Monday, November 09, 2026
2028 Is Going to Be Even Worse for Republicans?
The shock waves for last weeks blue tsunami continue to reverberate even as the Felon disclaims any responsibility for the election debacle and most congressional Republicans refuse to lay blame on the Felon and/or undo the policies the Felon implemented that fueled the revolt by voters in the first place. Even JD Vance who is struggling to reinvent himself in anticipation of 2028 a a presidential run and is asking everyone to ignore his role as cheerleader for the Felon's failed policies, is only willing to say that the Iran war was a causation while ignoring the Felon's cruel and deliberately inhumane deportation policy, shocking corruption, and the horrific "big beautiful bill." Vance is not the only would be 2028 Republican presidential candidate that will have a difficult time recasting themself as a vote worthy candidate in two years. With Rep. Massie introducing his impeachment resolution today against Pete Hegseth, more details of Republican misrule and likely war crimes will be coming. Added to this is the Felon's selection of Stephen Miller - the architect of the anti-immigrant brutality - which will likely add more ICE outrages to the public consciousness and Hispanic voter revulsion. And then there's the reality that NONE of the Republican presidential candidates did anything to stop the Felon's excesses, self-enrichment and shocking corruption. A piece in the New Republic looks at the 2028 election cycle:
If you’re looking for evidence that the right isn’t sure how to respond to the Republican Party’s historic collapse in Tuesday’s midterm elections, you could do worse than a graphic Fox News host Laura Ingraham blasted to her audience on Thursday. . . . She and her fellow Republicans have suffered a collective shellshock from the worst midterm defeat since Watergate. President Trump only wants to talk about his tacky building projects. Vice President JD Vance is nakedly trying to salvage his own presidential ambitions by throwing everyone else under the bus. Racist goon Stephen Miller is the new chief-of-staff. It’s a terrible time to be a Republican, and it will only get worse. All you can do is lash out.
If you want the full picture of Republican panic, however, you’ve got to look at another Fox graphic, this one built out of a tweet from former speaker of the House—and architect of the GOP’s 1994 midterm massacre of the Democrats—Newt Gingrich. . . . It’s worth examining Gingrich’s thinking. Yes, he is a fossil. But he has managed to remain a consummate Republican politician in his semi-retirement, and his wife, airbrushing enthusiast Callista Gingrich, is Trump’s ambassador to Lichtenstein. Gingrich led one revolution in the 1990s and survived another. He knows his party. He also knows his party’s in trouble.
Gingrich doesn’t quite stick a knife into Vance, but he comes as close as he can. He shrugs off the vice president’s weaselly attempt to avoid blame for Iran, which is fair enough: As vice president of an administration overseeing that war, it is going to be very hard for Vance not to be saddled with the political and economic fallout, which will likely extend until 2028. Gingrich goes further, though, blaming Vance for defending Vivek Ramaswamy’s disgusting, failed gubernatorial bid in Ohio—essentially saying Vance not only has lousy instincts, but is a bad person too: “A good bit of the luster has come off the bloom.”
Well, what about the luster of the other blooms? It’s clear that Gingrich is eyeing Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a safer and more competent successor, writing, “The number of people who want to draft [him] is staggering.” This may be true, but it’s also absurd, given that Gingrich has already (rightly) acknowledged just how important a role the Iran War played in the GOP’s midterm meltdown. Rubio is arguably the third most prominent public face of that war, ahead of JD Vance and behind Trump and...
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who is also, absurdly, included in Gingrich’s list. For one thing, Hegseth is the most likely fall guy for the administration if two scalps are deemed necessary after Tuesday’s defeats (Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was cut loose on Friday, in favor of Stephen Miller). His department has been embroiled in more controversies than any other during this administration—some of which of unfathomably stupid, like his imposition of grooming standards, and others that are unfathomably horrific, like the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug runners in the Caribbean. . . . he’s fit to start culture wars, not oversee actual wars. He also has a wealth of personal problems, including infidelity and allegations of substance abuse.
There have been rumors that if Hegseth gets dumped from the Pentagon, the administration could try to save face by getting him appointed to replace Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, should she retire. But if you look at Tuesday’s blue wave, it would be hard to feel confident about Hegseth’s chances of holding that seat. If a Republican would struggle to win a statewide election in Tennessee, could you really count on them winning a presidential election?
