(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Trump’s Seven-Month Itch: What Will He Do To Save The Marriage? [1] ['Alice Giordano', 'View Profile', 'News Corpse', 'Chitown Kev', 'Greg Dworkin'] Date: 2026-05-05 (Hint: It won’t be a Ronald Reagan kind of moment nor probably an FDR one) By Alice Giordano It’s May, meaning mid term elections are now just seven months away. That means, just like the seven-year itch post-honeymoon theorem, the marriage between President Donald Trump and the voters who put his elected allies in office are about to be put to the test. Talks of tidal wave-sized changes to America’s political landscape, embellished with the oft-referenced dramatized predictions of “a blood bath” suggests America is in for some unprecedented times. In actuality, Donald Trump is far from the first president facing down the barrel of a shotgun midterm election that could blast his subjugation over Congress into oblivion. In fact, it’s historically common. But what may very well make this one epic is just how far Trump will go with MAGA’s dictionary of New Age euphemisms, already used, for example, to convert feminism into anti-woman predilections. And not that he’d be the first president to take a hostile counter approach to mid-term flips. Richard Nixon punished his newly-minted Democratic House and Senate by refusing to allocate money to fund any of their programs. Of course, like most impunities, a few bad apples always incite sweeping new laws as was the case with Nixon’s presidential obstruction leading to the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act (ICA). The 1974-enacted legislation outlawed the executive branch from withholding money already appropriated by Congress. Future presidents relented to the federal law, but not Trump, making it a foreseeable ballast of his to a potential Congressional requisition by Democrats. No sooner was his red cap dominion brimming with wallowing victory when Trump racked up a myriad of allegations of violating the half-century old law. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found Trump violated the ICA by withholding already approved FEMA emergency funds, aid to Ukraine, and his administration in the indefatigable controversy over DOGE’s quest to eliminate government fraud. Globally, Trump has also used other warfaring recissions against uncooperative countries, namely a threat of tariffs, the stratagem behind impoundment control, only in reverse. The tantrum-laced slashing of $11 million to a Catholic charity to indirectly “impound” the Pope’s influences, all for daring to call for peace as the head of a church, should be a hint of what could come post-mid term elections when (and if) Democrats win their power back. Because sadly so far, the current Administration seems to have adopted a surgical approach to maintaining power — exhibiting a willingness to cut off the noses of the populace’s face out of pure spite. Judging by the record-high number of voters who now identify as independents, it’s safe to say what the country really needs is a leader who puts their ego aside and puts the needs of the citizenry first, ala Ronald Reagan who pragmatically put his conservatism aside and worked with Democrats who controlled the House during his entire administration and also the Senate in his second term. The end results were unifying for the nation. It essentially saved Social Security and created tax reforms with across the board benefits to the classes. In defying the norm, Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) historically thwarted a midterm power conversion of Congress to Republicans, going on to become the only president to win four terms — something Trump would no question like to do himself. Aside from his age, standing in his way is the 1951 ratification of the Twenty Second Amendment that restricts the president to two terms. But slipping approval ratings even among the most conservative wing of party voters suggest that he would have to do far more than stay healthy and constitutionally amend his way into the West Wing for a third term. That leaves him with, come November, a little more than two years to successfully goldenize America and the abounding world in the way he alone sees fit. It’s by the very least reasonable conjecture that Trump is unlikely to take the high road paved by his predecessors like FDR to accomplish that. To boot, although FDR had expressed disdain for rank-and-file Republicans, the New Deal President brought a handful of Republicans into his Administration to woo constituents of the opposition party. It’s likely Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain as the only token Democrat in Trump’s cabinet. In further handshake politics, Roosevelt advanced friendly consumer and labor laws by stepping up the use of the Sherman AntiTrust Act against greedy monopolies and establishing the consumer-friendly “Square Deal” aimed at building trust between the government and the people they represent. These days “We The People” seems to be nothing more than akin to the Once Upon Time fairytale preamble than the exordium to our Constitution. If the Republicans were to lose control of Congress, of course, it would be unreasonable — not — to expect Trump to exercise the proverbial midnight rules and executive powers in the 11th hour toolbox of the presidency. Even the prince of the Democratic Party Barack Obama did. Emergency powers, a red phone option his adherents are already preemptively urging Trump to use post-midterms, on the other hand, may see action like U.S. voters have never seen before. If that happens, keep an eye out for a new euphemism for grassroots governance. (Hint: rump state but with the capital letter “T.”) Alice Giordano is a former reporter for The Boston Globe, The Associated Press, a former commentator for Newsweek’s Voices of the Day, and political correspondent for The Epoch Times. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/5/800033880/community/trumps-seven-month-itch-what-will-he-do-to-save-the-marriage-2/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/