Democrats win Congress as Trump retains broad presidential powers

Republican criticism signals strains within Trump’s coalition

Democrats won House and Senate majorities in the 2026 US midterms, but President Donald Trump still has substantial tools to govern without legislation. BBC News correspondent Anthony Zurcher assessed that the electoral result weakened Trump’s political authority more than it curtailed his formal powers, leaving him able to pursue tariffs, military operations and spending reductions during the final two years of his term.

Immediately after the results, the official White House account posted on X a photograph of Trump behind his desk in the Oval Office. Its caption read, “Trump is still your president,” a message projecting control despite the setback. The BBC analysis said the post left unstated both the limits on Trump’s authority and the increasing difficulty he could face in exercising his powers as Democrats prepare to oppose his moves.

Many of Trump’s most significant moves have come through presidential orders rather than laws passed by a Republican-controlled Congress. Those actions include tariffs imposed on allies and adversaries alike, military operations launched in Venezuela and Iran, and unilateral reductions in congressionally approved federal spending across government.

Democratic control of both chambers does not end those options. Trump can continue issuing orders, and Democrats seeking to block his policies through legislation would confront his veto. The Constitution permits congressional majorities larger than the ones Democrats will hold to override that veto, making a legislative effort to restrain him especially difficult. Many newly arriving Democrats have also promised to oppose his moves, adding political resistance even if their numbers fall short of the threshold for overriding a veto.

Congressional control is only one constraint; Trump’s ability to sustain his agenda also depends on Republican support. BBC News said Trump had kept Republican rank and file in line for two years through political rewards and threats, but some Republicans were beginning to criticize his decisions in ways few would have dared a few months earlier.

Vice President JD Vance blamed the war in Iran that Trump launched with Israel for the Republicans’ sweeping midterm defeat. Vance wrote, “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so.” He added, “But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

Personnel questions have surfaced as well. BBC News, citing CBS News, reported that Trump was asking close advisers whether he should replace Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, one of the architects of the Iran war. Trump denied the report. BBC News said such a move would echo George W. Bush’s 2006 replacement of Donald Rumsfeld, a driving force behind the Iraq war, after Democrats won congressional majorities of comparable scale.

On Tuesday night, Trump posted on social media and spoke to a series of media outlets, pledging cooperation in one moment and threatening vetoes of liberal legislation in the next. On Wednesday, as construction workers raised the final beam for the White House ballroom despite a lawsuit attempting to halt the work, Trump said, “I’ll get along probably with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive.” He added, “But I have the power of the veto.”

David Miller, an assistant professor of government at American University, said: “Republicans who think that they need to pivot away from Trumpism and from the [Make America Great Again] movement are going to either try to emphasise different policy issues, or they’re going to try to frame themselves in ways that show some daylight between themselves and Donald Trump.”

BBC News drew a comparison with 1995, when Republicans took control of Congress in a wave election and President Bill Clinton, still in his first term, insisted that he remained relevant. Clinton said, “The president is still relevant here.” Clinton had time to rebound politically and won re-election the following year. The BBC said time was not on Trump’s side as Republicans absorbed the midterm defeat.

The BBC analysis concluded that Trump’s powers, and more importantly his authority to wield them, were slipping through his fingers. Democrats control Congress, but they do not control the executive actions or the veto that remain available to Trump during the final two years of his term.