Looking outside the administration, the options are hardly any better. Trump humiliated Ted Cruz in the presidential primary in 2016, running the simplest attack one can against the Texas senator: Nobody likes him. (Cruz may have another issue: He has four years left in his term runs. So if he were to somehow win the presidency in two years, then Democratic Governor Gina Hinojosa would be able to appoint his replacement. From there, it may get even worse. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton has the charisma of one of those 12-foot Home Depot skeletons (and kind of looks like one, too). Former Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is slightly less stiff, but it’s hard to see his gee-whiz vibes—not to mention his relative moderation—gaining traction in a Republican primary. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis looked like the natural successor a few years ago, but Trump hates him for trying to run against him in the 2024 primary, and there’s little reason to believe that the bad blood between them has gotten any better. It’s hard to imagine him winning a Republican primary while Trump is still kicking.
And that gets to the biggest problem, which Gingrich doesn’t mention: Donald Trump. He will exert a huge amount of influence over whom the Republicans chooses as his successor—not only because he will still be president, and thus remain the party’s leader, but he will also likely wield a massive war chest that Republican presidential hopefuls will fight over like children scrapping in the dirty for candy after the piñata pops. Republicans are delusional right now if they think they can turn the page. Gingrich’s list of possibilities is so pathetic in part because it bows to this reality, without explicitly saying so.
It’s possible, of course, that another charismatic outsider could emerge and win the day. But Trump had been sniffing around the GOP presidential nomination for years before 2016—there’s no one out there like that now. Even if there were, it would be hard to believe that after more than a decade of the Trump show, anyone would vote for a reboot of it.
Sunday, November 08, 2026
Americans Want to Move on From Trump: He's Not Listening
In the lead up to last week's mid-term elections, the Felon repeatedly told crowds to vote as if he was on the ballot. Voters all across the country listened to that directive and voted for Democrats up and down the ballot, both to protest the Felon's Nero like rule and, just as importantly, to punish Republicans voters viewed as the Felon's enablers and/or accomplices. The result was a generational defeat for Republicans and victories for Democrats in places once never thought possible even six months ago. The message to anyone not delusional is that the majority of Americans want the country to return to the rule of law, ICE thugs to be removed from the nation's streets, programs restored that were cut to fund tax cuts for the super wealthy, and the Felon restrained and his corruption and lawlessness stopped. In true malignant narcissist form, the Felon has denied any responsibility even as many in the GOP who survived the electoral debacle want a course change as the GOP faces a likely far more difficult 2028. By appointing Stephen Miller - the architect of the Felon's cruel and inhumane deportation push - as his chief of staff, the Felon has signaled that he intends double down on the very policies that voters strongly rejected. Where this leaves Republicans seeking to move forward and rebuild in preparation for 2028 is not enviable. A piece in The New Yorker looks at the election defeat and the lesson the Felon is ignoring:
Two generations ago, in the fall of 1974, President Gerald Ford and the Republican Party approached the midterm elections with considerable dread. That August, Richard Nixon had learned that he could no longer outrun his crimes in the White House. One tape recording in particular, the so-called smoking gun, proved that he had conspired with his aide H. R. Haldeman to obstruct the investigation into the Watergate break-in. The Republican elders Barry Goldwater, John Rhodes, and Hugh Scott told Nixon that impeachment in the House of Representatives was now certain, and conviction in the Senate likely. Nixon resigned, handing over his office to Vice-President Ford. A month later, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, pardoning Nixon for any crimes that he might have committed as President.
Until then, despite a dreadful economy, Ford had enjoyed approval ratings as high as seventy per cent. But the Nixon pardon was political poison, for both Ford and the G.O.P. His popularity plummeted by more than twenty points. And, in the midterms, the Democrats gained forty-nine seats in the House and four seats in the Senate.
This week, some commentators, having exhausted the usual marine metaphors for midterm blowouts (a “blue wave” quickly became a “blue tsunami”), scurried to find historical points of comparison for the astonishing nationwide triumph of the Democratic Party. More than a few settled on the post-pardon midterms of 1974.
In sheer magnitude, this week’s Democratic victory—a sweeping repudiation, above all, of Donald Trump and the low, dishonest decade he has defined—makes the post-Watergate humbling seem modest. Both houses of Congress flipped, giving Democrats a substantial majority in each. The new Senate Majority Leader needn’t worry if, say, John Fetterman strolls across party lines. Nine of the ten most populous states will have Democratic governors. For those already anticipating the Presidential race in 2028, it’s significant that all the traditional battleground states (which Trump won just two years ago) have elected Democratic governors. The Party scored in unlikely places, particularly in the Midwest and the South. Texas, the second most populous state in the Union and reliably red for a generation, will have a Democratic senator (James Talarico), governor (Gina Hinojosa), and state House. Kansas—seriously, Kansas—elected a Democrat to the Senate for the first time in ninety-four years. Democrats also chalked up amazing wins in both Carolinas. The geographic shift was as pronounced as the demographic one.
