Analysis: Democrats' midterm sweep has handed President Donald Trump a Congress he cannot control, and his first moves suggest he wants to keep both the veto pen and the negotiating table within reach. For the first time across his two presidencies, Republicans run neither chamber.
With a handful of seats still uncounted, Democrats hold at least 253 of 435 House seats and at least 54 of 100 in the Senate.
Trump said Tuesday night that Democrats had already called him wanting to cooperate. He has since posted a picture on Truth Social of his red Make America Great Again cap altered to read VETO.
I have the right to veto everything, but I don’t want to be just sitting there for two years just vetoing everything
Donald Trump, US president
The veto math
The arithmetic explains the swagger. Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds majority, and Democrats have that in neither chamber.
Trump also retains executive orders. The Federal Register counts 292 since his January 2025 inauguration, 225 last year and 67 so far this year.
Andrew Proctor, a lecturer in US politics at University College London, expects a decent amount of gridlock. Democrats will push policies, he said, and recent history makes Trump working with them on legislation unlikely.
Yet Trump has rarely leaned on the veto. He has used it twice this term and 10 times in his first, against 12 for Joe Biden in one term and 78 for Ronald Reagan across two. In this reading, the VETO cap is more bargaining signal than governing plan.
The bigger obstacle may arrive before any bill reaches the Oval Office. Proctor said Senate Republicans will probably use the filibuster, as they did against Barack Obama, to keep Democratic legislation from ever landing on Trump's desk.
Room for deals
Some Democrats are testing the opening anyway. Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed, the first Muslim elected to the Senate, said he could work with Trump despite the president's racist and Islamophobic rhetoric against him during the campaign, if Trump will help on health care, Medicare cuts, the war and tariffs with Canada.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has not ruled out Trump signing Medicare for All, calling him a politician who is not too ideological. Proctor considers that unlikely within two years but sees possible common ground in restoring health subsidies cut under Trump's earlier legislation, an idea some Republicans floated in 2025 without result.
Oversight battles ahead
Investigations could sour any goodwill. Rep. Robert Garcia, set to chair the House Oversight Committee, told the administration online to hire lawyers, and Sen. Ron Wyden, expected to lead the Finance Committee, posted a one-word reference to subpoenas. White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said Democrats pursuing sham investigations would be working against the American people.
Impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Iran war, which Trump and other Republicans have blamed for the party's losses, may be imminent. If oversight dominates the new Congress, the deal-making Trump describes could narrow to a few issues, with health care the likeliest test.
