President Trump said he hopes Texas Republicans will pick up five seats in the House from a redistricting plan they hope to enact in a special legislative session later this month. Trump told reporters that it’s “OK” if other Democratic-leaning states like California or New York also seek to redraw their congressional district lines

President Donald Trump told Texas Republicans Tuesday the White House believes the GOP can flip as many as five US House seats as part of a Republican redistricting effort in the state, according to a source familiar with the call.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said a Texas redistricting plan ahead of the midterm elections should gain Republicans five seats in the U.S. House.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Texas Democrats in Congress sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s plan to redraw their state’s political map in the middle of the decade,

House Democrats are hammering President Trump and his GOP allies for pushing to alter Texas’s congressional lines ahead of the midterms, accusing the Republicans of rigging the system to stay in power.

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, told Texas Democrats on a call on Tuesday that the moment required everyone to take extraordinary actions.

In the survey - which sampled 1,680 U.S. adults - 52% of respondents said that most of the deaths could have been prevented if the government had been more adequately prepared. Twenty-nine percent said the deaths were unavoidable, and 19% said they didn't know.