Rep. Stephanie Bice plays the part of an unabashed Trump loyalist in public, touting his endorsement and posing with him in the Oval Office. But behind closed doors, she’s telling a different story. According to audio obtained by The Bulwark, Bice privately admitted that Donald Trump’s unpopularity is hurting the GOP and could put even her own seat at risk.
“Stephanie Bice knows exactly what Donald Trump is doing to her party’s chances in November. She just won’t admit it to her voters’ faces,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Danny Abbas. “Republicans like Bice would rather grovel for Trump’s approval than tell the truth about the ‘Trump fatigue’ sinking their own campaigns.”
Read more about Stephanie Bice’s private admissions on Trump:
- A HOUSE REPUBLICAN FROM one of America’s reddest states privately acknowledged that President Donald Trump’s unpopularity and freewheeling executive actions were hurting the party and even endangering seemingly safe seats like hers.
- “The challenge that we have is that we have to get over the narrative that ‘I don’t like this guy, so I’m going to vote for the Democrat,’” said Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), according to audio obtained by The Bulwark. “Because I’m telling you right now, I’m hearing it already.” “And what happens is that’ll impact me because . . . two things will either happen,” Bice added. “They’re going to vote for the Democrat and they may split [the] ticket and vote for me and a few others, or—this is my bigger fear right now—people don’t go vote.”
- Bice’s comments were made to a gathering of Republican students at Oklahoma State University on Thursday evening. They provide a rare glimpse into the gloom some elected Republicans feel about the impending midterms. Talking to the students, she relayed a recent conversation she’d had with a Republican executive who described the president as exhausting. “I was at a board meeting yesterday with a group, and one of the execs said to me, ‘I’m a Republican. I’ve been a Republican for a long time, but I have Trump fatigue.’ It’s a fair statement, you know?” Bice said.
- Publicly, Bice is an unabashed Trump ally. She has touted her support from the president and appeared alongside him at events in the Oval Office. But while speaking to the OSU students, she conceded that Republicans were not enthused about the current political climate. In particular, Bice fretted about what she characterized as “significantly lower” Republican turnout in the state’s June primary, saying, “there’s a fear that people have sort of checked out, and I think that’s probably true in a lot of cases.”
- Republican turnout in Oklahoma’s June congressional primaries was down compared to the 2018 primaries. Bice’s district is considered solidly Republican, but not overwhelmingly so. It has an R+9 rating by the Cook Report, and Bice herself noted in the talk with the OSU Republicans that the urban areas within her district make it potentially more favorable to Democrats.
- Trump’s national approval rating is currently hovering around 38 percent in any given poll this summer. But it is significantly higher in Oklahoma. While many of Trump’s problems stem from discontent with the economy and the ongoing war against Iran, Bice added that his focus on personal feuds with the Canadian prime minister and others weren’t making things better and were likely making the situation much worse. “We’re not helping ourselves today when we decide to rename Lake Ontario ‘Lake America.’ I mean, yeah, these are not—this does not help the case, right?” Bice was recorded as saying. Harkins did not address Bice’s comments about Lake Ontario.
Published: Aug 31, 2026