Trump has readily embraced many identities: A hotel developer. A reality television star. Now, at 80 years old, he is confronting one he would rather not: a lame duck.
In the hours after voters put a check on the expansive power he has flexed in his second term, giving Democrats control of both the House and the Senate, Mr. Trump seemed to be cycling through the stages of grief. He denied that a blue wave across the country had been his fault, or a direct result of his decision to go to war with Iran. (The vice president explicitly said otherwise.) He accepted the election results.
And, as he absorbed the waning power he will have in his final two years in office, he bargained, saying he’d work with Democrats while clinging to his veto Sharpie. Trump told reporters on Wednesday, standing in front of a steel beam that was being put into place as part of his cherished White House ballroom project. He noted that he had “the power to veto,” before turning to a topic he seemed much more eager to discuss: his renovation projects.
Trump adopts a pragmatic deal-making posture remains to be seen — one ally described the president as “dazed” after the rout on Tuesday. After his loss in the 2020 presidential race, the last major political setback Mr. Trump confronted, he retreated to Mar-a-Lago, where he nursed his anger and then planned a defiant return.
Once back in the White House, Mr. Trump had no use for compromise. After a period spent as a political pariah and criminal defendant, Mr.
Trump liked to say that he had gone from hunted to hunter. In his second term, his administration has tracked down his political enemies, unleashed a violent immigration crackdown and started a war that has made life more expensive for Americans. He didn’t need Congress to do any of it.
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