The Trump White House has spent months quietly preparing a plan to govern without Congress if Democrats win control of Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, Reuters reported on Sunday, November 1, 2026, developing executive actions that could keep the president's agenda moving even as a Democratic Congress tries to block, investigate and constrain him.
According to a White House official and two people familiar with the plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity, senior officials including deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and budget director Russell Vought have worked with the White House Counsel's Office since April to identify what President Donald Trump can do on his own on immigration, tariffs, housing costs and federal spending. The planning, Reuters reports, is the clearest sign yet that the White House is preparing for a very different political landscape in 2027, even while Trump spends his final campaign days urging voters to preserve Republican majorities.
The Reuters report, published on November 1, says the White House has been developing plans to keep advancing major parts of Trump's agenda through executive power while bracing for investigations of his administration. The work began in April, the report says, and has involved the White House Counsel's Office, the Office of Management and Budget and federal agencies, which have submitted proposals and legal reviews of actions the administration could take unilaterally.
White House counsel Will Scharf and his team are looking at what Trump can legally do on his own, where he could push the limits of his authority and how to defend those decisions in court, a White House official told Reuters. Trump has been briefed on the preparations and has taken part in discussions about them, the official said. Asked how comfortable Trump would be governing through executive authority under a Democratic Congress, one person familiar with the planning answered simply: 'very comfortable.'
Among the executive actions under consideration are new tariffs on imports of critical minerals and wind turbines, tighter rules on visas for international students and temporary foreign workers, and measures aimed at lowering housing and construction costs, the White House official said. Vought, whose Office of Management and Budget oversees federal spending, is examining which priorities can move forward using money already appropriated by Congress, two of the people said.
He also wants to change federal grant rules to give political appointees more say in which government programs receive taxpayer money, they said, potentially giving the White House more influence over federal spending without seeking congressional approval. The White House plans to seek legal opinions from the Justice Department to determine what Trump can do without Congress and how to defend those actions if they are challenged in court, one person said.
The planning does not mark a break with how Trump has governed in his second term. Since returning to office in January 2025, Reuters notes, he has used executive authority to impose sweeping tariffs, intensify immigration enforcement, shrink the federal workforce and pursue foreign-policy goals, including the war against Iran, without Congress approving new laws. A major exception was his massive package of tax and spending cuts, passed by the Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law in July 2025.
That record is why the midterm stakes are both high and, in one sense, limited. Democrats need a net gain of four seats in the House and four in the Senate to overturn Republican majorities of 218-214 and 53-47. Opinion polls favour Democrats to win the House, while the Senate remains too close to call, Reuters reports. Thirty-five Senate seats and all 435 House seats are on the ballot on Tuesday, November 3.
For the past month, Trump has held rallies across the country trying to preserve Republican control of Congress, including Sunday stops in Iowa and Kansas, even as his aides privately prepare for a different landscape in 2027. The White House pushed back on the prospect of Republican losses and accused the media of promoting a false narrative. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said: 'This administration and commonsense Republicans will continue to secure our borders, restore law and order, putting more money back into the pockets of hard-working Americans, and deliver wins for the American people.'
Executive power gives a president real room to move, but it has hard edges, and the Reuters report sets out both. On trade, Trump has repeatedly invoked national emergencies to expand his ability to act without new legislation. Congress can vote to end those emergencies, but Trump could veto such a move, requiring two-thirds majorities in both chambers to override him — a threshold Democrats are unlikely to reach even if they win both chambers.
On spending, the lever is subtler. Using money already appropriated by Congress, changing grant rules and directing how agencies administer existing programmes could let the White House steer federal money without a new spending bill. That is the area Vought is examining, according to two people familiar with the plans. On immigration, visa rules for students and temporary workers can be tightened by regulation, though major changes would almost certainly face court challenges, which is why the White House is lining up Justice Department legal opinions in advance.
What executive action cannot do is just as important. A Democratic Congress could refuse to pass Trump-backed legislation, and Trump could veto Democratic legislation he dislikes, leaving both sides short of the votes needed to override. Control of the Senate would allow Democrats to block Trump's judicial and executive-branch nominees, including any Supreme Court pick. 'I would anticipate they will be very reluctant to approve any of the president's appointments,' said Andrew Busch, a public policy professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and author of a history of midterm elections.
Courts could also block executive actions that exceed Trump's legal authority. That check has already shaped this presidency, and the White House's advance legal work — identifying what Trump can do, where he can push the limits and how to defend the decisions — is designed to survive it. The result, if Democrats win, may be less a new legislative era than a long legal and administrative contest over the boundaries of presidential power.
