Trump Vows Comeback as Democrats Threaten Probes and Impeachment Push After Midterm Losses

On Sunday, five days after Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections, Donald Trump posted a message to Truth Social that read like a promise and a complaint at once. America, he wrote, had taken a giant step back in history with the election results. He added that the stock market, which had grown during his tenure, took a loss after the vote. Then came the pledge: we will be back, bigger and stronger than ever before.

The results from last Tuesday's vote leave the president politically hamstrung as he enters the final two years of his term. They also open the way for multiple investigations by a Democrat-controlled Congress into Trump, his family and senior members of his administration. With control of committees in both chambers, Democrats can summon officials, demand documents and hold public hearings. The likely subjects include the Trump family's business and cryptocurrency dealings, government contracts involving billionaire Elon Musk, cuts to federal agencies, immigration enforcement and the conduct of the Iran war.

The president's own moves since the election signal a combative posture. On Friday he named hardline adviser Stephen Miller as his new chief of staff. Miller was the architect of Trump's tough immigration policy, which analysts have identified as a contributing factor in the party's unpopularity and its election defeat. The appointment came even though many Republicans, Vice President JD Vance among them, have been reflecting on why the party lost so badly. On Saturday, Trump said he was ordering the Justice Department to examine Democratic threats to impeach members of his administration, likening them to extortion. The threats came amid Democratic warnings that administration officials should lawyer up.

The sharpest focus on Sunday's talk shows was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Hakeem Jeffries, set to become speaker of the new Democratic House, told ABC he is a hard yes on a Hegseth impeachment resolution. He was responding to a question about a Republican lawmaker's reported plan to introduce such a motion as early as Monday. Jeffries accused Hegseth of abusing his power, undermining national security and engineering a reckless and costly war of choice in Iran that, in his words, has skyrocketed prices for Americans and made the country less safe. His verdict: Hegseth has got to go. Hegseth is a key architect of the Iran war, which began in February.

Trump defended him to reporters the same day. Hegseth, he said, is guilty of basically two things: winning two wars. He was referring to the January US raid on Venezuela that removed President Nicolas Maduro, and to the ongoing conflict with Iran. Trump said the US won in Venezuela in 48 minutes and had taken out hundreds of billions of dollars. On Iran, he said, it is just a question of closing it out now or later.

Attorney General Todd Blanche, formerly one of Trump's personal lawyers and now head of the Justice Department, told CNN the department would defend the president and senior officials. If Democrats go after Stephen Miller instead of conducting real oversight and leading, he said, the Department of Justice will be there to defend him.

Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, answered on CNN. He said Blanche wants only to protect Trump, the cabinet and administration officials, and that this is not his job. Garcia said one function of Congress under the Constitution is holding the executive branch to account, and he vowed to investigate those committing crimes against the American public. They can come after us however they want, he said, and Democrats would not be intimidated.

What to watch next: whether a Republican impeachment motion against Hegseth is actually introduced as reported, and how the Justice Department acts on Trump's order to examine the Democratic threats.