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Al­most two weeks af­ter Re­pub­li­cans lost bad­ly in elec­tions in Geor­gia, New Jer­sey, Penn­syl­va­nia and Vir­ginia, many GOP lead­ers in­sist there is no prob­lem with the par­ty’s poli­cies, its mes­sage or Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s lead­er­ship.

Trump says De­moc­rats and the me­dia are mis­lead­ing vot­ers who are con­cerned about high costs and the econ­o­my. Re­pub­li­can of­fi­cials aim­ing to avoid an­oth­er de­feat in next fall’s midterms are en­cour­ag­ing can­di­dates to em­brace the pres­i­dent ful­ly and talk more about his ac­com­plish­ments.

Those are the ma­jor take­aways from a se­ries of pri­vate con­ver­sa­tions, brief­in­gs and of­fi­cial talk­ing points in­volv­ing ma­jor Re­pub­li­can de­ci­sion-mak­ers across Wash­ing­ton, in­clud­ing in­side the White House, af­ter their par­ty’s loss­es Nov. 4. Their as­sess­ment high­lights the ex­tent to which the fate of the Re­pub­li­can Par­ty is tied to Trump, a term-lim­it­ed pres­i­dent who in­sists the econ­o­my un­der his watch has nev­er been stronger.