By Ellis Preston/Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Democrats did it. They took back Congress by decisive margins in both chambers. Now what?
Instead of allies in charge of the House and Senate, President Donald Trump will spend his last two years in office dealing with adversaries – adversaries with subpoena power and an itch to unleash it over corruption, war with Iran, mass firings of federal workers and the use of the Justice Department to settle political scores.
“Whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court, and entangle him in legislative razor wire,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Wednesday. “The days of Trump’s supplicant Senate are over.”
But just as Democrats intend to check Trump’s power, he can block them from getting much done legislatively.
As the extent of the blue wave became apparent late Tuesday night, Trump posted a picture of a red MAGA-style cap on Truth Social with text saying “VETO.”
“I’ll get along probably with the Democrats unless they want to be destructive,” Trump said as he toured the White House ballroom construction site on Wednesday. “I have the power of the veto. So if we don’t like what they’re doing, or – they’ve already called, and they want to talk about things, and that’s fine.”
Schumer, poised to become majority leader, and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries – the party’s House leader and presumptive speaker – vowed an aggressive new era of oversight along with an ambitious policy agenda.
The top priority, they said, is affordability. Jeffries promised in the run-up to Election Day that Democrats will reverse cuts to Medicaid and Affordable Care Act tax credits, undo Trump’s tariffs that have driven up consumer prices, and end the Iran war.
“We’re going to get out of the gate fast,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “The American people have chosen House Democrats because they want to see a dramatic change in direction, and that’s exactly what House Democrats will deliver beginning on Day 1.”
To the extent these changes require legislation, Democrats will be forced to work with the White House. It takes a two-thirds majority in each house to override a veto. Democrats will be well short in both chambers.
In the House, where dozens of races remained too close to call Wednesday afternoon, Democrats had 240 out of 435 seats and could pick up another 20. In the Senate, they could hit 56 if they snag Mississippi and Alaska. With every member voting, overriding a veto requires 290 in the House and 67 senators.
Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, called it plausible that on certain issues, Democrats could round up enough support from Republicans.
“I think you can find some ways of doing that,” he said. “There should be some areas where Congress can act whether President Trump likes it or not.”
The prospect of major legislative achievements for Trump going forward shrank dramatically on Tuesday.
Without a Republican House and Senate, he could not have delivered The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, for instance – the massive tax overhaul he signed six months into his second term.
On the other hand, much of what Trump has done since January 2025 he did through executive action: stepping up deportations, cutting the federal workforce, ending DEI programs, withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement, attacking Iran and interrupting the flow of arms to Ukraine.
“Trump has shown that he’s capable of doing what no other executive has ever done,” Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Tucson, said by phone. “It’s going to behoove all of us to rein in the executive’s authority.”
Grijalva wants deportation policy reversed and an investigation of the Department of Homeland Security, which she called a “rogue agency” that has made some people afraid to leave their homes.
Wallach expects Democrats to attempt to “claw back control of the presidency,” and to push plenty of messaging bills – proposals with no realistic chance to become law, because of Trump’s veto authority. At least, he said, they can use those efforts to build their party’s brand for the 2028 elections.
Curbing presidential authority may, in fact, be an area of common ground with Republicans, Wallach said – in case the next president is a Democrat.
Given the size of the leftward movement in Washington, Schumer and Jeffries will soon be wrestling with conflicting demands in their ranks.
“This is a mandate to deliver big change,” Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, chair of the House Progressive Caucus, posted late Tuesday on X.
Jeffries acknowledged there isn’t consensus at the moment among Democrats on a number of topics, including health care, housing and gas prices.
But he said, “What I think we all support – progressives, new Dems, and Blue Dogs – is to move forward aggressively to reverse the Medicaid cuts, and to move forward aggressively to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
Colin Seeberger, a senior adviser at the Democratic-aligned Center for American Progress, said he doesn’t foresee much infighting.
“Democrats are in agreement that they have an obligation to focus on providing immediate relief to people,” he said. “That’s where I would anticipate they will dedicate their time and their energy.”
Some Democrats were already calling for impeachment of Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – calls that party leaders downplayed ahead of the midterms to avoid spooking voters and to keep the focus on pocketbook issues.
“I haven’t had a single member of the House Democratic Caucus talk to me about impeachment,” Jeffries said Wednesday.
“Impeachment for what? For having a successful country?” Trump told reporters an hour later at the White House.
Wallach said attempting to impeach the president for a third time may just be a “big waste of energy,” given that the previous two efforts didn’t take and that it’s safe “to assume that the president’s party would defend him.”
Impeachment by the House requires a simple majority – 50% plus one. Conviction and removal by the Senate requires a two-thirds supermajority.
Historically, divided government has led to some major legislative breakthroughs – on welfare reform, spending and crime.
Wallach recalled the bipartisan collaboration that took place after the 2018 elections, when Trump suffered his first midterm rebuke. That included the massive stimulus funding package in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But relations between Democrats and Trump are far worse now.
Seeberger said he expects Trump to seek opportunities for cooperation, noting that despite his alliance with conservatives in recent years, Trump is not a “lifetime ideologue.”
“If he just wants to use that veto pen and run the ink dry for the next two years, then I think the country is going to move on and look for leaders that are offering a vision for change,” Seeberger said.
One potential area for common ground is artificial intelligence.
Lawmakers in both parties have proposed various approaches to regulation. Democratic leaders vowed to make that a priority.
“The Trump administration and House Republicans last year made a conscious decision to let the AI industry run wild, and that was a bad decision politically and a bad decision on policy,” said Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., the No. 4 Democratic leader in the House. “We need to put in some reasonable, sensible guardrails.”
