Dem
54
GOP
46
Someone has apparently gotten through to Donald Trump and told him the Democrats are going to win the House and maybe the Senate. He has taken that to heart and is making plans to govern under those constraints.
Needless to say, he will veto everything the Democrats send him. He might not even bother submitting nominations for Executive Branch vacancies to the Senate and skip right ahead to acting positions. Judicial vacancies will be more painful, especially those in the appellate courts and higher up. It is unlikely (m)any of those will be confirmed.
He will have to spend a lot of time dealing with all the subpoenas from Congress. They will ask people to testify and documents to be produced. He can't just outright refuse. That would just be another article of impeachment. Refusing to comply without appearing to be refusing to comply may take some work. Expect to hear a great deal about "executive privilege" next year. He will claim everything the Democrats want is covered by it and they won't get anything. However, many of the subpoena targets are likely to be people outside the Executive Branch who probably won't defy them for fear that a future Democratic AG might indict them for it.
But his main focus will be what he can do on his own. Plans include more tariffs, including on critical minerals and wind turbines according to sources. Maybe he doesn't realize that putting tariffs on wind turbines will encourage American companies to build them. Has he forgotten that he hates them, especially near his golf courses?
Other executive actions are likely to be on immigration, housing costs, trade, foreign policy, moving things around in the federal budget so he can spend funds on projects he likes and not on projects he hates, and maybe starting a new war or two. White House counsel Will Scharf is now spending his time figuring out what Trump can do legally or almost legally or not so far from legally that it will add a new article of impeachment. The general approach is "do it and if the Supreme Court says no, then stop doing it."
Nathan Gonzales, editor of "Inside Elections," said: "President Trump in the last two years has basically ignored Congress and tried to do as much as possible through executive orders and executive power. I think he will only continue if there are Democratic majorities." For example, he will keep announcing national emergencies and then start using the powers that come with them. To cancel a national emergency, a two-thirds majority is needed in both chambers of Congress.