Donald Trump says he would “love” to have John Fetterman as a Republican
President Donald Trump said Saturday he would “love” to see Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania become a Republican, renewing speculation about the senator’s future after months of high-profile breaks with his party.
“I’d love to see him as a Republican,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews as he returned from a rally in Tennessee. “If you look at the polls, he does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat.”
Trump added that Fetterman is a “very solid person” and “has great common sense.” The president also said that Fetterman has “magnificent parents,” and that he “got to speak to his parents about something.”
The comments were among Trump’s clearest public efforts yet to encourage Fetterman to join the GOP at a time when control of the Senate remains in play ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Newsweek has reached out to Fetterman’s office for comment.
Fetterman Has Repeatedly Rejected a Party Switch
Despite growing speculation, Fetterman has consistently said he does not intend to become a Republican.
Writing in The Washington Post in May, Fetterman described himself as a “terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats.”
Still, the Pennsylvania senator, who has not formally announced a 2028 re-election campaign, has frequently frustrated fellow Democrats by breaking with the party on several issues, including immigration and support for Israel.
Concerns among Democrats intensified last month when Fetterman recorded a video for a Republican midterm convention praising fellow Pennsylvania Sen. Dave McCormick, a Republican. In the video, Fetterman criticized what he described as political extremism.
“I’m always going to stand with America,” Fetterman said. “I’m always going to reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life.”
Trump’s latest comments come as Democrats try to regain control of the Senate. Democrats need to gain four seats to reclaim the majority, though the electoral map remains challenging.
What Polling Says About John Fetterman
Fetterman’s support for Israel, willingness to work with Republicans and criticism of fellow Democrats have won him praise from conservative voters while straining his relationship with parts of his own party.
In his remarks at Joint Base Andrews, Trump said “it’s going to be hard” for John Fetterman to win a Democratic primary in 2028.
Although speculation about a party switch has attracted significant attention, polling paints a complicated picture of Fetterman’s political standing.
An Inquirer/New York Times/Siena University poll published in August found that 73 percent of registered Pennsylvania Republicans viewed Fetterman favorably, compared with 63 percent who viewed Republican Senator Dave McCormick favorably.
At the same time, Fetterman’s support among Democrats had fallen sharply. Just 22 percent of Democratic voters viewed him favorably, down from 74 percent in 2024, while 63 percent viewed him unfavorably.
A February 2026 Quinnipiac University poll found a similar partisan divide. Seventy-three percent of Pennsylvania Republicans approved of Fetterman’s job performance, compared with 22 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of independents.
Together, the surveys show that Fetterman has become an unusual political figure: a Democratic senator whose standing is considerably stronger among Republican voters than among members of his own party.
Party Switches Can Reshape Senate Control
The Senate has seen several high-profile party switches over the years, some of which altered the balance of power in Washington.
The last senator whose switch directly changed control of the chamber was Jim Jeffords of Vermont. He left the Republican Party in 2001 and caucused with Democrats, helping give them a narrow majority, according to the Associated Press.
Former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter also made headlines in 2009 when he left the GOP and joined Democrats, a move that helped strengthen the party’s Senate majority during President Barack Obama’s first year in office.
For now, however, Fetterman continues to identify as a Democrat and has repeatedly rejected suggestions that he plans to leave the party, even as polls show him attracting unusually strong support from Republican voters.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the partisan breakdown of a Quinnipiac University poll on John Fetterman’s job approval.
