GOP lawmakers want Trump to focus on economy, immigration

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

71% : Appearing on Fox News on Monday morning, Trump was in step with lawmakers' advice, saying at one point: "We had the best border in the history of our country.
67% : "I think, right now, on the current course and speed, he wins a general election," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said of Trump.
61% : They see Trump as uniquely suited to pounce.
59% : Polls have shown for months that most voters believe Trump and Republicans are better equipped at handling immigration and the economy.
56% : "Here was Trump on Dec. 5 during a prime-time Fox News interview: "Who doesn't want strong borders and a strong military and low taxes and low interest rates, and go out and buy a house?"
51% : GOP lawmakers, even if they have endorsed other candidates in their party's ongoing presidential primary, said Biden has made a mess of the U.S.-Mexico border and is not enforcing immigration laws.
51% : Trump has at times boiled his pitch down to a straightforward line -- while the sitting president often sounds like an economics professor, with his talk of an economy that grows from the "middle out and bottom up" rather than the "top down.
41% : "Trump is going to be Trump, the GOP lawmakers all noted.
39% : Trump weaved those two issues into the backbone of a conservative populist message during his successful 2016 White House bid.
36% : You're not going to do that when you're almost 80."In a telling anecdote that provides merely the latest data point about the grip the 77-year-old Trump maintains on the party, Norman said he called Trump to give him a heads-up before announcing his endorsement of Haley.
34% : "South Carolina GOP Rep. Ralph Norman, who endorsed Haley, a former two-term Palmetto State governor, said late last week he did not believe Trump needs to alter his campaign trail message one bit.
33% : And I think it's the independent voters that it resonates the most with, absolutely."GOP lawmakers interviewed late last week said Trump should emphasize talking about issues most on GOP and independent voters' minds.
29% : They definitely do," Cramer replied when asked if his constituents say they worry that Trump's campaign rally lines about federal and state prosecutors targeting them could come true.
28% : He suggested Trump could turn the situation at the southern border into two issues; saying "the border" would fire up his GOP base and "immigration" would appeal to the independent voters in the key swing states analysts and strategists have said likely will decide the election.
27% : "I just think the reason Donald Trump is doing so well is because of the issue that's so easy to compare the two candidates. ...
27% : But if we're not in a working-class party, we're not going to be a majority party, ever."When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the GOP primary on Sunday, he posted a video on social media in which he described Trump as the Republican voters' preference.
26% : How did Trump respond, according to Norman?
24% : Biden campaign officials contend they are not worried about those numbers right now, making a big bet that once voters get serious about the general election later this year, they will see it as a choice between Biden and Trump.
20% : The same Republican members said their constituents complain daily about still-high prices, even as inflation rates have eased, and believe Biden has bungled a fundamentally strong economy that Trump left him.
15% : Republican lawmakers, many of whom speak to Donald Trump regularly, want the 2024 GOP front-runner to hammer a campaign message focused on immigration and the economy, saying that is where President Joe Biden is most vulnerable.

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