Republicans’ midterm elections wipeout puts President Donald Trump in a new situation from what he’s faced over his cumulative nearly six years in office — negotiate with a combined Democratic Congress or further test the constitutional limits of executive power.
Trump and Republicans actually on the ballot this year were on the business end of an electoral swing arguably not seen since the 1994 elections ushered in the first House GOP majority in 40 years. Republicans also won a Senate majority during the 1994 Republican Revolution.
On Nov. 3, Democrats swept the top contested Senate races, to the point they could end up with 56 seats. In the House, where a few dozen races haven’t been called, the Democratic majority could reach about 260 in the 435-member chamber. The Democratic romp is a stunning rebuke of Trump’s signature policies on the Iran war, tariffs, and inflation during his second, nonconsecutive term.
Trump did deal with divided government following the 2018 midterm elections, when Democrats captured the House of Representatives. He successfully negotiated with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on budget, justice reform, and disaster legislation.
Unlike in 2018, Trump is a lame duck.
Political strategists say that could harden Trump against his opponents.
Dan Turrentine, a Democratic strategist and co-host of The Huddle podcast, predicted multiple government shutdowns over the next two years except for basic government expenditures. The only reason why Trump might cut a deal, or two, is so he can get praise from the New York Times and a “sense of accomplishment,” Turrentine said.
Congressional Democrats could put minority Republicans in a difficult position, said Turrentine, if they put legislation on the House and Senate floors to override some tariffs or expand COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“I could see Trump signing it,” he quipped.
Republican strategist Liz Mair speculated that Trump could reach agreements with Schumer and potential future House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on certain legislation — depending on the situation. She said it depends on whether the new Congress launches investigations into the administration or attempts impeachment.
“You become his sworn enemy,” Mair said in an interview. “He’s not going to collaborate with you.”
When Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he took a harder line with congressional Democrats when he started his second term — relying mostly on Republican majorities in the House and Senate to enact legislation, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The White House and the Republican-controlled Congress were able to agree on several bipartisan government funding bills last winter but returned to partisan spending plans this year.
With Trump entering another era of divided government, he could take a page from the playbooks of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush for legislative accomplishments.
When Republicans won over Congress in 1994, Clinton decided to negotiate. Those talks resulted in welfare, farms, telecommunications, and health insurance reforms — plus the first of four straight balanced budgets starting in fiscal 1998, before mountains of red ink throughout most of the 21st century. Those legislative compromises helped Clinton sail to reelection in 1996.
Bush successfully negotiated with Senate Democrats during his first two years in office on federal spending, education standards, the Patriot Act, and steel tariffs. When Democrats swept Congress during the 2006 midterm elections, Bush compromised on labor law, environmental standards, and trade policy. He also signed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
But Bush 43 was also willing to use the regulatory process to get around Congress. He signed executive orders giving political appointees more power over rules and policy statements. He also used recess appointments to put allies in power.
Other presidents facing congressional opposition increasingly turned to executive action.
“I’ve got a pen, and I’ve got a phone,” President Barack Obama said in 2014 after Republicans won a Senate majority, cementing full GOP control of Congress.
Obama vowed to use the pen to sign executive orders and take executive and administrative actions without congressional approval. The White House portrayed the strategy as part of a “Year of Action” to accomplish policy goals.
Obama used executive authority to enter the United States into the Paris Agreement on climate change, instead of running it through the Republican-held Senate.
President Joe Biden’s administration used executive orders to accomplish policy goals on climate change, antitrust, and the culture war during his single term in office. Mair said that surprised Never Trump Republicans and others who saw Biden as a potential stabilizing force on executive overreach. Instead, she noted, Biden used the powers that Trump used during his first term to push things in a more progressive direction.
Trump revoked most of Biden’s executive orders in 2025, but a future Democratic president could use executive action to reinstate them.
“That’s certainly the risk,” warned Mair.
This political climate in Washington is why Jason Pye, a government affairs executive, expects Trump to continue the pen-and-phone strategy.
“Democrats will have the Congressional Review Act, but Trump will undoubtedly veto those joint resolutions,” he told Washington Examiner.
Senate Democrats do not have the two-thirds majority needed to override any Trump veto.
They also may not be interested.
Turrentine encouraged Democrats to view the next two years as a launching pad for the future.
“They’re going to be thinking about 2028 — big stuff,” he told Washington Examiner. “It will be, ‘What can we do if we win all three branches of government?’”
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If Trump does reach deals with Democrats, Mair does not expect it to go over well with fiscal hawks.
“We probably are looking at more exploding national debt, more big deficits, and not a lot of deregulation,” she said.
Taylor Millard (@TaylorMillard) is a freelance journalist who lives in Virginia.