In the United States, President Donald Trump’s White House spent months preparing for a possible Democratic takeover of Congress, drawing up plans to advance key parts of his agenda through executive power while also bracing for investigations into his administration.
Reuters reports, citing a White House official and two people familiar with the plans.
Since April, senior officials, including Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and budget director Russell Vought, have been working with the White House Counsel’s Office to identify executive actions on immigration, tariffs, housing costs and federal spending that Trump could take without congressional approval.
White House Counsel Will Scharf and his team are also examining “what Trump can legally do on his own, where he can push the limits of his authority and how to defend such decisions in court”,
This preparation underscores the paradox of the midterm elections taking place on Tuesday: gaining control of Congress would give Democrats the ability to investigate Trump, block legislation and constrain his priorities on public spending.
At the same time, Trump would retain broad executive powers on trade, foreign policy and the management of the federal bureaucracy. He has already used these tools extensively during his second term.
To overcome the Republicans’ narrow advantage — 218 to 214 seats in the House of Representatives and 53 to 47 in the Senate — Democrats would need a net gain of four seats across both chambers of the US Congress.
According to opinion polls, Democrats are more likely to win control of the House of Representatives, while the situation in the Senate remains so uncertain that it is still impossible to predict the outcome.
- Over the past month, Trump has held rallies across the country in an effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, even as his aides are already preparing — for now in private — for a very different political landscape in 2027.
- The White House dismissed suggestions of possible Republican losses and accused the media of promoting a false narrative.
- As of 30 October, more than 43 million Americans had already taken part in early voting in the US elections. The pace points to a possible record for voter turnout.