US President Donald Trump reacts topics in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 4, 2026. REUTERS_Jonathan Ernst
As unhappy as Americans are over the economy, the last two years of President Donald Trump’s second term with its unnecessary tariffs and its gas-busting war in Iran was just the first bite, sources tell Politico. After the mid-terms, Trump has zero motivation to even try to keep the economy level, so it’s gloves off from here.
“The possibility is that it could actually get worse, be more tumultuous, more unpredictable and higher tariffs,” said one industry lobbyist speaking anonymously.
Republican and industry officials don’t believe the president is going to slow his agenda because of a poor showing by his party in the midterms. If anything, he may ramp it up, they say.
“Trump still wants to bring tariffs close to where they stood before the Supreme Court struck down a broad swath of them in February, according to nine current and former officials, congressional aides and industry representatives,” reports Politico. “He has teed up trade measures that could lead to new duties in the weeks after the election. The Pentagon, meanwhile, has been sending more forces to the Middle East, and Trump has been hinting that more action is coming in Iran.”
Analysts speaking with Politico say as much damage as Trump has done to consumer prices with his tariffs and his unilateral wars, the president was actually trying to put on a good face before the mid-terms to protect his Republican majorities in Congress.
“GOP candidates in competitive midterm races in border states have already sought to distance themselves from Trump’s renewed trade war with Canada that flared up in August, after trade talks between Washington and Ottawa broke down,” according to Politico.
“The tariffs are hammering us,” said one Republican in Michigan, where GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers and gubernatorial candidate John James are fighting fiercely for open seats. Meanwhile, Trump’s self-created hike in gas prices since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran is already weighing down GOP candidates in rural areas and suburbs alike.
But with midterms out of the way and voter beatings heartily delivered to the GOP in November, nothing stops Trump from sallying forth with an even more extreme agenda, sources say.
“Trump’s new actions could not only trigger Main Street angst, but could also sink stock markets and drive oil prices even higher, with impacts that are likely to reverberate not just in the next Congress but in the 2028 contest for president,” reports Politico. “An additional round of levies after the election would be exactly the wrong lesson, one House Republican said, noting that if any Midwest Republicans eke out wins at this point, it will be ‘in spite’ of Trump’s tariffs.”
A White House official refused to guarantee that Trump planned no new tariffs after the mid-terms, merely saying that “any tariff announcements will come directly from the Administration,” and that “any discussion or reporting about tariffs and tariff rates should be regarded as baseless speculation.”
But Politico reports The White House did not respond to separate questions on its post-midterm plans for Iran.
