Few people outside of President Donald Trump know what his plans are after Election Day.
But aides, operatives and strategists are gaming out what a potential lame-duck Congress would prioritize for the final weeks of Republican control under Trump. Outside groups are readying for a potential push for a new Supreme Court justice should Republicans retain the Senate. And the administration is preparing for two years of investigations, pardons and executive actions that are expected to shape Trump’s presidential legacy.
“The president really won’t give a fuck after November and will be focused solely on his legacy,” one Republican strategist close to the White House told The Washington Sun.
The Sun spoke with over a dozen aides, party strategists and operatives who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Allies say they expect the White House and Republican lawmakers to focus on making permanent changes that have been made during Trump’s first two years back in the White House — something they said the Biden administration didn’t do.
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As the country’s domestic economic issues and geopolitical entanglements have proven difficult to solve, Trump has instead put outsize focus on beautification projects in Washington. He returned Monday to the site of one of his most high-profile projects — the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial — for a final speech before voters head to the polls.
The president’s intense pursuit of the projects — including building a White House ballroom, a reimagining of the East Potomac Golf Links and plans for an arch in front of Arlington National Cemetery that would dwarf France’s Arc de Triomphe — would be a marker of his final two years in office, even if completing them might mean flouting court orders.
As Trump indulges his desire to build things, his administration will be bracing for a wave of investigations that Democrats have promised to undertake if they wrest control of one or both congressional chambers. When Democrats took control of the House after the midterms in Trump’s first term, inquiries and investigations into Rudy Giuliani’s activities in Ukraine led to the first of two impeachments brought against Trump.
Allies believe Trump and his administration are better prepared this time to push back more forcefully.
“The more radical wing of the [Democratic] Party is going to demand investigations and impeachment,” said a source close to Trump, who added that it would likely spark the president “to demand his Justice Department do the same.”
Representatives for the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The White House has been preparing for the possibility of the House flipping to the Democrats since earlier this year, as previously reported by The Sun. Federal agencies sent an email last week, according to two sources familiar with the outreach, reminding political appointees that the agencies are paying part of their professional liability insurance, as stipulated under federal law.
Should Democrats gain congressional power, Trump allies say they anticipate the president will lean even more heavily on executive actions and dole out even more pardons. Multiple pardon advocates told The Sun that the White House has been considering issuing another batch of clemencies following the midterms, though the advocates said it was unclear whether their clients would receive one.
Those under consideration, according to three people familiar with the discussions, included those accused or charged with white-collar crimes that the White House sought to avoid pardoning before the elections.
The Sun previously reported that the White House is weighing mass pardons for junior staff. In an interview with the New York Post published on Monday, Trump indicated he would pardon allies such as Elon Musk and others if Democrats target them with investigations, saying, “That’s what [former President Joe] Biden did.”
Asked if he’d do it for everybody who worked for him, Trump said he wouldn’t even need to think about it.
“I did it for J6,” he said, referring to granting clemency to roughly 1,600 people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
A loss of control in either congressional chamber after Tuesday’s races would leave the White House with less than two months to legislate with the Republican trifecta. Priorities for a lame-duck Congress, though, remain largely unchanged from before Congress recessed for the election’s stretch run and include government and military funding, permitting reform and a party-line reconciliation package.
The Senate is expected to pick back up permitting reform when it returns regardless of what happens, a senior Republican aide told The Sun.
Sources close to the White House say the permitting reform negotiations and eventual vote could be a preview of how top Democrats, especially those in the House under Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to become House speaker should Democrats take control, would work with the White House going forward.
Trump said he would become “Mr. Veto” with them in charge.
“I’m not going to let them ruin it,” he told the New York Post. “And then, at some point, we’ll probably make deals.”
The senior Republican aide said that a successful vote on permitting reform would also be a win for Democrats because it would eat up floor time and limit legislative time on other Republican priorities, such as its reconciliation process that lawmakers are using to cover part of Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request.
With lawmakers facing a Dec. 11 government funding deadline, Congress could extend its stopgap funding measure into 2027, essentially leaving a wartime Pentagon to operate at existing funding levels.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly insisted that the administration remains committed to securing at least $350 billion through the party-line reconciliation process. But the proposal made little headway, and Congress will have little time when it returns — 20 legislative days in the House and 22 in the Senate before the end of the year.
“Publicly, they are pushing for $350 billion in reconciliation,” said a defense lobbyist speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. “Privately, the Pentagon knows it’s not going to happen. They have to shift some into the base bill and maybe a small supplemental.”
Still, Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee are developing their own reconciliation proposal, two people familiar with the effort told The Sun. The previously unreported work appears intended to give congressional Republicans a greater say in which programs get added funding.
The Defense Department is also revisiting its fiscal year 2027 spending plans and reconciliation proposal, one of the people said — an acknowledgement that the department’s original proposal is in doubt.
Those alternatives don’t appear on a glide path to passage, either. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), an appropriator, predicted at an event last week that Congress would extend the continuing resolution into January or February. He warned that Democrats, if they regain control of Congress, could condition defense funding on restrictions against continued military operations in Iran.
If lawmakers were to punt even further, a year-long continuing resolution could leave defense spending about $250 billion below the administration’s request for fiscal year 2027.
“I have no confidence that appropriations or reconciliation gets done,” the lobbyist said.
Should Republicans lose the Senate in addition to the House, a third, more ambitious reconciliation bill could emerge.
“If we lose both chambers, I think it’s going to be, like, the mother of all reconciliation bills,” the senior Republican aide said.
A potential bill could include money to fund the government through the end of Trump’s second term and raise the debt ceiling to remove Democratic leverage, the aide added.
One Republican operative described the more robust reconciliation bill as a last-gasp vehicle to push to pass before losing control of legislating in January.
“Throw every fucking thing they can in there,” they said, calling it a “Chipotle fucking burrito bill.”
Beyond policymaking, there’s also expected to be discussion about shoring up future control of the Supreme Court. Outside groups, a strategist close with the White House said, are already discussing how to nudge Justice Clarence Thomas to step down and make Trump’s last two years about the court.
Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito are the high-court’s oldest sitting justices at 78 and 76 years old, respectively.
Many aides, staffers and operatives who spoke with The Sun were hesitant to make firm predictions about what the administration would do after Election Day. It could all change, they said, based on the unpredictable president’s reaction to the electoral results. The post-midterms landscape, those people said, would appear similar to how the Republican Party has charted its course for the past decade, guided by Trump’s whims.
“I don’t think anybody who tells you they know what’s going to happen has any idea what they’re talking about,” the source close to Trump said. “He’s extraordinarily unpredictable.”
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