In a post-midterm election interview with Ross Douthat of 60 Minutes, President Donald Trump handed allies and critics alike a startling admission: His administration’s immigration enforcement had proven “too tough” and cost Republicans at the polls. The president then opened the door to a possible deal with Democrats on amnesty for long-term undocumented workers.
The moment was classic Trump, an instinctual pivot toward centrist deal-making when backed into a corner by unfavorable election results.
Yet, almost simultaneously, Trump promoted Stephen Miller, the immigration hard-liner and architect of the administration’s most aggressive immigration enforcement policies, to White House chief of staff.
This glaring contradiction highlights the central question facing Washington over the next two years: Will the remainder of Trump’s term be defined by executive vetoes and gridlock, or by a series of transactional compromises driven by a president desperate for legislative “wins”?
The immediate fight will be on immigration. Trump told Douthat that a deal granting legal status to long-term residents was “doable,” but at the same time acknowledged that hardliners in his administration oppose any compromise. Placing Miller in control of White House staff makes a bipartisan immigration deal virtually impossible to execute. Miller’s agenda focuses on structural enforcement, leaving no room for the mass amnesty-for-border-security trade-offs that Democrats demand. If such a deal stalls in Congress or due to personnel friction, the president will inevitably seek alternative outlets. Healthcare could sit at the top of the list.
With Democrats controlling Congress and public anxiety over living costs high, a bipartisan healthcare bill could offer an alluring photo-op. A likely compromise could feature more big-government interventions such as state-mandated price controls on prescription drugs, expanded federal subsidies, or caps on out-of-pocket costs in exchange for regulatory tweaks.
Of course, imposing price controls and expanding federal coverage mandates only papers over the real drivers of medical inflation, shifts costs onto private payers, and deepens public reliance on subsidies, all while failing to address the real problems with our healthcare system.
This healthcare threat mirrors a broader, troubling trend of cross-ideological economic populism. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently invited Trump to join forces on a campaign promise they both share: capping credit card interest rates at 10%. To a transactional executive looking to score points against “big banks,” Warren’s proposal sounds like easy politics.
Economically, however, it is insane. Setting an artificial cap on interest rates is price fixing by another name. Mandating a 10% ceiling would immediately cut off credit access for millions of low- and middle-income people who represent higher risks. Banks would not simply absorb the losses. They would tighten lending standards, cancel credit lines, and raise fees elsewhere. Instead of helping working families, price caps on credit interest create capital shortages and push borrowers toward high-risk lenders.
This is a textbook lesson in how progressive price controls exacerbate the very problems they claim to solve.
DEMOCRATS COULD TARGET TRUMP TARIFFS AFTER MIDTERM SWEEP WITH SOME GOP AID
The danger for the Right is not merely two years of legislative inaction. The real risk is that the administration, seeking to escape political isolation after a brutal midterm election, adopts a legislative approach that sacrifices (even more) free-market principles in favor of short-term headlines. If Trump tries to out-bribe the Left on credit interest caps and healthcare subsidies while his chief of staff wages administrative battles on immigration, the White House will alienate even more of its base without winning over its opposition.
Republicans in Congress must serve as a constitutional check on executive deal-making and resist the temptation to embrace left-populist price controls or amnesty schemes simply because they arrive with a White House seal. The nation cannot afford an executive branch that wavers between administrative overreach one day and economic capitulation the next.
Brady Leonard (@bradyleonard) is a writer, musician, and host of The No Gimmicks Podcast.