Trump campaigning for a Senate candidate who will soon be in Montana in 2018.
Photo: William Campbell / Corbis / Getty Images
It was difficult for political journalists to find words to adequately describe the radicalism of Donald Trumpconduct of the second mandate. I used “Smash and Grab” Suggest a leader and an audience who are intensely aware that they live with time borrowed and must do as much damage as possible to the policies and institutions that they despise before the expiration of their lease in Washington. And there is a certain logic with the destructive extremist approach that we have seen in decrees,, DOGE RAIDSthe chaotic Trump Trade WarAnd a high-level dubious meeting. After all, History tells us The Trifecta control of the GOP on the federal government is very likely to end in the middle of 2026. Beyond that, the 47th president is in the last stage of his political career and is not renowned as someone who cares a lot about the political party that he has diverted or really everything that happens once he left.
However, we now see credible reports suggesting that far from conceding the mid-term and doing exactly what he wants, Trump really cares about what’s going on in 2026 and, in particular, if the Republicans can beat the high chances of keeping control of the house. My colleague David Freedlander a supported This is what is behind the approval of Trump’s preemptive re -election of the New York representative, Mike Lawler, who would have thought about a governor race in 2026:
They currently have a majority of seven seats, but with only three Republicans in the seats of Harris-Won (one of them being Lawler) and eight democrats in seats won by Trump, many GOP agents think that the party can really keep the chamber in mid-term …
(S) O What Trump really was doing is stimulating the president of the room Mike Johnson. The Republicans of Capitol Hill embarked on an effort of several months to persuade Lawler to present themselves to re -election, believing that he is the only candidate who could keep a seat in a district where democratic voters are more numerous than the Republicans and who could be at the heart of the GOP efforts to keep the room.
If Trump is really focused on interior baseball of the victory of the individual house to this extent, perhaps there East Tomorrow he is considering. Rachael Baden of politico goes so far as to suggest that Trump is now Obsessed with the middle of 2026 In contrast strongly with its level of interest the first time in 2018:
Far from tidying up the Chamber or the Senate, it is optimistic about challenging history and removing the Democrats from the Gavels from the Committee and the powers of assignment, according to five Republicans to whom I spoke, including several nearby Trump confidants.
It deploys early mentions in the hope of preventing disorderly primary fighting which could divert precious resources from general electoral campaigns. He makes recruitment calls and the loop of other Republicans on how he can best use his political muscle. And he continues to raise silver cargoes to pay in 2026.
In 2017 and 2018, Trump kept so much money for himself, anticipating his own re-election campaign. Now his party could benefit a lot from the limit of two terms which means that 2024 was the last Trump campaign. But the biggest question is whether the desire to hang on to the House in 2026 (the Senate is a much easier proposal) could lead the president to go a little more easily on political extremism and the attraction of authoritarian power which definitively marked the first 100 days of his second mandate. Baden thinks:
Trump’s mid-term obsession also hovers on Capitol Hill while GOP legislators try to write his sprawling internal policy program. On the question after the question, Trump seems to sympathize with the moderates of the Swing district – the “majority creators” whose breeds will decide the majority.
Trump and his collaborators pushed back cups with Medicaid in part because the policy stinks. They gave a large berth to the Blue State Republicans who push to increase the ceiling of the deduction of the taxes of states and local – a policy that Trump signed in 2017 which helped him sink into the suburban districts a year later.
He even played with the idea of increasing taxes on the richest Americans – which, according to him, would bet to certain political attacks of the Democrats against a bill which, according to him, benefits the rich to the detriment of the poor.
This interpretation is credible but not completely convincing. Trump did not insist on the idea of wealth tax, and his “moderation” on Medicaid and Salt could just as easily reflect his indifference to the details of the policy as any clever calculation of the way in which his “big and beautiful bill” will affect the races of the Congress. A more convincing affair for his political prudence could be made if he chose to reverse the damage that his Hirelings Elon Musk and Russell Vought continue to undergo throughout the federal government and to support its confrontations with the federal judicial power. But let’s say he really punch in the name of Mike Johnson. What happens if (and this is entirely possible) the thin perspectives of the GOP to hang on to the house in 2026 begin to disappear, which could certainly happen if the economy is struggling or Trump approval notes Don’t recover from their current swamp? Are we going to discover that there is a whole new level of authoritarian radicalism that Trump 2.0 has not yet continued, but could go towards if the Democrats seem sure of breaking the trifecta? It is a frightening possibility that should cool anyone who wants to say that Trump behaves like a normal president.