After Two Years of Unchecked Power, Trump Faces a Tough New Reality

By Annie Linskey , Josh Dawsey, Meridith McGraw and Eliza Collins

WASHINGTON—Even before it was clear just how brutal the election results would be, the recriminations rolled across the nation’s capital— starting at the White House.

Frustration rose from those gathered in the East Room with President Trump on Tuesday night as they watched his coalition collapsing and Democrats making sweeping gains in deep-red states. The first target of their ire: the drawn-out war in Iran, which drove up fuel prices and shattered Trump’s approval rating.

Several White House officials and Republican lawmakers placed the blame on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who advocated for the war and assured the president it could be wrapped up quickly, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump and some of his top aides had already been expressing doubts about the defense chief, some of the people said. After the scale of the mid--term defeat became clear, angry GOP lawmakers began discussing a new proposal, the people said: Get rid of Hegseth if you want anything to get done in the coming lame-duck session.

The idea that Congress would demand anything from Trump—let alone the job of the country’s top military official as the U.S. is fighting a war in the Middle East—had been inconceivable since Trump returned to the White House in 2025.

For the past two years, he has governed with near unchecked power—making farreaching edicts on trade, immigration and the economy as he reshaped alliances and launched foreign wars. He steamrolled an ineffectual Congress and even bulldozed the East Wing of the White House.

But on Tuesday, the power dynamic for the remaining two years of the Trump presidency shifted dramatically. If Trump wants to accomplish anything durable going forward, he will have to accept limits to his authority and compromise—things he’s shown little interest in doing during his political career.

Republicans who have long aligned themselves with him— including those in his administration with future political aspirations—will face enormous pressure to create more distance from him. Trump’s longtime advisers expect the backbiting and interpersonal squabbles that defined much of his first term in office could come roaring back.

Meanwhile, Trump faces two years of investigations from the newly ascendant Democrats. And while he’s said he is prepared to work with the opposing party, reaching compromise in an increasingly toxic political environment will be challenging.

Across Washington, Republicans reeled from the loss. House Speaker Mike Johnson told allies he won’t seek a leadership role in the new Congress as the party prepares for a fight over its future.

Vice President JD Vance, who spent weeks on the campaign trail defending Republicans who went on to lose, has been caught in the blast zone, according to Trump advisers— one of whom said he’d be a fool to run for president in 2028.

In a signal of the shifting political dynamics, Vance blamed his boss’s war for Republicans’ midterms drubbing, in a lengthy election postmortem on social media.

The newly empowered Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill has promised investigations into the president, his family and his allies that could poison any hopes for crossparty collaboration.

“The next two years for him I think are going to be two of the most difficult years of his life,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who ran against Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential contests and briefly worked for him in the run-up to his first term.

Some current and former administration officials have discussed making a pitch to Trump to issue mass presidential pardons to undercut Democratic probes and limit legal liability.

But Trump and his advisers say the president still has the power of the federal government at his disposal—and won’t be afraid to use it. On Wednesday morning, the official White House X account posted an image of Trump looking defiant with the caption: “PSA: TRUMP IS STILL YOUR PRESIDENT.”

Personnel changes

Lawmakers of both parties expect the next two months to be particularly tense, as Trump comes to terms with his newly diminished status and as Republicans seek to use the lame-duck period before the new Congress to push their priority legislation and make life more difficult for the incoming Democratic majority.

An early order of business for reeling Republicans will be the fate of the president’s national security team. The House could vote on a resolution to impeach Hegseth when they return to Washington, and there are likely enough bipartisan votes for it to pass.

Some Republican lawmakers also made the case that the Pentagon chief needs to go. “The Secretary of Defense’s lack of professionalism is a liability for the president and the country,” Rep. Austin Scott (R., Ga.) told the Journal.

Trump, however, said Wednesday he doesn’t plan to oust Hegseth. “He’s doing a very good job,” he said. Hegseth plans to lead the Defense Department until the end of Trump’s term, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

People close to the president expect him to make a series of personnel changes in the coming weeks and months that would shape his final two years in office—both at the White House and in the cabinet.

Much of Washington is wondering whether Trump and his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, will part ways.

In the weeks before the election, Trump called friends to ask how his chief of staff was performing, according to people familiar with the calls, something he’s done in the past before pushing out advisers. He’s since publicly backed Wiles and she’s told associates she plans to remain in the role.

Wiles has held on to her job for far longer than any previous Trump chief of staff. But possible replacements are already being discussed among the president’s outside allies, including John McEntee, a Trump adviser from his first term, Johnson, the soonto- be former House speaker, and Lee Zeldin, the former New York congressman who now serves as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Executive power

Aides, including Stephen Miller and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, have already been planning executive actions that Trump can take quickly in key areas including immigration, trade, housing and reducing the federal workforce, according to a person familiar with the matter. The president also plans to continue exerting enormous influence over the Justice Department, which he’s used to target his political opponents.

