WASHINGTON—Even before it was clear just how brutal the election results would be, the recriminations rolled across the nation’s capital—starting at the White House.

Frustration rose from those gathered in the East Room with President Trump on Tuesday night as they watched his coalition collapsing and Democrats making sweeping gains in deep-red states. The first target of their ire: the drawn-out war in Iran, which drove up fuel prices and shattered Trump’s approval rating.

Several White House officials and Republican lawmakers placed the blame on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who advocated for the war and assured the president it could be wrapped up quickly, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump and some of his top aides had already been expressing doubts about the defense chief, some of the people said. After the scale of the midterm defeat became clear, angry GOP lawmakers began discussing a new proposal, the people said: Get rid of Hegseth if you want anything to get done in the coming lame-duck session.

The idea that Congress would demand anything from Trump—let alone the job of the country’s top military official as the U.S. is fighting a war in the Middle East—had been inconceivable since Trump returned to the White House in 2025.

For the past two years, he has governed with near unchecked power—making far-reaching edicts on trade, immigration and the economy as he reshaped alliances and launched foreign wars. He steamrolled an ineffectual Congress and even bulldozed the East Wing of the White House.

But in the span of just a few hours on Tuesday, the power dynamic for the remaining two years of the Trump presidency shifted dramatically. Now, he’s left contemplating a world in which he’s weakened and less influential.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was a quick target for angry Republicans, but Trump defended him. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP) If Trump wants to accomplish anything durable going forward, he will have to accept limits to his authority and compromise—things he’s shown little interest in doing during his political career.

Republicans who have long aligned themselves with him—including those in his administration with future political aspirations—will face enormous pressure to create more distance from him following a historic bipartisan rebuke from voters. Trump’s longtime advisers expect the backbiting and interpersonal squabbles that defined much of his first term in office could come roaring back.

Meanwhile, Trump faces two years of investigations from the newly ascendant Democrats. And while he’s said he is prepared to work with the opposing party, reaching compromise in an increasingly toxic political environment will be challenging.

Across Washington, Republicans reeled from what they see as a generational loss that’s left their party in shambles. House Speaker Mike Johnson told allies he won’t seek a leadership role in the new Congress as the party prepares for a fight over its future. Vice President JD Vance, who spent weeks on the campaign trail defending Republicans who went on to lose, has been caught in the blast zone, according to Trump advisers—one of whom said he’d be a fool to run for president in 2028. In a signal of the shifting political dynamics, Vance blamed his boss’s war for Republicans’ midterms drubbing, in a lengthy election postmortem on social media.

Some people close to the president criticized Trump’s political advisers, including chief of staff Susie Wiles, whose team told the president in recent weeks that Republicans could keep the Senate, some of the people said. A cast of ambitious Republicans quickly began pitching themselves to replace Wiles, Trump’s most influential adviser.

On Tuesday night, Trump was seated at a table eating dinner in the East Room of the White House as aides gave him updates. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Trump’s personal lawyer Boris Epshteyn were among the officials milling about, snacking on sliders and french fries, according to people who were there. Hegseth didn’t attend, some of the people said.

Trump didn’t openly betray his anger as the losses piled up, one of the people said. But he privately expressed frustration about the cherry-picked, overly rosy polls he was shown by some of his political allies, according to people familiar with his thinking.

Publicly he lashed out at Republican candidates—many of whom he’d personally elevated despite obvious weaknesses. He barked at his favorite cable outlet, Fox News, accusing them of amplifying Democratic voices.

The only person who escaped Trump’s ire was himself. In public and in private, Trump offered little introspection about the central role he played in the blue wave that washed over the country.

Republican candidates including Mike Rogers in Michigan lost as voters turned on the party.

Democrats won on a historic scale, including in traditional GOP strongholds like Texas.

Holding a microphone, Trump stood Wednesday in front of the steel beams of the ballroom he’s constructing not to talk about the election, but to discuss the planned chandeliers and marble floors. He told reporters he had no regrets about starting a war that led to a GOP wipeout.

He will soon be reckoning with fallout from the election. The newly empowered Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill has promised investigations into the president, his family and his allies that could poison any hopes for cross-party collaboration.

