While the president tours the country to prevent Republicans from losing control of the Capitol, his main advisors have been working for months in a very different scenario: a White House faced with Democratic majorities and forced to govern through executive orders, decrees and vetoes. The strategy ranges from immigration and tariffs to public spending, but also includes preparations to contain parliamentary investigations that could be opened against the Administration.

First modification: 11/01/2026 - 18:13 Last modification: 11/01/2026 - 18:24

Donald Trump is campaigning to keep Congress, but in the White House offices they are already working as if the Republicans have lost the battle. While the president tours the country trying to mobilize his voters and maintain his party's tight majorities in Washington, his main collaborators have been preparing a strategy for months to face a political scenario that could seriously complicate his second term: a Capitol under Democratic control.

This is not an improvised hypothesis at the last minute. According to an investigation by the Reuters news agency, which cites a White House official and two other people familiar with the preparations, the Administration has been studying since April how to keep much of the presidential agenda on track without depending on congressional approval.

The operation has two aspects: maximizing the president's margin of unilateral action and preparing his officials for parliamentary investigations that could be unleashed if the Democrats regain Legislative Power.

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The contradiction is revealing. In public, Trump calls on Americans to vote Republican to avoid having his hands tied by his political adversaries. Privately, his team is studying how to continue governing if precisely that happens.

The president himself has anticipated the tone of what could come. In an interview for the 'Pod Force One' podcast, from the 'New York Post', Trump acknowledged that, if the Republicans lose control of Congress, he could become "Mr. Veto." His idea, he explained, would be to use that power for “one or two months” before sitting down to negotiate with the Democrats. A statement that portrays the relationship he imagines with an adverse Legislature: first, the pulse; then, if it is inevitable, the agreement.

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The White House's silent operation

At the forefront of much of these preparations are two important figures in the presidential environment: Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff and one of the main architects of Trump's immigration policy, and Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Both are working with the White House Counsel's Office to identify what decisions the president could make without the need for a new law. Will Scharf, head of that office, and his team examine how far Trump can legally go, what limits he might try to push, and how to defend his decisions in court.

The task is not just to write new executive orders. Federal agencies are presenting legal proposals and analyzes to identify opportunities for unilateral action in different areas of the Administration. Trump, according to sources consulted by Reuters, is informed about the preparations and has participated in the deliberations.

One of the people familiar with the plan summed up to Reuters the president's level of comfort in the face of an eventual Democratic Congress with a blunt response: "very comfortable."

The phrase reflects a conviction that has marked Trump's second term: presidential power can be a sufficient tool to maintain the political course even when Congress stops being an ally.

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Tariffs, immigration and housing: the Government seeks room for maneuver

The range of measures being studied is wide and connects directly with some of Trump's main political priorities.

In trade matters, the White House is considering imposing new tariffs on imports of critical minerals and wind turbines. In immigration, it is studying tightening the conditions for visas for international students and temporary foreign workers. There are also proposals related to reducing housing and construction costs.

The objective is to find administrative and legal instruments that allow progress in these policies without subjecting each initiative to negotiation with Democratic legislators.

But one of the most sensitive fields is the budget. Vought examines which Administration priorities can be funded with funds that Congress has already authorized. In addition, it seeks to modify federal grant-making rules to give political appointees greater power to decide which programs receive public money.

The operation could translate into an important change in the distribution of power within the Administration: the White House would have more room to guide federal spending without the need to obtain new budget items on Capitol Hill.

It is a way to partially circumvent the legislative blockade, although not to eliminate it. Congress retains its budgetary powers and the courts can intervene if the Administration exceeds legal limits.

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Trump has already tried the model

The possibility of governing with an opposition Congress would not be uncharted territory for Trump. Since returning to the White House in January 2025, the president has made expansive use of executive powers to advance his priorities.

He has used presidential orders and decisions to impose widespread tariffs, intensify immigration policy, reduce federal staffing, and pursue foreign policy goals, including war against Iran, without necessarily waiting for Congress to pass new laws.

The big exception was the package of tax and spending cuts that he managed to push through thanks to the Republican majorities and that was enacted in July 2025.

