What Republicans’ huge loss means for Donald Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., Aug. 7, 2026.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
Democrats just put President Donald Trump in a bind.
The party is projected to win commanding majorities in the House and Senate after thrashing Republicans in key races up and down the ballot across the country. The blue tsunami will knock Washington on its head and crush the Republican congressional bulwark that both supported and shielded Trump through the first two years of his term.
The midterm result snuffs out any chance Trump had of passing partisan legislation in the second half of his presidency. And many of the interests he has been able to pursue without Congress’ input — including tariffs, the Iran war and an array of Washington-area construction projects — are sure to face sudden pushback from newly empowered Democratic majorities.
The paradigm shift hardly leaves Trump helpless, however. As president at a time of executive-power expansion, Trump wields singular authorities that could stymie Democrats’ efforts to pursue their own agendas.
But with his grip on the Capitol shriveling and his approval ratings scraping record lows in numerous polls, it’s unclear how much support he’ll be able to muster to fight the coming political battles.
Even before Election Day, analysts and pundits had contemplated a Democratic rout so decisive that it would force a reckoning for the GOP, and potentially even pose an existential threat to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Marc Short, chairman of Advancing American Freedom and onetime chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, told CNBC on Tuesday afternoon that the GOP has moved away from its conservative foundations.
“We need a refresh right now,” Short said in an interview. “We’ve lost our way.”
‘Mr. Veto’
Trump has been vague about what he hopes to achieve with the rest of his term. But he has shared a vision of how he might coexist with a Democratic majority, and it involves heavy use of the veto pen.
“It’s one of the stronger powers that a president has,” Trump said in a Fox News interview overnight. “They’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them.”
“And after a couple of months of vetoes, they’ll call and they’ll say, ‘How do we get this stuff done?’ And we’ll work together,” he said, adding, “I have a lot of friends that are Democrats.”
Trump has previously stated his willingness to veto reams of legislation that Democrats send across his desk. In a New York Post podcast interview released Monday, Trump said that if Republicans don’t win, “I veto everything.”
Pressed to detail his plans for the next two years, Trump touted his record and said, “The most important thing is to keep it going. It’s going to get better and better and better, unless people come in that hate our country.”
If that happens, “I guess I’ll become Mr. Veto,” Trump said.
The first fight
He may soon get his chance: House…
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