Another thing unlikely to change: Trump’s focus on foreign policy. He’s signaled in recent weeks that he plans to restart major combat operations in Iran. Advisers say he wants to land a deal to end the war in Ukraine and continue to expand U.S. military involvement in Latin America.

The president has expressed early interest in reaching deals with Democrats in Congress. He’s voiced interest in what one person called a “Nixon goes to China” moment— a grand bargain on a thorny issue that’s seen as intractable in Washington.

“I think we’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll get along very well with them,” Trump told the Journal Tuesday night. “If we don’t, we’ll be very tough on them, they’ll be very tough on us.” GOP lawmakers and political allies in recent weeks have laid out ideas for how the term-limited president who led his party to a historic midterm defeat can remain relevant in his final two years in office.

In the run-up to the midterms, Trump fielded a call from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), whom he once insulted as a disloyal sleazebag and helped defeat in a competitive primary. Cassidy set aside his differences with the president and tried to sell him on a plan to fix Social Security, Cassidy said in an interview. Trump expressed interest.

Republicans have also suggested he try to reach a deal on immigration, make additional changes to the tax code, bolster healthcare or develop new rules on artificial intelligence.

Looming fights

Democrats emerge from two years in the wilderness with a broad new mandate to govern, but without the full power to enact an agenda.

They’re short of a vetoproof majority in the House and the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to pass most legislation. That means they’ll have to work with Trump or accept that they’ll get little signed into law.

The ideological bent of their caucus will also change. Many of the Democrats coming to Washington won over moderate or conservative-leaning states, meaning the party can’t afford to tack too far to the left if it hopes to build a durable majority. At the same time, the left wing is emboldened after winning victories in some battleground states and districts, including Senate seats in Michigan and Maine.

That sets the stage for intraparty fights over priorities and a policy platform ahead of the 2028 presidential election. The Democrats will need to set out those policies even before then if they hope to mollify an unhappy electorate with little patience for beltway politics. Voters made clear it was high costs that led them to seek change in Washing --ton, and party leaders say they got the message: affordability first, accountability second. But as the results rolled in, many Democrats couldn’t resist threats of investiga-tions. “LAWYER UP,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D., Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, posted to X.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) said targeted investigations are good, but he worried some of the Democratic caucus would eventually try to impeach the president. “My worry? One Saturday, Trump inevitably fires off something unhinged, and a group starts demanding we focus our energy on a futile impeachment rather than on cutting costs for families,” he said.

The task of shepherding these investigations, and unifying a divided caucus, will fall to Hakeem Jeffries, who’s expected to be the next House speaker. Privately, some Democrats are worried he won’t have the same grip on his caucus that Nancy Pelosi—the last Democratic Speaker—was known for.

Jeffries said Wednesday Democrats are “united and committed to the goal of making life more affordable for the American people.”

The 2028 factor

The 2028 presidential campaign unofficially started as soon as polls closed Tuesday.

Democrats will have to narrow down a wide-open field of as many as two-dozen people with presidential aspirations, from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Republican voters, meanwhile, face their first presidential election without Trump on the ballot since 2016.

Vance was expected to be the leading GOP presidential candidate before the midterms— but the devastating results scramble that calculus. Vance, who was privately skeptical of the war in Iran, will need to decide how to further distance himself from Trump—who polls show is deeply unpopular with voters, even among some Republicans— while maintaining favor with the president.

Party leaders are already casting their eyes elsewhere for a candidate less closely associated with Trump. One Trump ally was quick to raise Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis— noting that Republicans managed to hold on in the key statewide races there, even if some results were far closer than many expected.

Trump has been a Republican kingmaker, but his endorsement may not carry the same weight it once did. Other Republicans are expected to enter the race, with or without his backing, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

At the White House, aides expect Trump to fight for relevance. Skilled at drawing the attention of Washington and the world, he’s defied expectations and norms throughout his political career. And while Trump previously showed little interest in his political legacy— “What the hell do I care? I’ll be dead,” he responded in 2024 to an ally urging him to consider his impact when deciding on a vice president—that legacy is now in sharp focus.

Even so many Republicans predict the spotlight he’s basked in will fade and the loyalty he’s demanded will begin to fray.

“You’ll see a lot of folks, at least some, starting to say, ‘No, you’re going too far here. You can’t do that as president,’” said former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican.

Newer lawmakers will be less worried about Trump’s ire. By the time the current group of just-elected Senators is up for re-election in 2032, Santorum said, Trump will be “long gone.”

President Trump speaking with reporters last month; jubilant supporters of James Talarico in Austin Tuesday night, below right; disappointed supporters of Mike Rogers in Detroit, below left.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: JULIA DEMAREE NIKHINSON/ AP; CHIP SOMODEVILLA/ GETTY IMAGES; SPENCER PLATT/ GETTY IMAGES

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles at a Trump campaign rally last month.

ANNA MONEYMAKER/ GETTY IMAGES