WATCH: What happens if Democrats take back control of Congress?

If Democrats win back Congress, expect messaging bills, full-force investigations of the administration and a political showdown that sets the stage for the 2028 presidential race.

Washington Times reporters Susan Ferrechio and Seth McLaughlin explain how Trump’s legislative agenda would hit the brakes and why the White House would likely lean even harder on executive orders.

[FERRECHIO] First thing that happens if Democrats take back control of Congress is it basically puts the brakes on any legislation Trump wants passed. Now, he can do things by executive order, and that’s been increasingly the case with past administrations. Once the White House doesn’t have control of Congress anymore, they start using, as Obama put it, the pen and the phone. And they can get some things done that way, there’s no question, not as much, and it tends to get reversed by the next president, but they can do some things. So I think we’ll watch more executive order ceremonies in his office. 

[MCLAUGHLIN] A big question is what are Democrats going to do with the Iran war? What happens if they control the chambers and Trump is still trying to make things happen in the Strait of Hormuz? I think that’s an open-ended question. I think more broadly, though, if Democrats take one or both of the chambers, this is all going to set the stage for the 2028 presidential race. It’s going to be messaging bills and rhetorical wars, and it’s really just going to set the table for that next big political battle.

[FERRECHIO] They’re going to start passing things, even though they know the president won’t sign it. This is their foot in the door to when and if they get the White House in the subsequent election. They’ll pass legislation about health care, pass legislation about raising taxes, things about LGBTQ protections and agenda, the things that have been undone by Trump, they’ll try to reintroduce.

There’s also another issue, and of course, that is the investigations of the Trump administration. And I believe that those will start full force. They’re already having meetings. We’ve got Sheldon Whitehouse over in the Senate, meeting with Jamie Raskin over in the House, both leading lawmakers for Democrats on the judiciary panels. They’re having monthly Zoom meetings where they talk about how they’re going to investigate Trump, how they’re going to investigate the Supreme Court.

[MCLAUGHLIN] In a way, this is like inside D.C. thinking, is that it could help Trump in the fact that he will now have a foe every day to attack, and he won’t own everything anymore. Democrats will own some stuff of what’s going on. So there’ll be more blame to be spread around, and it will no longer just be able to be pointed at Republicans. And that will change the dynamic heading into the next presidential race.

See more from Susan Ferrechio and Seth McLaughlin: Will gas, grocery and heating oil prices cost Republicans control of Congress?

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Get more coverage of the 2026 midterms from The Washington Times