Everything Trump was on the Ballot. Now What?

“I wasn’t on the ballot and if I was, we would have WON IN A LANDSLIDE.”

— Donald Trump post on Truth Social Nov. 3, 2026

He hasn’t changed: campaigning for Republicans before the election, he said repeatedly, “I’m just asking for everyone to pretend my name is on the ballot.” Voters didn’t have to pretend: Trump and his policies—his tariffs, his war, his lies, his corruption and his enriching the already rich at the expense of everyone not rich—were at the top of their minds and they rejected all of it IN A LANDSLIDE!

Trump said that he accepted the result of the election (as if he could contest the wipeout) and that he looked forward to working with Democrats “if they have good ideas” while also saying he could veto their legislation. In a less generous moment, he accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Democratic opponent, Gina Hinojosa, of being “reckless, radical and dangerous” (she says she’s a “populist,” not a progressive and she’s never been a Democratic Socialist).  After she defeated Abbott, who Trump had endorsed, he said Abbott would not have lost had he not “turned into a RINO” who opposed AI data centers in Texas. He also blamed Fox News.

He hasn’t changed: he still shoots the wounded. He should fire Stephen Miller, driver of Trump’s draconian mass deportation policy and sponsor of ICE’s cruelty and violence. Instead, Miller may become White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles.

Immigration took a back seat to economic issues as a reason for Trump’s defeats Tuesday, but exit polls showed that 60% of voters disapprove of ICE and 57% said immigration enforcement had “gone too far.” And Latinos shifted from 48% for Trump in 2024 to 34% on Tuesday. 

Miller also has been an advocate of Trump’s enlargement of executive power (that is, diminution of Congressional power), National Guard and other federal deployments to Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, assertions of US military power in the Western Hemisphere, and penalization of universities for DEI “wokeness” and toleration of anti-Semitism.

Besides Miller, Trump should fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose discrimination against Blacks and women has depleted morale in the Armed Services and earned him a job-approval rating of 32%, and also vaccine-skeptic HHS Secretary Robert F.  Kennedy Jr, whose approval rating is 36%.

Trump also should tame his hunger for getting ever richer, which he seems to have passed on to his sons and son-in-law. Selling pardons, accepting Qatari airplanes, and removing regulations on crypto currencies is corrupt. So is backing Russia over Ukraine. And House Republicans should elect Steve Scalise over rightist blunderbus  Jim Jordan as Minority Leader.

Meantime, Democrats should realize that they’ve been handed a precious but conditional gift: an opportunity to become America’s dominant party—IF they don’t blow it. Neither party enjoys dramatically high approval ratings. A September-October Pew poll shows the Democratic Party is viewed favorably by 40% of US adults and Republicans, 37%.

Democrats could blow their opportunity if they rush headlong into impeaching Trump. As one of my favorite 2028 contenders, Rahm Emanuel – former everything (finance chairman for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign then Clinton’s top political staffer, investment banker, board member of Freddie Mac, three-term House Member, 2006 election-winning chairman of the House Democratic Campaign Committee, Barack Obama’s White House chief-of-staff, two-term Mayor of Chicago, ambassador to Japan, now frequent pundit on CNN and other networks) – says, first Democrats need to establish their bona fides by tackling the issues that just got them elected. And investigate Trump, sure.

Emanuel is a committed centrist who thinks the Democratic Socialists of America should be a separate political party. He says Democrats must drop emphasis on “bathrooms and locker rooms” and fix the performance crisis in schoolrooms. He’d also raise the minimum wage, pass a bill that makes health care affordable, pull back on tariffs, enact ethics reform, and establish a 70-year age limit for federal officials (he’ll be 68 in 2028, which means he’ll only serve one term if he gets elected.)

House Speaker-elect Hakeem Jeffries laid out a Democratic agenda not very different from Emanuel’s: reverse Trump cuts for nutrition programs, Medicaid and restore Obamacare subsidies, eliminate his tariffs and put limits on the war in Iran. Trump may veto some of these ideas, but if he does, he will end up hurting his party once again.

And Democrats should tack to the center, not left. The good news is that many of the party’s newly elected governors and Senators represent Southern and Midwestern states and can put limits on coastal liberal enthusiasms. It was the Heartland that won the mid-terms. It seems the Democratic coalition is back.