The diversity of “firsts” was heartening. The first Muslim in the Senate: Abdul El-Sayed, of Michigan. The first Black female governor: Keisha Lance Bottoms, in Georgia. The first Latino governors to be elected in Texas (Hinojosa) and California (Xavier Becerra). New Mexico will have the first female Native American governor (Deb Haaland), and Minnesota will send the first Native American woman ever to the Senate (Peggy Flanagan). Even the near-misses were stunners. . . . . This all happened after years in which the President and the Vice-President have deployed racist epithets, jokes, and myths.
The scale of the victory left no room for Trump to contrive a conspiracy theory and challenge the outcome. On Election Night, he was, by his perverse standards, gracious. He blamed Fox News for the Republican losses, “by constantly and consistently putting on the Dumocrat opposition.” Separately, he claimed, “I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” #Classic.
The results were driven by the most urgent economic concerns of the voters: the spike in fuel prices, which followed the misbegotten tariffs and the war in Iran; the high cost of groceries, housing, and health care; and, for some, anxiety about data centers, artificial intelligence, and what all this portends for employment. But what is so striking about Trump’s second term is that he entered office intent, it now seems, on flaunting his cynicism, his greed, and his scorn for the American people. It was as if he actually meant to squander his support as quickly as possible. How else to explain the heedlessness of his behavior in office? On Day One, he gave pride of place at the Inauguration to a lineup of moguls who had agreed to bow to his power and his ego. . . . As in any tin-pot autocracy, this was the price of doing business. Trump’s populism was always a fraud. Now he plainly didn’t care who knew.
Trump has shown contempt for the law, as he hollowed out the Department of Justice and ordered federal agents to menace American cities from New York to Minneapolis to Los Angeles. He has shown contempt for culture and education, as he threatened and defunded one invaluable institution after another. He has shown contempt for competence, by stocking his Administration with preposterous, often odious, fourth-raters: Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller
Abroad, Trump’s contempt for restraints on his power has been equally conspicuous. The United States’ closest allies found themselves coping with his arbitrary tariffs, his threats to shatter alliances, and his periodic intimations of invasion.
The most consequential result of the midterms has been to break the fever of Trumpism and to diminish its threat to democratic institutions, to personal and civil liberties, and to decency itself. Trump’s unique brand of lurid authoritarianism has finally lost appeal, and he has lost the plot. The election was also a vindication for those who had refused to submit. We are all too familiar by now with the many politicians, law partners, billionaires, C.E.O.s, university presidents, and others who cowered before Trump. Part of the reason we will survive the Trump era is that many more did their work honorably. Judges, civil-rights lawyers, academics, election officials, curators, artists, and countless ordinary citizens stood up. Their resistance to Trump’s bullying, corruption, and heartlessness has gained new political force.
This is a moment of enormous relief and celebration. Trump can still do damage, and, in defeat, may prove even more unhinged and vengeful. But restraints in Congress and beyond are now far stronger. This aging autocrat, repudiated by an electorate he once believed to be under his spell, has been significantly weakened.
The next Congress will succeed not through an obsession with retribution and punishment but by delivering on the myriad hopes and demands of the voters who elected its members. The Democrats of 2026 have won an extraordinary opportunity. What they make of it will determine what this election means.
Saturday, November 07, 2026
The Felon Doubles Down With Stephen Miller
[The Felon's]
President Donald Trump’sdecision to name hard-line loyalist Stephen Miller as his top aide cemented what many Republicans were already privately fearing: There will be no party-wide GOP reckoning with this week’s midterm bloodbath.Instead, with Trump still in office for another two years, most have grown resigned to the reality that the president is going to lean in on a confrontational approach with Congress — and is not willing to change course.
Trump’s decision Friday to elevate Miller, the architect of his unpopular mass deportation policy and an advocate of fierce partisan confrontation, crystallized the frustration.
“There needs to be some self-reflection for Republicans,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) said in an interview about the midterm losses Friday morning. “There should be some heads rolling at the White House because we lost badly.” Hours later, heads did roll. Trump announced Miller would replace Susie Wiles as his new chief of staff. “Horrible decision,” Stutzman said in response.
