GOP insider warns Trump’s 'reign of terror' is in 'deranged cult' phase

US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally to support Republican House of Representatives candidate Ed Gallrein and Senate candidate Andy Barr, at Truist Arena in Highland Heights, Kentucky, US, October 17, 2026.

A conservative commentator warns that, despite the humiliating wipeout of his party in the midterms, President Donald Trump is still a threat, writing, “Even massive defeat cannot shake the delusions of this deranged cult.”

Charlie Sykes, the longtime conservative talk radio host, wrote Thursday in a Substack post titled No, The Trump Reign of Terror Isn’t Over that Trump emerged from the election weaker and “lame-duckish.” But Sykes said that the president could become even more of a threat as he retreats into the final stretch of his presidency.

Sykes told the Guardian’s David Smith in an interview published Saturday that the MAGA movement had been “badly wounded and, like a cornered ferret, it can still be quite dangerous.”

Sykes told the outlet that the defeat should serve as a jolt to the Republican Party, which has been in the grip of Trump for 10 years. But history shows that a party only changes course when it suffers a defeat of the size of last week’s election, he said.

The Guardian noted that last week’s results were the most sweeping midterm rebuke of a president in office since the Watergate election of 1974. Sykes wrote in his post that Democrat Scott Colom’s victory over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi and an expected victory for Mary Peltola in Alaska will give the Democratic majority in the Senate 56 seats.

In his post, Sykes pointed to signs that the party has not gotten the message. He said that Republicans in the House have doubled down on MAGA by choosing Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as their new leader and by sticking with Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and the war in Iran.

Jordan, a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, defeated Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, 106-73, in a secret ballot vote Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. He will be tasked with leading a shrunken Republican conference in the minority in the next Congress and will face an uphill battle to take back the House in 2028.

“When Democrats offer more government, we’ll offer more freedom,” Jordan said in remarks to reporters after his victory.

Sykes also pointed his readers to an essay by writer Matt Labash in the New York Times in which Labash argued that Trump does not change course after being humiliated and is unlikely to start at 80 years of age.

The Substack post also highlighted a New York Times report that revealed the White House warned Congress that aggressive investigations could amount to a crime. But it was not clear what legal basis the Trump administration could use for such a threat, since the Constitution grants lawmakers immunity for legislative acts.

Attorney General Todd Blanche declined to rule out prosecuting Democrats over their plans to investigate the administration, Axios reported Sunday, after Trump called for prosecutors to go after lawmakers.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the incoming chairman of the House Oversight Committee, went viral warning the Trump administration and the president’s family to “lawyer up” as he promised a slate of investigations.

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