The Guardian says time threatens Trump more than any Democratic investigation

Voters put household costs and corruption first

Associated Press exit polls cited by The Guardian put the cost of living and government corruption at the top of voters’ concerns. The Guardian characterized the voters’ message as an “enough is enough” verdict.

The Guardian described Trump as purported to be an economic populist and said he had flaunted his self-enrichment and a fancy ballroom even as people struggled to put food on the table. The outlet said the combination was too much even for some in his supposedly rock-solid base.

The Guardian tied the reaction to Trump’s 2024 campaign. He had won the presidency promising to lower prices and end foreign wars; the outlet said tariffs added upward pressure on prices and the attack on Iran pushed them higher still.

Trump noted that he was not on the ticket on Tuesday, but The Guardian reported that he had spent months repeatedly urging voters to pretend he was on the ticket. The outlet called him the architect of his own lame-duck status and said he could hardly have done more to sabotage his own party.

The campaign included Trump’s speeches about architectural projects, what The Guardian described as outbursts of “vile Islamophobia,” and his remarks about the “ass” of a Republican senator from Ohio. It culminated at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where Trump declared victory in the “war on algae.”

The Guardian also reported that Trump posted a document on social media this summer, attributed to a supposed historian, that compared him with Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler among others. The outlet said the comparison now appeared fitting because the president seemed to have “fought one battle too many” and brought about his own destruction.

Democrats gain control of Congress

Democrats won control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, with Republican strongholds once deemed safe falling to Democratic candidates. Their gains included Senate seats in Kansas for the first time since 1932, in Texas since 1988 and in South Carolina since 1998.

The House and Senate had switched parties in the same midterm only three times since the end of the Second World War — in 1946, 1994 and 2006 — before doing so again in 2026. The Guardian argued that the result would make Congress a bulwark against what it described as Trump’s expansion of executive power.

From January, Democrats will have the power to block legislation, launch investigations into the Trump administration and thwart Trump’s judicial and senior government appointments. The Guardian said life could suddenly become uncomfortable for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or Big Tech leaders such as Elon Musk. It said Democrats might even consider impeaching Trump for a third time.

Gridlock could leave Trump wielding a veto pen

The Guardian assessed that the result could leave Trump under siege — a diminished figure mired in Washington gridlock and reduced to wielding a “veto pen,” which he had already begun threatening to use on Tuesday evening. It said Trump paid little attention to Congress during his first two years in office, apart from the passage of his “Big, Beautiful Act” of tax and spending measures. The outlet also said he had acted unilaterally on tariffs and military strikes on Venezuela and Iran.

The Guardian forecast that Trump, like his predecessors, would continue pursuing foreign policy as a legacy project, calling it “an alarming prospect for the world.” On domestic projects, the outlet said Trump would keep pushing a radical makeover of Washington, including a new White House ballroom, a triumphal arch and more gold. The Guardian said Congress might view that work as a relatively harmless way to keep him occupied compared with the potential harm from his actions elsewhere.

The 2028 succession contest has already started

More threatening to Trump than any Democratic investigation, The Guardian wrote, was the “inexorable march of time.” The outlet said the race to succeed Trump in 2028 begins now. It described Trump as “psychologically ill-equipped” to deal with the prospect of the national spotlight shifting to JD Vance, Marco Rubio and other potential candidates.

That shift could also erode Trump’s “cult-like dominance” of the Republican Party and the Maga movement, The Guardian said. Trump had shaped the party in his own image for a decade, and the outlet said it would not easily snap back. Members of Congress examining the result might conclude that Trump was a “creature of the past,” the outlet said, with their survival depending on the right bets on the future.

A wounded Trump could take more risks

The Guardian offered a conditional forecast: a wounded Trump who felt he had nothing to lose over the next two years “might turn out to be the most reckless and dangerous of all.”

The midterms do not settle Trump’s era

The Guardian cautioned against overinterpreting electoral swings. It noted that Trump’s two presidential election victories were each seen as a fundamental shift in America even though he never achieved 50% of the national popular vote in those elections. His defeat in 2020 was hailed as the end of the Trump era before he returned four years later.

Anyone declaring that the 2026 midterms had ended Trump’s era, The Guardian said, should remember that he was not yet halfway through his second term and that “his id will relish the prospect of fighting Democrats.”