Numerous unforced errors by President Donald Trump have created the danger of a Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives and even the Senate in the upcoming November 2026 elections. If the Democrats succeed, there will be grave consequences.

President Trump promised no lawfare in his second administration, but dishonored that pledge by pursuing suits against political opponents, including his former National Security Advisor, John Bolton. (Wikimedia Commons, Official Photo by Wang Yu Ching / Office of the President)

One-party state or multiparty republic?

Prominent Democrats are supporting the expansion of the Supreme Court to 13 justices; the adding of two states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, to the present 50; the easing of citizenship requirements for illegal immigrants; and the loosening of border controls and dissolving ICE to let in more illegal immigrants.

The intention of these proposals is to turn the US into a one-party state run by Democrats, like Venezuela.

The Democrats are also proposing to severely restrict US artificial intelligence development by requiring government approval of new AI versions and restricting the construction of power plants to supply AI with the electricity it needs for massive computing. If these Luddite measures are implemented, China will supersede the US as the most advanced AI power. This will be a recipe for the US to become a second-tier military and economic power.

While President Trump can veto these proposals in the two-and-a-half remaining years of his presidency if Republicans lose control of Congress, he might be forced to compromise on some of the Democratic proposals in order to have any of his own proposals approved.

The court-packing proposals were first proposed in a 2021 Judiciary Act, reintroduced in 2023, and currently supported by Senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Adam Schiff of California; Congressmen Hank Johnson of Georgia and James Raskin of Maryland; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and Pramila Jayapal of Washington; as well as Democratic strategist James Carville.

More cautious Democrats don’t want to make a 13-judge Supreme Court a current campaign issue, fearing that Republican charges of court packing would play badly with independent voters. But it’s likely that once the Nov. 2026 elections are over, such inhibitions will be removed. The installation of pro-socialist mayors in New York City; Seattle; Chicago; Burlington, Vermont; Jackson, Mississippi; and Richmond and Irvine, California has already made the Democratic Party an uncomfortable home for moderates and supporters of a strong defense and Israel.

President Trump has a number of improvements to US governance to celebrate since his re-election in November 2024. He has terminated most of the very costly and scientifically unjustified climate boondoggles passed by the Obama and Biden administrations. He has also seriously downgraded Iran’s ability to pursue terrorist activities in the Mideast.

But he hasn’t re-opened Hormuz or seized Iran’s enriched uranium supplies. His capricious, go-it-alone tariffs have alienated allies, hurt US exports, reduced US investment (AI excepted), and increased US inflation. He has severely antagonized allies that could have been part of his anti-Iran coalition. He especially alienated Europeans with his threat to take over Greenland, a dependency of Denmark. He’s used government to financially benefit his family and has persecuted critics like John Bolton after promising he wouldn’t use lawfare the way that Democrats has used it against him.

His administration has also interfered massively with the private sector (corporate mergers, regulation, and ownership) behaving more like a despot – or the English whom the American colonies broke from in 1776 – than the leader of the world’s leading republic.

What can be done?

The Republican Party, whose congressional representatives until now have been cowed by the President’s popularity and vindictiveness, need to show increasing backbone. Congress and the Republican Party nationwide need to create a publicly visible classical liberal / conservative coalition. This would be the best argument to independents and disappointed Republicans that the next Republican administration would follow in the steps of Lincoln, Coolidge, Eisenhower, and Reagan, rather than Tucker Carlson and other haters of Ukraine and Israel..

Libertarians would likely be allies of that coalition on economic and regulatory issues – just not national security.

Moderates in the Democratic Party should meanwhile increase their support for the presently isolated Rahm Emanuel, the only prominent member of their party who has shown a modicum of good sense.