“The next two years for him I think are going to be two of the most difficult years of his life,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican who ran against Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential contests and briefly worked for him in the run-up to his first term.

But Trump and his advisers say the president still has the power of the federal government at his disposal—and won’t be afraid to use it. On Wednesday morning, the official White House X account posted an image of Trump looking defiant in the Oval Office with the caption: “PSA: TRUMP IS STILL YOUR PRESIDENT.”

Advisers are already drawing up plans to aggressively flex his executive authority, according to administration officials, and Trump has said he’s ready to veto legislation he opposes.

“Whatever the midterm results, President Trump remains the most powerful force in American politics,” said Danielle Alvarez, a White House spokeswoman. He is also trying to leave a mark on Washington, increasingly conscious of how he’ll be remembered after he’s gone.

Lawmakers of both parties expect the next two months to be particularly tense, as Trump comes to terms with his newly diminished status and as Republicans seek to use the lame-duck period before the new Congress to push their priority legislation and make life more difficult for the incoming Democratic majority. ‘Flip the script’An early order of business for reeling Republicans will be the fate of the president’s national security team. The House could vote on a resolution to impeach Hegseth when they return to Washington, and there are likely enough bipartisan votes for it to pass.

Some Republican lawmakers also made the case that the Pentagon chief needs to go. “The Secretary of Defense’s lack of professionalism is a liability for the president and the country,” Rep. Austin Scott (R., Ga.) told the Journal.

Trump, however, said Wednesday he doesn’t plan to oust Hegseth. “He’s doing a very good job,” he said.

Hegseth plans to lead the Defense Department until the end of Trump’s term, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. “Secretary Hegseth will not back down or be deterred by politicians seeking to score partisan points or launch phony investigations where no wrongdoing exists,” he said.

People close to the president expect him to make a series of personnel changes in the coming weeks and months that would shape his final two years in office—both at the White House and in the cabinet. Much of Washington is wondering whether Trump and Wiles will part ways. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles is Trump’s most influential adviser.

In the weeks before the election, Trump called friends to ask how his chief of staff was performing, according to people familiar with the calls, something he’s done in the past before pushing out advisers. He’s since publicly backed Wiles and she’s told associates she plans to remain in the role.

“Susie Wiles is an incredible chief of staff who leads a strong, united team singularly focused on President Trump and the American people,” said Alvarez, the White House spokeswoman.

Wiles has held on to her job for far longer than any previous Trump chief of staff. But possible replacements are already being discussed among the president’s outside allies.

“This White House needs a conversation changer—they need something to flip the script from the results of the midterms,” said Colin Reed, a Republican strategist. “It could be a staff shake-up. It could be a cabinet shuffling. The president needs to seize back this narrative quickly.”

The specter of Democratic-led investigations is hanging over the White House like a cloud. Some current and former administration officials have discussed making a pitch to Trump to issue mass presidential pardons to undercut Democratic probes and limit legal liability.

Democratic House aides said pardons won’t stop them from investigating. White House officials said the investigations won’t prevent Trump from exercising his executive power.

Aides, including Stephen Miller and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, have already been planning executive actions that Trump can take quickly in key areas including immigration, trade, housing and reducing the federal workforce, according to a person familiar with the matter. The president also plans to continue exerting enormous influence over the Justice Department, which he’s used to target his political opponents. Trump has made a show of signing executive orders during his presidency, including at rallies.

Members of Trump’s circle, including Wiles and Hegseth, attend a White House event in September.

Another thing unlikely to change: Trump’s focus on foreign policy. He’s signaled in recent weeks that he plans to restart major combat operations in Iran. Advisers say he wants to land a deal to end the war in Ukraine and continue to expand U.S. military involvement in Latin America.

The president has expressed early interest in reaching deals with Democrats in Congress. He’s voiced interest in what one person called a “Nixon goes to China” moment—a grand bargain on a thorny issue that’s seen as intractable in Washington.

“I think we’ll work with the Democrats, and we’ll get along very well with them,” Trump told the Journal late Tuesday night. “If we don’t, we’ll be very tough on them, they’ll be very tough on us.”

GOP lawmakers and political allies in recent weeks have laid out ideas for how the term-limited president who led his party to a historic midterm defeat can remain relevant in his final two years in office.

