D.C. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Republicans won the issue in 2024

Law and order ranked among the top concerns for many voters in the 2024 presidential election after U.S. murders jumped about 29% in 2020, the largest one-year increase in FBI records, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and unrest following George Floyd being killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

Large cities recorded especially steep rises that year, including homicide increases of 55% in Chicago and 43% in New York in a 34-city study. “Defund the police” became a rallying cry, and several Democratic-led cities later cut or reallocated police funding while departments lost officers to retirements and attrition. 

Even as national violence later receded, many voters still treated crime as a ballot issue. A September 2024 YouGov survey found that about 35% of voters called crime “extremely important.”

Its importance in the 2026 midterms 

The issue has not vanished. In 2024, Memphis posted the nation’s highest violent-crime rate among major cities. And even after later declines, Washington, D.C., still recorded 74 homicides year to date.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Trump's positioning as the law-and-order president can have a residual effect on Republicans in tight races, which will be important, especially if voters are still enthused about the economy and more specifically, gas prices. 

AAA put the U.S. average for regular gasoline at $4.44 a gallon on Sept. 17, more than $1 higher than a year earlier, as crude hovered near $100 a barrel amid renewed disruption tied to the Strait of Hormuz. Pew Research reported in July that only 24% called the economy excellent or good, while concern about gasoline jumped to 56% from 34% in January. 

In June, Gallup found 67% said recent gasoline increases had caused household hardship.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​