International Rahm Emanuel’s prescription for inflicting pain on Trump over Iran by Laura Kelly - 03/12/26 6:00 AM ET by Laura Kelly - 03/12/26 6:00 AM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email NOW PLAYING Rahm Emanuel has no shortage of action plans for Democrats, whom he thinks are poised for success in the fall midterms if they get their message right. The former Obama chief of staff was an instrumental player in 2006, when Democrats flipped control of the House and Senate after 12 years of Republican control — during a different war started by a GOP president.  Twenty years later, Emanuel — now an unofficial White House hopeful himself — says there are lessons to be learned from that time. And he’s conferring with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on how to put those lessons in play.  “Without saying what I said to — I spoke to Hakeem Jeffries this morning. But this is a flavor,” he previewed in a brief phone interview with The Hill on Monday.  First, Democrats should home in on how President Trump’s military adventurism is worsening Americans’ economic insecurity.  Emanuel wants Democrats to start a website “immediately” showing the drop in retirement savings, contrasting with the increase in gas prices, as Trump’s war with Iran is in its second week.  “I would have a regular kind of thermometer slash blood drive number that shows how much you’ve lost in your 401K since Donald Trump’s war,” he said. “Also, how much more you’re paying at the pump, two separate economics. I would update that website daily.” Next, Emanuel said he would organize all lawmakers with a military or national security background to reinforce the message that Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly providing intelligence threatening the lives of U.S. troops, while Trump is praising the Russian leader.  On Monday, Trump said he had a “very good call” with Putin and said the Russian leader wants to be “constructive” in the Middle East. Trump’s point person for negotiations with Moscow, Steve Witkoff, told CNBC that Putin denied helping target American troops and added, “Let’s hope that they’re not sharing.”  Emanuel was incredulous.  “When is it that a person like Putin can kill American service members with impunity and immunity? Only under Donald Trump,” he said. “And every one of the members of national security should be going after him on this threat.” And if Trump sends a supplemental funding bill to Congress for replenishing military stockpiles because of the Iran war, Democrats should demand that it include extending subsidies for health care premiums that expired in December, he said.  “I would take an equal dollar amount and I would put a domestic — not 100 things, you know, like all the Democrats, don’t make it a Christmas tree or a Hanukkah bush. OK? Not happening,” he explained.  “You’re going to do this, Mr. President. We want to make sure the American people have access to health care. We go back to two-year health premiums.” Emanuel said the structures of the 2026 midterms are similar to the playing field in 2006, where the elections served as a referendum on the incumbent party, which controlled the House, Senate and presidency. At that time, President Bush’s war in Iraq was in its third year, and Americans attitudes were trending negative, with signs of a major economic downturn everywhere.   Emanuel, as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee at the time, devised the “Six for ‘06 agenda,” a strategy laser-focused on addressing American economic woes that catered to moderate Democratic candidates running in deep-red districts, with backlash to the war in Iraq in the background.  “In ‘06, while you had the wars, you also had the beginnings — if you looked at the housing data, etc. — of the economic challenges and problems. Which is why the six in ‘06, our agenda was all economic and not international,” he said Emanuel pointed to Democrats overperforming in statewide elections and flipping legislative seats over the past two years as signaling tailwinds for Democrats heading into November. It’s no secret that Emanuel is laying the groundwork for a potential 2028 presidential run, although he emphasizes he has not made a formal declaration.  “You’re not running a headline, ‘Rahm announced,’ I’m not saying that,” he told The Hill when pressed on his plans. Still, Emanuel is workshopping his ideas with Americans in key swing states and among early primary voters, traveling through Iowa, Nevada, Mississippi, Michigan and soon Wisconsin. “If I think I have what it takes,