Two days before Americans vote in the midterm elections, President Donald Trump's White House has spent months quietly preparing for the result it publicly says will not happen: a Democratic takeover of Congress. According to a White House official and two people familiar with the plans, senior aides have been building a playbook to keep advancing major parts of the president's agenda through executive power alone — and bracing for the wave of congressional investigations a Democratic majority could bring. Reuters reported the planning on Sunday, November 1; the three sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss internal preparations.
Source: Reuters (Bose and Reid), Nov. 1, 2026, via WNCY
Who is doing the planning, and since when
The work has been running since April, Reuters reported. Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and budget director Russell Vought have been working with the White House Counsel's Office to identify executive actions Trump could take without congressional approval across four areas: immigration, tariffs, housing costs and federal spending. White House counsel Will Scharf and his team are examining, in the official's words, “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.” Federal agencies have submitted proposals and legal reviews of actions the administration could take unilaterally, one of the people said. Trump himself has been briefed on the preparations and has taken part in the discussions, the official said.
What is on the table: tariffs, visas and housing
Among the executive actions under consideration, the White House official told Reuters, 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 visa item is the one that reaches furthest into this site's readership: student and temporary-worker visas are the route through which many Punjabi students, H-2 and other work-route migrants, and the families who follow them enter the United States, and the reporting says those rules could be tightened by executive action alone, without a vote in Congress. Vought, whose Office of Management and Budget oversees federal spending, is separately examining which priorities can move forward using money Congress has already appropriated, and wants to change federal grant rules to give political appointees more say over which government programs receive taxpayer money.
If Democrats win on Tuesday and the playbook is used, the fights that decide immigration and tariff policy would move out of Congress and into executive orders and courtrooms. For immigrant families, students and temporary workers, that means rules could change faster, with less warning, and then be fought over in court for months — the pattern already seen with several second-term actions.
The White House pushback, and the president's own read
Publicly, the administration rejects the premise. White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis accused the media of promoting a false narrative: “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.” For the past month Trump has held rallies across the country trying to preserve Republican control of Congress. But asked how comfortable Trump would be governing through executive authority under a Democratic Congress, one of the people familiar with the planning answered: “very comfortable.” Opinion polls favour Democrats to win the House, while the Senate remains too close to call, Reuters reported.
What a Democratic Congress could still do
Executive power has limits, and the reporting is clear about them. Control of the Senate would let Democrats 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. Democrats could refuse to pass Trump-backed legislation, though Trump could veto their bills in return and they are unlikely to hold the two-thirds majorities needed to override him — the same two-thirds bar that protects Trump's repeated national-emergency declarations from being ended by Congress. Courts could also block executive actions that exceed the president's legal authority, which is why the White House plans to seek Justice Department legal opinions in advance, one of the people said.
What is solid
- The planning exists and has run since April, according to a White House official and two people familiar with it who spoke to Reuters
- Democrats need a net gain of four House seats; Republicans hold the House 218–214 and the Senate 53–47
- Tariffs on critical minerals and wind turbines, tighter student and temporary-worker visa rules, and housing-cost measures are among the actions under consideration, per the official
What is only claimed
- Whether Democrats will actually win the House, the Senate, or either — polls favour them in the House and call the Senate too close
- How far executive authority can legally go on each item — that would be decided in court, case by case
- Whether the White House would use the full playbook or only parts of it
The one thing executive action cannot sidestep: 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 presidential power to benefit himself, his allies or donors. Trump aides have been preparing for that prospect for months, all three sources said: White House lawyers have briefed political appointees and agency leaders on how to handle congressional inquiries, document requests and subpoenas, advised officials to be careful about what they put in writing, and sought a Justice Department opinion that could let Trump invoke executive privilege to shield communications with private advisers, one person said. The background, as analyst Nathan Gonzales of the nonpartisan Inside Elections put it: “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.” Since returning to office in January 2025 Trump has used executive authority to impose sweeping tariffs, intensify immigration enforcement and shrink the federal workforce; the major exception was his tax and spending package, which needed — and got — a Republican Congress in July 2025.
What happens next
Everything turns on Tuesday, November 3. If Republicans hold both chambers, the playbook stays in a drawer and the administration keeps legislating with its own majorities. If Democrats take the House, the Senate, or both, the preparations described by Reuters' sources become the operating plan for 2027: executive actions on trade, visas, housing and spending, defended in court with pre-sought Justice Department opinions, while Democratic committees open the investigations the White House has been rehearsing its officials to face. A separate Reuters analysis the same morning noted the parallel fight over trade: Democrats are expected to stage tariff rollback votes, including on the duties on Canada, but Trump's veto means the tariffs themselves would survive anything short of a two-thirds override.