Donald Trump After the Midterms
If the coming election does result in a blue wave, Trump will be faced with the fact of his diminishment. The rest of us will be faced with the wreckage.
By David Remnick, October 11, 2026
Signs of a midterm blue wave are everywhere, and yet it would be journalistic malpractice not to attach some nervous caveats to any prediction. Polls are sketchy. Campaigns have never been more subject to the desires of the wealthy.
What is more, the President of the United States has the impulse control of a toddler, though most toddlers have neither the authority nor the inclination to spark an insurrection, destabilize the Western alliance, live-stream an execution, or threaten to end “a whole civilization.”
We are subjected daily to the caprices of a mind both unregulated and amoral.
As Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said, the Commander-in-Chief is “fascist to the core.” You may prefer milder terminology. Fine. But, after a decade defined by Donald Trump’s unceasing presence, a growing percentage of the American electorate appears to recognize the uniqueness of this President and the mayhem that he has instigated from the Oval Office.
We are, collectively, on guard against undue optimism. Still, if the coming election does result in a blue wave, Trump will be faced with the fact of his diminishment. The rest of us will be faced with the wreckage.
A decade ago, those who believed that Trump’s ascent represented a grave and multifaceted danger, a national emergency, were often met with sneering dismissal. The right generally regarded Trump’s most vocal opponents as pussy-hatted snowflakes, woke snobs indifferent to the struggles of working people.
They were, in a word, “deranged.” Some on the left, too, insisted that those who thought of Trump as aberrant and sought nightly salvation in a tankard of Chardonnay and “The Rachel Maddow Show” ignored America’s complicated legacy. Was Trump really so much worse than his predecessors? Hardly! In fact, he was practically mainstream, “not some strange eddy in the current of American history,” one knowing essayist wrote in The New Republic. “He is where the ordinary river flowed.” All that distinguished Trump was “aesthetics”—“He is vulgar. He is rude.”
SEE ALSO: Below, I have dived into the after Trump is gone timeline, and written some updates about the aftermath, the fixes to makes, the things to undo, the restoration of DOJ and FBI to their vital roles, end ICE, welcome immigrants, the heart of soul of America today. –DrWeb
Further Reading on DrWeb’s Domain: Reconstruction & Protecting Democracy
For deeper analysis on rebuilding institutional guardrails, executive accountability, and planning for post-crisis governance, explore these companion editorials and deep dives:
- Editorial Blueprint: The Heritage of Havoc: Mapping the Post-Trump Reconstruction of 2029 – A foundational roadmap for repairing damaged institutions and establishing durable constitutional protections.
- Democratic Renewal: When the Clouds Begin to Part: Reading the Signs of Democracy’s Renewal – Moving from defensive resistance toward comprehensive civic and legal reconstruction.
- Core Institutional Series: The Pillars of Democracy Series – A dedicated multi-part examination of judicial independence, voting rights, rule of law, and a free press.
- Historical Precedents: Major Historical Threats to American Democracy – Contextualizing modern stress tests against America’s past constitutional crises.
- Electoral Guardrails: 2026 Midterms Hub & Monthly Updates – Tracking the electoral firewall required before legislative restoration can take place.
Continue/Read Original Article: Donald Trump After the Midterms | The New Yorker
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