cross-posted from: https://piefed.blahaj.zone/c/us_politics@piefed.blahaj.zone/p/1064790/after-midterm-losses-trump-stares-down-the-specter-of-democratic-probes-and-the-ra
For Donald Trump, his party’s resounding midterm losses pave the way for investigations and potential impeachments that will put the Republican president on the defensive in his final two years in office.
The results shift the center of gravity closer to Capitol Hill, where Democrats will be angling to check Trump’s power after two years of acquiescence from congressional Republicans. It not only resurfaces a dynamic from his first term in office, when House Democrats took power in Trump’s first midterms and ultimately impeached him twice, but with control as well of the Senate, Democrats can now stymie Trump’s nominations to Cabinet posts and lifetime federal judgeships.
Trump had all but guaranteed the results would be seen as a referendum on himself by repeatedly urging voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot” as he went into primarily conservative states to shore up Republican candidates and warned of a Washington where Democrats were in power.
But the results showed how voters rejected Trump’s handpicked candidates while airing widespread concerns about high costs in the wake of his war against Iran and his punishing tariff policy.
Trump tried to shift the blame away from himself during a Fox News interview that aired early Wednesday, saying Democrats “did a good job” in their campaigns and faulting GOP candidates for their losses. “I don’t view it as a hit on me,” he said.
The results leave Trump — who watched returns at the White House with his advisers and members of his Cabinet — with dramatically diminished political capital at home and abroad.
Much more in the article.
So lame duck president and lots of investigations?
That’s how I read the phrase spectre of probes, but lame duck implies that the sitting president would be restrained in some way. But so far, nothing in his adult life has stopped him from breaking the law; certainly not the Democratic Party. I wanna believe they will this time, but that’s a sucker bet if ever there was one.