Trump doesn't care about the midterms — SkimNews
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- Trump held an unusual "mid-term convention" for the Republican Party in early September that functioned as an extended rally and did more harm than good to his party's cause, according to Emmott.
- The big beautiful bill (Trump's 2025 budget) succeeded legislatively, but Emmott writes the hot economy combined with the bill's fiscal disregard is steering the country toward a debt crisis.
- Trump's voting-system takeover effort has largely failed, leaving executive orders—often blocked by courts—as his primary governing tool, with Republican-majority Congresses too "supine" to check him.
- The big beautiful bill's appropriations gave Trump a slush fund to transfer between accounts, bankrolling ICE, the Musk-Vought project to shrink the federal government, and DC vanity projects (a ballroom, a reflecting pool, and an "arc de Trump") funded by diverting money from the National Parks Service.
- Trump's foreign-policy record includes killing alleged drug-traffickers in international waters, kidnapping Venezuela's president, and pushing regime change in Iran, alongside extorting investments from European and Asian allies.
- A Democratic Congress would likely impeach Trump a third time, but Emmott notes he can veto countermeasures, brazen out investigations, and count on the 2024 Supreme Court immunity ruling to shield official acts from prosecution.
- Emmott's optimistic coda: Trump's presidency is "personal and power-obsessed rather than ideological," meaning the worst of it ends with Trump himself, even if some ideologues in his orbit persist.
Why it matters: If Emmott is right, a Democratic sweep on November 3 delivers a rebuke but not a reckoning: Trump can still veto legislation, weaponize DOJ/FBI against enemies, pardon family and associates, and govern by executive order for two more years. The 2024 Supreme Court immunity ruling means congressional opposition is largely symbolic unless Republicans break with him the way they broke with Nixon in 1974.
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