'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,' said Nathan Gonzales, editor at Inside Elections, which provides nonpartisan political analysis. 'I think he will only continue if there are Democratic majorities.' His assessment captures the central paradox Reuters identifies: capturing Congress would give Democrats the power to investigate Trump, block legislation and constrain his spending priorities, but Trump would retain broad executive authority over trade, foreign policy and the federal bureaucracy.
The White House, for its part, rejected the premise that Republican losses are coming. Its spokeswoman's statement — promising to secure borders, restore law and order and put more money back into Americans' pockets — framed the planning not as preparation for defeat but as continuity. Trump aides, however, have been preparing for the other prospect for months, all three people familiar with the plans told Reuters, including the investigations a Democratic Congress would bring.
This story matters because it reframes what Tuesday's election will actually decide. A Democratic House, and especially a Democratic Senate, would end the era in which Trump could count on Congress to pass his tax and spending programme, confirm his nominees and decline to investigate his administration. But it would not, on its own, stop a president who has already shown he is willing to govern by executive order, emergency declaration and regulation — and who, according to one person familiar with the planning, would be 'very comfortable' doing so.
For voters, that means the midterms are not simply a choice between a Trump agenda and a Democratic agenda. They are a choice about which checks will operate: congressional oversight, confirmation power and the power of the purse on one side, and presidential vetoes, emergency powers and administrative action on the other, with the courts as referee. For businesses, immigrants, students and workers, the practical consequences — tariffs on critical minerals and wind turbines, visa rules, housing costs and grant funding — could arrive by executive action even if no bill passes.
For the 2028 cycle, the planning also matters. A separate Reuters report on Sunday said Democratic wins would shift Congress's trade debate but fall short of tariff rollbacks, because Trump could veto repeal bills and Democrats would lack a veto-proof majority. The same logic runs through the governing-without-Congress plan: Democrats could stage symbolic votes and oversight hearings, but the president's executive toolkit would remain the main engine of policy.
First, Tuesday's vote. Polls close first in Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. ET, with the decisive House and Senate picture emerging through the evening. If Republicans hold Congress, the executive-action planning becomes a contingency that was never needed. If Democrats win one or both chambers, it becomes the governing blueprint for 2027, and the legal opinions the White House is preparing will be tested quickly in court.
Second, the investigations. Reuters previously reported that senior House Democrats and committee aides have discussed using hearings, subpoenas and document requests to examine whether Trump has used his presidential power to benefit himself, allies or donors. Trump aides have been preparing for that prospect for months, all three people said. White House lawyers have briefed political appointees and agency leaders on handling congressional inquiries, document requests and subpoenas, and advised officials to be careful about what they put in writing. They also sought a Justice Department opinion that could allow Trump to invoke executive privilege to shield communications with private advisers from congressional scrutiny, one person said.
Third, the first executive actions of a divided government. Watch for tariff announcements on critical minerals and wind turbines, visa-rule changes for students and temporary workers, housing-cost measures and grant-rule changes — the four areas Reuters names. Each will be a test of the White House's legal preparation, and each will likely draw an immediate court challenge. The pattern of the next two years may be set not by a single bill, but by a sequence of executive actions, lawsuits and congressional votes that neither side can fully win.
What did Reuters report about Trump governing without Congress? That the White House has planned since April, led by Stephen Miller, Russell Vought and White House counsel Will Scharf, to advance Trump's agenda through executive power if Democrats win Congress in the November 3 midterms.
Can a president really govern without Congress? Partly. A president can issue executive orders, set regulations, impose tariffs under emergency powers and direct agencies, but cannot appropriate new money, confirm nominees or pass laws without Congress, and courts can block actions that exceed legal authority.
What would Democrats be able to do if they win? Investigate the administration, block legislation and nominees, constrain spending priorities and pass bills — though Trump could veto them, and Democrats are unlikely to hold the two-thirds majorities needed to override a veto.
When are the midterm elections? Tuesday, November 3, 2026, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats on the ballot.
Has Trump been briefed on the plan? Yes, according to Reuters: a White House official said Trump has been briefed on the preparations and has taken part in discussions about them.
Related coverage: Trump's Texas rallies and the tightening Senate map, Trump's $5,000 dividend promise before the midterms, and Supreme Court SNAP block as the shutdown deal heads to the House.
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