Washington DC may grind to a screeching halt as the president wields the ultimate power of the veto, while the Democrats have the vote on their side
On nearly all of the political fronts, the Republicans under Trump are in a steady retreat, backing away from core policies that have outraged their base and empowered the Democrats with an army of new supporters. The GOP suffered an extraordinary midterm repudiation – losing not just the House and Senate, but statewide offices in red states, from Texas to Kansas to South Carolina, that Democrats hadn’t won in decades.
Exactly how deep the humiliating loss was for the MAGA camp became clear in a sit-down interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday. The American leader conceded that his deportation policy “might be too tough” and that he would “love to do something on immigration” with the Democrats about to take over Congress, he told the news program in his first interview since the midterms.
Asked by CBS correspondent Ross Douthat whether the crackdown damaged Republicans in the midterms, Trump was ambivalent: “I think it both helped and hurt. I think I got an A+ for closing up the border. I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out.”“But I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs that created one violation for breaking of the law. And that was that they came into the country illegally.”
Douthat then asked: “So you think your deportation policy went too far?”“It was too tough,” Trump said. “I think it might be too tough. Yeah.”
He said the deal he has in mind with Democrats is “something that’s actually doable”: “some kind of legal status for the landscapers,” and for people like a hotel maid or waitress who are suddenly “taken out of the country.”“It’s tough,” he said. “It’s a tough thing.”
Trump admitted that the hardcore far-right group inside of his administration would like everybody removed, while others are “more modified on that”: “get the killers out, get all the rough ones out, get the drug dealers out. But let the people that are here, and in some cases here for 10 and 15 years, work a deal for them.”
In a positive sign for dual party border cooperation, self-described “border security Democrat” James Talarico expressed his willingness to cross the aisle and work directly with Donald Trump to fix the border.
Talarico is the first Democrat to win a US Senate election in Texas since 1988 and will become the youngest US Senator; he has stated that he is eager to work with the Trump administration on immigration reform.
In February 2026, Talarico said he supported the Dignity Act, a proposed bipartisan immigration reform bill. In a January 2026 debate, he called for the increase in funding for ICE during the Trump administration to be diverted to other services. In a shocking move for a Democrat, Talarico has harshly criticized former US President Joe Biden’s border policy, saying it “created chaos in our border communities.”
However, there already appears to be a fly in the ointment as Trump, just one hour after his conversation with 60 Minutes, replaced his chief of staff Susie Wiles with Stephen Miller, the aggressive architect of the controversial immigrant policy.
“We are being conquered,” border czar Miller told Fox News in 2023.
“So, a generation from now, I am telling you … people will not know the country that they are living in. These consequences are permanent. Unless there’s massive large-scale deportations by the millions, it will be irrevocable.” It will be very interesting to see if Miller is able to tame his strong sentiments in order to come to a meeting ground with the Democrats on the question of amnesty for immigrants.
Another political hotspot that will require a high degree of understanding and cooperation between the Democrats and the Republicans is the war in Iran, which continues to smolder in the background.
Israel, an allied friend of the Trump administration, has played no small part in this process. According to the Financial Times, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged Trump to carry out further strikes on Iran following the US midterm elections. Observers note that a continuation of the conflict could aid Netanyahu’s domestic political standing after his coalition lost its parliamentary majority.
Needless to say, Netanyahu has shown no concern whatsoever for the damage the war in Iran has caused for the Republicans in general and Trump in particular. Israel is attempting to restart the war during an open window of opportunity between now and when the Democrats assume power in January.
Just like their MAGA opponents, the Democrats are adamantly opposed to the war and will have ample ability to scuttle the US military once they take over both houses of Congress next year.
Democrats are looking to bring President Trump’s war with Iran to a halt once they retake the majority. Senate Democrats say they have some Republican support to end the conflict, which has dragged on for more than eight months, and have threatened to use the “power of the purse” to deprive the Pentagon of funds needed to wage the war.
Both the US leader and Vice President J.D. Vance singled out the Iran war as the main reason for why Republicans experienced an electoral blowout, with Democrats taking the majority in the House, Senate, governors’ mansions and statehouses.
“We are going to end the war. We have some Republicans already who have joined us in ending the war, and the Founding Fathers had the power of the purse as one of the ways of deterring a president who does war without the consent of the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, Trump, aware of the damage that the military conflict did to his base with the 2028 presidential election fast approaching, has declared his hesitation in restarting a hot war with the Islamic state.
“The answer is highly unlikely it’s going to be necessary. They’re a failing nation. It just came out, you saw this year, 301% inflation. Highly unlikely it will be necessary. I would if necessary, but we hit them really hard. I hit them so hard. You don’t know how hard I hit them.”
Finally, there is the question of inflation in food and gas prices. The war with Iran is a primary driver of the current affordability crisis, significantly inflating the cost of living for consumers through energy shocks, higher borrowing rates, and supply chain disruptions.
According to Moody’s Analytics, the conflict has cost US consumers hundreds of billions of dollars, translating to roughly $2,000 to $2,150 in added expenses for the average American household, which explains the Republican Party’s extraordinary losses on November 3.
The American people on both the right and left spoke loud and clear during the midterm elections, and it would be heedless and rash of the Trump administration to continue with war and anti-immigration business as usual. The political costs are simply too high.