For Nathan Gonzales, editor of 'Inside Elections', the balance of these two years allows us to anticipate the president's behavior in the face of a change of majorities. “In the last two years, President Trump has practically ignored Congress and has tried to do everything possible through executive orders and the exercise of his executive power (...) I think he will continue to do so if Democratic majorities occur,” he noted.

Trump has also repeatedly used national emergency declarations to expand his powers. Congress can vote to end an emergency, but the president retains the ability to veto that decision. To overcome the veto, two-thirds of the votes in both chambers would be necessary, a majority that is difficult to gather in a scenario of political polarization.

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Congress can still do harm

The White House strategy is based on a reality: a president can have broad executive powers, but he cannot turn Congress into an irrelevant institution.

“I predict that they will be very reluctant to approve any of the president's appointments”

A Democratic victory in the Senate would block presidential appointments to judicial and executive positions, including Supreme Court nominees. The confirmation process could become another front of confrontation between the White House and its adversaries.

Andrew Busch, a professor of public policy at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and author of a landmark study on the midterm elections, anticipates considerable resistance. “I predict that they will be very reluctant to approve any of the president's appointments,” he said.

Legislation would also become a battleground. Democrats could prevent Trump's initiatives from progressing, while the president would have the possibility of vetoing projects promoted by the opposition. Without a two-thirds majority in both chambers, Democratic lawmakers could hardly overturn those vetoes.

The judicial power would be added to this pulse. The courts could suspend or annul executive decisions that they considered contrary to current legislation. For this reason, the White House wants to have legal opinions from the Department of Justice that allow it to anticipate possible challenges and build arguments to defend the presidential measures.

The battle, therefore, would not be fought only in the Capitol. It would also move to the courts and federal agencies, where it would be decided how far the power of the White House can go.

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The real fear: the investigations into Trump

But there is one front that particularly worries presidential advisers and that cannot be resolved by executive order: Congress' investigative power.

Leading House Democrats and committee aides have debated how to use hearings, subpoenas and document requests to investigate whether Trump has used the Presidency to benefit himself, his allies or his donors.

The possibility of a parliamentary offensive explains a good part of the Administration's legal preparations. According to sources consulted by Reuters, White House lawyers have been instructing political appointees and agency heads for months on how to respond to congressional inquiries, document requests and subpoenas.

The advice is to exercise caution, especially in written communications. The warning has an obvious political dimension: any internal document could end up in the hands of Democratic investigators and become a piece of a parliamentary investigation.

The White House has also requested an opinion from the Justice Department so that Trump can invoke so-called executive privilege and protect certain communications with his private advisers from congressional scrutiny, according to one of the sources.

That is, while preparing the tools to continue governing without legislative support, the presidential team is also preparing to defend itself from a Congress that could dedicate a good part of its activity to examining the president's decisions.

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A Presidency facing its next institutional pulse

Electoral arithmetic explains the White House's concern. Democrats need to gain four net seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to reverse the current Republican majorities, of 218 to 214 in the Lower House and 53 to 47 in the Upper House. Polls point to better Democratic prospects in the House of Representatives, while the race for the Senate remains uncertain.

Trump has intensified his campaign events to prevent this outcome. However, the planning of its advisors reveals that the Administration does not want to depend exclusively on the electoral result to preserve its ability to act.

The strategy is not equivalent to constitutionally dispensing with Congress nor does it allow the president to govern outside of all institutional controls. It means, rather, preparing to use to the limit the powers that legislation and the Constitution grant to the Executive, while resorting to the veto to block adverse legislative initiatives and the courts to defend presidential decisions.

The scenario that is emerging is that of a more confrontational Presidency, with less room for agreements and a growing dependence on executive orders, administrative decisions and emergency declarations.

Trump asks voters to avoid a Democratic Congress. His advisors, meanwhile, are preparing the response in case he does not succeed. The paradox is that, while the president is trying to preserve Republican power in Washington, the White House is already designing how to exercise its power when that power is no longer on its side.

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With Reuters and local media

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