October 12, 2026
Jack Gruber/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
President Donald Trump has expressed support for Democratic Sen. John Fetterman to switch parties.
President Donald Trump said he'd "love to see" U.S. Sen. John Fetterman switch political parties as the Democrat from Pennsylvania who has sided with Republicans on a growing number of issues faces a dwindling approval rating within his own party.
While speaking to members of the media outside Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, Maryland, on Saturday, Trump called Fetterman a "solid person."
"I think he's great," Trump said. "It's going to be hard for him to get the nomination (for re-election) as a Democrat. But I'd love to have him as a Republican. … He's got great common sense. But if you look at the polls, he does better as a Republican than he does as a Democrat."
Representatives with Fetterman's office did not respond to a request for comment on the remarks.
A poll by Quinnipiac University last week found that just 13% of Democratic voters in Pennsylvania have a favorable opinion on Fetterman, compared with a 72% favorability rate among Republican voters. In August, polling by the New York Times, Inquirer and Siena found that he was viewed favorably by 79% of self-identified Republicans and 20% of self-identified Democrats.
Since being elected in 2023, Fetterman's performance as a legislator has come under fire from Democratic colleagues as he has frequently skipped meetings, denied public appearances and increasingly voted in lockstep with Republicans on immigration, government spending, the war in Iran and other issues.
A recent analysis from the Inquirer found that Fetterman attended just 16% of his assigned committee and subcommittee meetings during the current session of Congress and has broken with the Democratic Party more than any other member of the Senate caucus. From 2023 to 2024, Fetterman aligned with Democrats on nearly 99% of votes that won a majority of party support. After Trump took office, he only voted with Democrats on 80% of similar votes in 2025 and less than 78% this year, the outlet found.
In a September report from the Wall Street Journal, former and current lawmakers and staffers for the senator painted Fetterman as uninterested in his position, often refusing to take meetings with constituents and holding an "unreasonable degree of anger" toward Democratic leadership. Instead, he has shifted his focus to posturing for conservatives and advocating for Israel.
Last month, the Senator also recorded a video that was broadcast to the attendees of a GOP convention in Dallas, where he vowed to continue working with Trump and "reject the extremes and socialism and that anti-American way of life."
The senator has publicly denounced calls for him to switch parties and said he would make a "terrible Republican" in an op-ed published in the Washington Post in May. Fetterman, who is up for re-election in 2028, has not formally announced plans to run for office again.
Trump's full remarks about the senator can be viewed below.
