Rahm Emanuel’s prescription for inflicting pain on Trump over Iran

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, not just the ideas, but the strength to see those ideas enacted … then I’ll do it,” he said of a possible presidential run. “If I don’t, or if I find something else, I may not.” 

The former mayor of Chicago and House member from Illinois was most recently former President Biden’s ambassador to Japan. He was at the forefront of the administration’s strategy to link up regional countries as a bulwark against China’s ambitions in the region. 

Trump is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in April, and Emanuel stresses that the administration needs to reinforce commitments to Asian and Pacific allies to counter Xi’s economic, political and military coercion of its neighbors. 

That should start when Trump hosts Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the White House on March 19, with the president offering reassurance that the U.S. will stand with Japan and allies in the region “through thick and thin,” he said. 

But Trump’s war in Iran is already upending U.S. commitments in Asia. The Washington Post reported Monday that the U.S. is moving parts of key air defenses from South Korea to the Middle East, drawing pushback from Seoul. Trump is also reportedly holding back a major military sale to Taiwan, which Democrats have criticized as an unacceptable concession as Trump seeks a trade deal with Xi.

“My view about our entire strategy is to communicate two things: Isolate the isolator and then reassert that we are a permanent Pacific power and presence. That starts with the Japan visit,” Emanuel said. 

On the Middle East, Emanuel said while Trump wages war on Iran, he needs to cash in on the political capital gained with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance other U.S. interests in the Middle East, some of which are long-held Democratic priorities.

This includes pushing Netanyahu to clamp down on violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, retreat from Israel’s slow annexation of the territory and address violence against Israeli Arabs.

It’s an issue that has virtually disappeared from the public discourse amid multiple international crises. But earlier this month, a group of 31 Democrats raised “grave concern” over the February death of an American citizen in the West Bank, allegedly at the hands of Israeli settlers, the ninth death of an American under such circumstances. 

“The president should be basically saying, ‘This is the price here. Now you start pulling in these settlers ASAP. No more housing, construction, and you start dealing with the violence against the Arab Israelis.’”

Emanuel argues that further pushing Israel to hold direct talks with Lebanon and Syria, separately, will go a long way in rebuilding trust with Gulf partners fractured amid Trump’s war with Iran. 

“I can tell from my own phone calls, a lot of people in the Middle East, in the Gulf countries, are irritated about being shunted aside by this administration and not having their voice or their concerns heard, and basically doubling down 100 percent on Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Emanuel said.

But under attack from Iran, Gulf countries appear more immediately concerned about their own air defenses and economic stability, with long-term costs that will likely fuel frustration with Israel for convincing Trump to go to war. 

“The president of the United States has an obligation … to repair our relationships with our Gulf friends and partners,” Emanuel said. “He’s doubled down on one country at the expense of all of America’s security interests in the region.”