How much lawmakers will distance themselves will be put to the test quickly: House Republicans will have an immediate opportunity to break with Trump and the war next week, when Rep. Thomas Massie said in an interview with POLITICO he will trigger his articles of impeachment against Secretary Pete Hegseth. “There are a lot of questions about Hegseth,” House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Friday.
Some senior Republicans are privately nudging Trump officials to ditch Hegseth before the vote, according to two people with direct knowledge of the conversations. The White House is sticking by Hegseth so far, however.
House Republicans will also have a chance to elect new leadership next week, including a new chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee. But in a sign of what’s to come, none of the candidates — including Reps. Brian Jack (R-Ga.) and Rudy Yakym (R-Ind.) — nor any other GOP leadership candidates have publicly suggested doing more to break with Trump.
We had a lot of Republican leaders out there saying ‘everything’s fine.’ And you kind of had the boomer generation saying, ‘Well, yeah, back in my day, interest rates were 15%, so everything’s good,’” said Davidson, a 56-year-old former Army Ranger. “Well, you had a lot of hardworking young people who felt really ignored, and they they went to the polls and said, ‘Stop ignoring us.’”
Davidson said Republicans need to start discussing their problems quickly, or suffer the electoral consequences again. “Bad news doesn’t get better with time. So avoiding talking about something doesn’t solve the problem,” he said.
A piece at The Atlantic also looks at what Miller's rise could portend and how it signals that the Felon seemingly is unwilling to either admit responsibility for the election debacle or cease policies that have driven voters into the arms of Democrats. Should the Democrats win in Mississippi and Alaska, they would only need four Republican cross over votes to convict the Felon if he were to be impeached.:
In the days before MAGA’s midterm disaster, [the Felon]
President Trumpbegan complaining about his presidency. He felt stuck. The war in Iran wouldn’t end. Inflation wouldn’t subside. Little was going his way. But in the president’s mind, there was one exception: “Stephen is the only one who gets stuff done,” Trump repeatedly griped, a person close to the White House told us. “I need more people who get stuff done.”Stephen Miller, one of the president’s hardest-charging and longest-serving aides, had managed to maintain Trump’s trust, even though he is the architect of the administration’s sweeping mass-deportation campaign that many in the GOP blame, in part, for the Republicans’ historic wipeout this week.
Where Wiles served as something of a guardrail—making sure Trump was fully briefed and that he understood the risks and pitfalls of any decision—Miller has played the role of an accelerant for a president who already has rash tendencies.
One person familiar with Trump’s decision to elevate Miller told us that the president wants somebody who “will crack skulls,” adding that Trump “doesn’t want to be reined in.” Another described Miller as someone with significant Capitol Hill experience who could manage the coming clashes with Democrats. White House officials have held high-level conversations in recent days, including with Miller, about areas where they can work with Democrats. But another person familiar with Trump’s thinking said there was no need for a chief of staff who could work the Hill to pass legislation, because nothing was going to get done. “The next two years are going to be nonstop political warfare,” this person told us—and Miller can be the face of that fight.
Inside the White House, officials understood that Trump would never blame himself for Republican midterm losses, and the West Wing has spent the past few days wondering whom Trump would punish. When The New York Times published a story about the defeat—with verbatim leaks of Trump’s top political team joking ahead of the election about how grim it all looked—Wiles found herself taking heat from the president. Two people familiar with the matter told us that Trump felt that the story, which featured Wiles’s allies seeming to laugh at Republican failure, was a betrayal, and he expressed his displeasure to her.
At the core of Miller’s agenda was a sweeping deportation program. Masked ICE agents detained people in quiet neighborhoods and Home Depot parking lots, while Miller demanded that dramatic deportation quotas be met. Americans, polling showed, began to view the tactics as extreme, particularly after the killing of two Americans in Minneapolis early this year. Trump’s political team has privately blamed Miller’s aggressive immigration policy in part for the defeat on Tuesday, because violent ICE clashes and ethnic profiling on the streets have alienated both Latino voters and moderate independents.
Miller has already been operating as a de facto chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security and the president’s mass-deportation campaign. He hosts conference calls six days a week with top officials from agencies across the government who are enlisted to help ICE with the crackdown.
Stephen Miller, his supporters say, is the right person to steer the final two years of Trump’s presidency. Despite the scale of this week’s Democratic victory, the president has rarely reached across the aisle in the past. In recent days, he made his feelings known with a new red hat displayed on the Resolute Desk. It was emblazoned with a single word: VETO.
Friday, November 06, 2026
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