US President Donald J. Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., US, September 18, 2026. REUTERS/Evan Vucci
Behind closed doors, many GOP insiders are worried that the 2026 midterms will bring a blue wave even larger than the one in 2016 — which found Democrats flipping more than 40 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. But according to Never Trump conservative Miles Taylor, President Donald Trump and his aides are "gloating" and feeling "emboldened" — and won't be deterred by a backlash, whether it comes from a blue wave or major lawsuits.
Taylor was serving as chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) when Democrats flipped the House in 2018 — an event that, according to Taylor, didn't make Trump any less audacious. And in 2026, the former Trump administration official warns, the president and his aides aren't going to be discouraged by either lawsuits or possible Democratic gains in the midterms.
"Anyone hoping the losses (in 2018) would humble him was sorely mistaken," Taylor recalls. "Donald Trump was on the attack. He fired his attorney general, spoke openly about ejecting his chief of staff and set his sights on Cabinet members who challenged his erraticism and frequent impulses toward illegality. He didn't want anyone around to say 'no' to whatever his warped conscience cooked up next. On the same day, Trump blew up at CNN's Jim Acosta during a post-election press conference for asking uncomfortable questions about the Russia investigation and the president's immigration policies."
Taylor continues, "Afterwards, Trump decided he would simply throw him out of the White House, breaking with decades of norms that credentialed members of the press are given access to cover the American presidency. That night, I was at dinner in the restaurant of the Trump Hotel with a member of the president's Cabinet and senior national security officials. A few tables away sat the White House communications chief with a group of aides. They were openly gloating and celebrating, before the story had even hit the news. They'd had the Secret Service stop Acosta and take away his pass. If the press didn't report on Trump the way Trump wanted, he'd censor them."
Taylor notes that eight years later, Trump is banning three news organizations from the White House: CNN, MS NOW and Politico — resulting in a major lawsuit. But that lawsuit, according to Taylor, won't discourage Trump in 2026 any more than he was discouraged in 2018.
"He didn't learn the lesson his critics thought he would after 2018's Acosta episode," Taylor emphasizes. "The reporter sued, the courts sided with him, and he got his White House pass back within days. Even Fox News backed its rival's case. But Trump was unfazed. The lesson he took from losing wasn't that there was a red line he should never cross but that crossing it had cost him nothing. He faced no real consequences. The media kept covering him, just as always."
Taylor continues, "Emboldened, the president has referred to his latest action as an 'assault on the FAKE NEWS' and insisted: 'I don't have to let them into the people's house.' This isn't a man who’s worried about a court ruling over freedom of speech. He's wielding the weapon of intimidation to get anticipatory obedience — to send a warning signal to everyone still covering the U.S. government, domestically or internationally."
