Trump’s Tuesday night speech before Congress lacked political tact, but that might not matter to Trump, commentator and former speechwriter for George W. Bush David Frum writes at the Atlantic. In fact, his style, which marks a departure from his rhetoric at the beginning of his first round in office, could indicate he has a power grab planned for the 2026 midterm elections, Frum speculates.
“He mocked, he insulted, he called names, he appealed only to a MAGA base that does not add up to even half the electorate,” Frum writes. “But in 2025, the big question hanging over the nation’s head is not one about oratory, but about democracy. In 2017, Americans did not yet know how far Trump might go,” he writes, referring to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. “Now they do. They only flinch from believing it.”
Frum points out that Trump’s second time in office has been marked by likely “drastically unpopular” moves like tariffs and budget cuts. “Prices are rising, measles is spreading, airplanes are falling out of the sky,” he writes.
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Trump, Frum argues, is aware that he is headed for “political trouble.” Republicans have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, “yet he’s governing without the slightest concession to majority opinion, even to a majority sense of decency.”
“He talks of the Democrats as remorseless enemies.” he writes.” At the same time, he is making political choices that would normally seem certain to deliver those enemies a big majority in the House after the midterms. Is he delusional? Crazy reckless? Or is this a signal that the man who tried to overturn the election of 2020 has some scheme in mind for the 2026 midterms?”
In Trump’s speech, one example of his attitude was his discussion about claiming Greenland. “We’ll get it one way or another,” he said.
“Trump’s acting in ways that seem certain to throw power away in the next round of elections—if those elections proceed as usual,” Frum continues. “If they are free and fair. If every legal voter is allowed to participate. If every legal vote is counted, whether cast in person or by mail. Those did not use to be hazardous ‘if’s. But they may be hazardous in 2026.”
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If Trump had not been elected, he would likely be facing criminal and civil trials.
“Trump is keenly alert to his legal danger, deeply committed to keeping power by any means necessary,” Frum writes. “He also seems to be sleepwalking toward a stinging political loss that will expose him to all kinds of personal risk. He’s not trying to expand his coalition, to win any votes he does not already have. So what is his plan to preserve his immunity and his impunity? Trump’s behavior in 2021 showed that there were no limits to what he would do to keep power. What will 2026 show?”