Trump lost Congress but is bragging about the veto: "I have ultimate power"

US President Donald Trump lost Congress, but not his self-confidence. As news of Republican candidates' defeats kept coming in, he posted on his Truth Social network a sentence that will be remembered: "I wasn't on the ballot, and if I had been, we would have won in a LANDSLIDE!"

The irony is that during the campaign he was the one telling voters to "pretend" his name was on the ballot too. Sometimes he even said that he himself was, in a way, a candidate. When the results arrived, suddenly he wasn't.

"Mr. Veto"

Even before the polls closed, Trump had an answer ready for a possible Democratic win. "I have ultimate power. It's called the veto," he said in a phone interview with a US outlet when asked how he would work with a Democrat-controlled Congress. He doesn't even mind the nickname "Mr. Veto".

His calculation is clear: for a few months he will veto Democratic bills, and then, as he put it, "they'll come and say: we have to make a deal." He also cited the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, which earlier this year, by six votes to three, allowed him to remove Rebecca Slaughter from the Federal Trade Commission. In his reading, that decision gives him "tremendous powers like no president has ever had" over numerous federal agencies, regardless of which party controls Congress.

Two people close to Trump revealed that new executive actions, especially on immigration and trade, had been discussed at the White House in recent weeks. Stephen Miller and Russell Vought played the leading roles in those talks. One of the people close to the president said openly that Trump, "even if the Democrats may win power", will keep "the powers to do almost anything he wants".

From the veto to "cooperation"

After the defeat the tone softened a little. "We'll work with the Democrats," Trump said in a conversation broadcast live, without questioning the legitimacy of the results. Asked how a Democratic Congress would affect his term, he replied: "I'll tell you in a year." The veto, of course, stayed on the table: "I'll have a powerful veto, and if I think it's right, we'll just use it."

Asked about new US strikes on Iran, he was brief: "We'll look at that." And for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who now faces the question of whether he will keep leading the Republicans, Trump offered no clear support. "I think he's done a good job, but they'll have to make that decision."

A few hours before the first results came in, the president found time to declare November 1 to 7 "Anti-Communism Week" and to insult Fox News host Jessica Tarlov: "She's dumb as a rock, but the voice drives me crazy." For years Trump has called his political opponents socialists and communists - rhetoric that in previous elections won him a share of Latino voters in Florida.

A leader who explains defeat by saying he wasn't on the ballot, and looks for the answer in the veto and the courts. How many times have we watched this scene closer to home?