“A Blue Wave means Crime and Open Borders. A Red Wave means Safety and Strength!” President Donald Trump wrote Tuesday on Twitter. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Trump pushes voters to unleash 'red wave' in the midterms

President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned voters against a “blue wave” in November’s midterm elections, saying Democratic victories could threaten public safety while Republicans would help secure the nation’s borders.

Trump has long predicted that November’s midterms will deliver a “red wave” of Republican victories, shielding or perhaps bolstering GOP majorities in both houses of Congress. The president’s forecast goes against those of many political prognosticators, who have predicted a weaker year for Republicans, in part because the party in control of the White House often struggles in midterm elections and in part because of the president’s poor poll numbers.


With Democrats threatening to seize control of the House, Trump has sought to frame the midterms as a referendum on public safety, painting Democrats as “open-border extremists” eager to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, even though most Democrats have not supported such a step.

The president has also floated the idea of a government shutdown in September if he does not receive funding for a border wall, one of the central promises of his presidential campaign.

And Trump has insisted that those predicting doom and gloom for the GOP are wrong, just as they were in the days and weeks leading up to the 2016 election, which he was widely expected to lose by a wide margin.

“A Blue Wave means Crime and Open Borders. A Red Wave means Safety and Strength!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

A day earlier, the president said Democrats are “people that don’t mind crime” at a White House event to honor agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

Despite his low job-approval numbers, the president has been active on the campaign trail and endorsed several Republican candidates. His endorsement has proved valuable in GOP primaries but has yet to be tested in a general election, where the focus will shift from the Republican base to swing voters.