Trump built his own trap—now he’s caught in it | Opinion
A year ago, President-Elect Donald Trump was faced with one mirage and one trap. He got suckered by the first and walked right into the second.
The mirage was the amount of power he would wield. Having won a trifecta of control in elected government—the presidency and majorities in the U.S.
House and Senate—and spewing the kind of manic vitriol usually associated with Elon Musk on ketamine.
But as I wrote at the time, the shimmering post-election heat was distorting the picture. Congressional Republicans are actually fractious at best.
Trump passed only one major piece of legislation in his first term and Republican House speakers last as long as the average mayfly.
The closer we got to the 2026 midterms, the harder those cats would be to herd as voters assumed their usual backlash posture.
Trump was determined to get rid of the “Deep State”—the people in the agencies that implement the laws passed by Congress.