By Sumayya
U.S. President Donald Trump’s White House has spent months getting ready for a possible Democratic takeover of Congress. They have been developing plans to keep pushing major parts of his agenda using executive power while bracing for investigations into his administration, according to a White House official and two people familiar with the plans.
Senior officials, including deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and budget director Russell Vought, have been working with the White House Counsel’s Office since April. Their goal is to identify executive actions on immigration, border taxes, housing costs, and federal spending that Trump could pursue without needing approval from Congress, said the three people, who spoke without giving their names.
White House lawyer Will Scharf and his team are also looking at what Trump can legally do on his own, where he could push the boundaries of his power, and how to defend those choices in court, the White House official stated.
The planning highlights a contradiction of Tuesday’s midterm elections: Winning control of Congress would give Democrats the power to investigate Trump, block new laws, and limit his spending goals. However, Trump would still keep broad presidential authority over trade, foreign policy, and the federal system, which he has already used strongly during his second term.
Democrats need to gain four seats in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to overturn the Republicans’ small 218-214 and 53-47 majorities. Public opinion polls favor the Democrats to win the House, while the Senate remains too close to predict. For the past month, Trump has held public rallies across the country to try and keep Republican control of Congress, even while his aides privately prepare for a very different political landscape in the year 2027.
The White House rejected the idea of Republican losses and blamed the news media for spreading a false story.
“This administration and sensible Republicans will continue to protect our borders, bring back law and order, put more money back into the pockets of hard-working Americans, and deliver wins for the American people,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said.
Among the executive actions being thought about are new taxes on imports of important minerals and wind turbines, stricter rules on visas for international students and temporary foreign workers, and actions meant to lower housing and building costs, the White House official said.
Federal agencies have sent in offers and legal checks of actions the administration could take on its own, one of the people with knowledge of the plans stated.
Vought, whose U.S. Office of Management and Budget watches over government spending, is checking which goals can move forward using money that Congress has already given, two of the people said.
He also wants to change federal grant rules to give political appointees more say in which government programs get taxpayer money, they said, which could give the White House more influence over federal spending without asking Congress for approval.
Trump has been told about the preparations and has taken part in talks about them, the White House official stated.
When asked how happy Trump would be running the country through executive orders under a Democratic Congress, one of the people said, “very happy.”
Governing without Congress
Trump has already tested the limits of presidential power since coming back into office in January 2025, using executive authority to put large taxes on imports, increase immigration enforcement, shrink the number of government workers, and chase foreign-policy goals like the war against Iran without approval from Congress or new laws.
A big exception was Trump’s massive package of tax and spending cuts that was passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by the president in July 2025.
“President Trump in the last two years has basically ignored Congress and tried to do as much as possible through executive orders and executive power,” said Nathan Gonzales, the editor of Inside Elections, which gives non-partisan political analysis. “I think he will only continue if there are Democratic majorities.”
Trump has repeatedly declared national emergencies to grow his ability to act without new laws. Congress can vote to stop those emergencies, but Trump could use his veto power to block that move, which would then require a two-thirds majority vote in both parts of Congress to override him.
A Democratic Congress could still create major roadblocks.
Control of the Senate would allow Democrats to block Trump’s choices for judges and executive-branch jobs, including any pick for the Supreme Court.
“I would expect they will be very unwilling to approve any of the president’s choices,” said Andrew Busch, a public policy teacher at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who wrote a history of midterm elections.
Democrats could also refuse to pass laws that Trump supports. But Trump could veto any Democratic laws he does not like, and Democrats are unlikely to have enough votes in the House to override his veto.
Courts could also block executive orders that go past Trump’s legal authority. The White House plans to ask for legal opinions from the Justice Department to decide what Trump can do without Congress and how to defend those choices if people challenge them in court, one of the people said.
Democratic investigations
However, one problem cannot be avoided through executive actions: congressional investigations.
The Reuters news agency previously reported that top House Democrats and committee workers have talked about using hearings, official orders for documents, and information requests to check if Trump has used his presidential power to help himself, his friends, or his donors.
Trump’s aides have been getting ready for that possibility for months, all three people stated.
White House lawyers have been giving information to political appointees and agency leaders on how to handle congressional questions, document demands, and legal orders, one person said. They have warned officials to be very careful about what they write down on paper.
They also looked for an opinion from the Justice Department that could allow Trump to use executive privilege to hide messages with private advisors from the eyes of Congress, the person added.