In the run-up to the midterms, Trump fielded a call from Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.), whom he once insulted as a disloyal sleazebag and helped defeat in a competitive primary. Cassidy set aside his differences with the president and tried to sell him on a plan to fix Social Security, Cassidy said in an interview. Trump expressed interest.

Republicans have also suggested he try to reach a deal on immigration, make additional changes to the tax code, bolster healthcare or develop new rules on artificial intelligence. Affordability first, accountability second Democrats emerge from two years in the wilderness with a broad new mandate to govern, but without the full power to enact an agenda.

They’re short of a veto-proof majority in the House and the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to pass most legislation. That means they’ll have to work with Trump or accept that they’ll get little signed into law.

The ideological bent of their caucus will also change. Many of the Democrats coming to Washington won over moderate or conservative-leaning states, meaning the party can’t afford to tack too far to the left if it hopes to build a durable majority. At the same time, the left wing is emboldened after winning victories in some battleground states and districts, including Senate seats in Michigan and Maine.

Supporters celebrate Democrat Adam Hamilton’s win in ruby-red Kansas, which flipped a Senate seat.

That sets the stage for intraparty fights over priorities and a policy platform ahead of the 2028 presidential election. The Democrats will need to set out those policies even before then if they hope to mollify an unhappy electorate with little patience for beltway politics.

Voters made clear it was high costs that led them to seek change in Washington, and party leaders say they got the message: affordability first, accountability second. But as the results rolled in, many Democrats couldn’t resist threats of investigations. “LAWYER UP,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D., Calif.), the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, posted to X.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D., N.J.) said targeted investigations are good, but he worried some of the Democratic caucus would eventually try to impeach the president. “My worry? One Saturday, Trump inevitably fires off something unhinged, and a group starts demanding we focus our energy on a futile impeachment rather than on cutting costs for families,” he said.

The task of shepherding these investigations, and unifying a divided caucus, will fall to Hakeem Jeffries, who’s expected to be the next House speaker. Privately, some Democrats are worried he won’t have the same grip on his caucus that Nancy Pelosi—the last Democratic Speaker—was known for.

Hakeem Jeffries, expected to be the next House Speaker, talks with volunteers during a watch party in Washington, D.C. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA Press) Jeffries said Wednesday Democrats are “united and committed to the goal of making life more affordable for the American people.”The 2028 factor The 2028 presidential campaign unofficially started as soon as polls closed Tuesday.

Democrats will have to narrow down a wide-open field of as many as two-dozen people with presidential aspirations, from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Republican voters, meanwhile, face their first presidential election without Trump on the ballot since 2016.

Vance was expected to be the leading GOP presidential candidate before the midterms—but the devastating results scramble that calculus. Vance, who was privately skeptical of the war in Iran, will need to decide how to further distance himself from Trump—who polls show is deeply unpopular with voters, even among some Republicans—while maintaining favor with the president.

Party leaders are already casting their eyes elsewhere for a candidate less closely associated with Trump. One Trump ally was quick to raise Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis—noting that Republicans managed to hold on in the key statewide races there, even if some results were far closer than many expected.

Trump has been a Republican kingmaker, but his endorsement may not carry the same weight it once did. Other Republicans are expected to enter the race, with or without his backing, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

JD Vance spent weeks on the campaign trail defending Republicans. Their losses scrambled his 2028 calculus. (Samuel Corum/press pool) Trump boards Air Force One in Memphis. The president is focused on his legacy. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters) At the White House, aides expect Trump to fight for relevance. Skilled at drawing the attention of Washington and the world, he’s defied expectations and norms throughout his political career.

And while Trump previously showed little interest in his political legacy—“What the hell do I care? I’ll be dead,” he responded in 2024 to an ally urging him to consider his impact when deciding on a vice president—that legacy is now in sharp focus.

Even so many Republicans predict the spotlight he’s basked in will fade and the loyalty he’s demanded will begin to fray.

“You’ll see a lot of folks, at least some, starting to say, ‘No, you’re going too far here. You can’t do that as president,’” said former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a Republican.

Newer lawmakers will be less worried about Trump’s ire. By the time the current group of just-elected Senators is up for re-election in 2032, Santorum said, Trump will be “long gone.”