Victor Davis Hanson: What Trump Must Do After the Midterm Losses

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes.

Victor Davis Hanson: I will say something, though, also about the midterms very quickly. Yes, what can he do now and what can he not do? There are no judicial appointments. If it was a reasonable Democratic opposition, maybe a lower court judge, district or circuit, they might approve. But he would have to appoint somebody antithetical to the whole MAGA movement for them to get … 

So they have veto power now. They run the Senate. He’s going to have to push judges through in the next November, December. I think the Congress is sworn in in early January. So they’ve only got two months. They’ve got to get about 100 judges, but how can they do it with Lisa Murkowski and people? They have to get 51 senators; you know what I mean, to get it through. 

So that’s one thing they’re not going to be able to do next year. And Cabinet members, if they want to fire a Cabinet member, they better do it right now because they have to be approved. And they better go talk to Congress a lot more than they have in the past to see if there’s a vote there before you fire someone. 

But after that, all he has to do is say, “Well, we took a shellacking,” in the words of Barack Obama. “Oh, we got our blank kicked,” in the words of Bill Clinton. “Oh, we got a thumping,” in the words of George W. Bush. However, Bill Clinton said, “Well, you know, I balanced the budget two years. I’m going to balance the budget again. If I have to work with [Newt] Gingrich, I’ll work with Gingrich.” 

And he did. And then he said, “You know, Europeans, [Slobodan] Milosevic is killing people in Kosovo. We’re going to go help a little bit.” 

Well, he turned out doing 85% of the missions without congressional authority. He bombed for 77 days. He hit bridges in the suburbs or the approaches to Belgrade. He hit the power grid. And he was a lame-duck president with a Republican Congress. 

And then there was Obama. And he said, “Well, I’m going to get a pen and phone.” Remember that? Pen and phone. “And I’ll just do executive orders. And I’m sitting here with pen and phone.” 

And then he got together with Ben Rhodes and the rest of that crowd, John Kerry, and he said, “I’m a constitutional lawyer, but I’m not a constitutional lawyer the next two years. So you know what we’re going to do? We’re going to go do an Iran deal. We’re going to give them $400 million at night. We’re going to lift the sanctions on all of their creepy subordinates, and we’re going to have the Iran deal.” 

And they did it. And everybody said, “Well, that’s a treaty. He has to have at least two-thirds, or maybe it’s 60 votes, depending on what the new rule is in the Senate.” 

It should be two-thirds. And they didn’t do it. 

And then he said, “Oh, you know, we got to have a green climate accord. We’re gonna go to the Paris Climate Accord and  sign it away, and we’ll have a new Green Deal.” 

And everybody said, “Well, how about China? They’re cheating. They build two coal plants a month.” 

“Oh, yeah, I’m president. I own executive.” 

And he did that. 

And then he said, I’m gonna … We’ve been too mean to the Castro brothers. We’re gonna recognize Cuba.” 

“What? They’re a communist thugocracy.” 

“Oh, no, we’re gonna have tourism and everything. They’ll come around.” 

So he did all of that. And then he not only did all of that, he said, “John Brennan, James Clapper, Comey, come on in this office. Now, I told you to find dirt on Donald Trump, that he’s with the Russians, and you didn’t find it. Now you go back out there and get me some stuff that I can, that I can work on. And Susan,” Susan Rice, “you write her an email and record this that it would … We didn’t do this. Just write an email to yourself, send it to yourself. Everything that happened during this meeting was according to protocol and the law.” 

And that’s what he did. He was unbound. 

So Donald Trump foreign policy, they’re not gonna cut off. They don’t have the votes to cut off. They don’t have 60 votes. He can do what he wants to do in Iran that what must be done quickly, efficiently, so they don’t have a bomb, and then we need to get out of there, and we need to keep the Strait open. 

And then he can deal with [Vladimir] Putin on Ukraine deal. 

And I can tell you one thing: If by some hook and crook they denuclearize Iran, and within 18 months that regime is squeezed so it falls, and there’s a peace in Ukraine, he will be, go out of office popular. 

And by the way, lowest time, what was the lowest rating for Obama? 37%, just where Trump, lower than Trump is today. And what was, Clinton? 38%. What did Clinton go out of office at? Almost 70%. And what did Obama go out? 60%. 

So if he wants to follow a paradigm where he will be very popular, then all he has to do is, A, use executive orders to get his conservative message where possible done. 

Two, get them denuclearized and get out of Iran with the oil price low and the Strait open. Work for a peace in Ukraine. That’s what he has to do. And he will go out. 

And then you know what happens? He’s so absorbed with these things he’s doing, he doesn’t get into the fray. No Bill Maher stuff. 

Obama, as I keep saying to people, the more you didn’t see him or hear him, the more you liked him. He got up 60% because he just played golf, and then he did it by executive order. 

And then the other thing is the election’s gonna heat up, and there’s going to be … it’s gonna be in six months they’re gonna start. 

Sami: Yes.  

Victor Davis Hanson: Well, what I’m saying is not only will he be able, with a free hand in foreign policy, and not only will he [issue] executive orders, there’s only two limitations on him. 

Number one, no judges after Jan. 3 will be nominated, no Cabinet member. But he can get them through now if he hurries, ’cause he has a Senate majority still. 

And number two, he will have 45 seats probably, 44. They want 40, so they have 60 to override a veto. He’s got to go mend fences with Murkowski and some of the RINOs so that they don’t bolt. 

He needs all 45 of those people to support him so that when he has a veto and they vote to override, they only get 57 or 55 or 58, but they do not get 60. 

If he gets, we don’t know some of the races, if he gets up to 58 or 59, you’ve got people like Murkowski and a couple of others, you’re in trouble. 

So he has to have discipline. And [John] Thune, the majority leader, if he’s still the leader, he’ll be a minority leader, but he will have to be ironclad about that. 

But then the other thing is Donald Trump declared his candidacy for presidency on Nov. 15, 2022. It is now Nov. 4. 

In 18 days, we might have a candidate do the same and declare his candidacy right now and then have the rest of 2026 and all of ’27 before the primaries of ’28. 

So what I’m getting at is, if you look what also Obama and Clinton did besides dissing themselves and executive orders and doing a free hand in foreign policy and not getting into squabbles. You’re gonna see the most bitter campaign. 

I can remember when Al Gore said, “I don’t want Bill Clinton on. He’s marred with …” 

That was the stupidest thing you could ever do. He was 65% approval rating because of the impeachment, and he just … 

And Clinton said, “OK, I’m not gonna be on the stump. I’m gonna be working with bipartisan and working across the aisle with, you know, Newt Gingrich and the two of us. We’re gonna get another third and fourth year of a surplus. And you know what’s gonna happen? We’re gonna have a problem because pretty soon the debt’s gone, and we don’t know what’s happening when all that money piles up.” 

And that was a winning thing. But he didn’t get involved, and then George W. Bush and Gore went at it, and everybody said, “Oh, I wish politics wasn’t so mean.” 

And Clinton said, “I’m not involved. I’m not involved. They don’t want me.” 

And then same thing with, Barack Obama. They, as soon as it was Trump versus … Trump won very quickly, and it was Trump versus Hillary, archenemies, both controversial people, and they fought it out. 

Russian collusion, the secure server, dumping the email. It was a mess. 

And Barack Obama, “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to any of them. Don’t know what’s happening.” 

And everybody said, “Well, look at Obama. Look at what Clinton. They’re not involved in this rough-and-tumble dirty—” 

So Trump, it’ll be dirty, but he doesn’t have to get into it, and people will see Trump as a statesman. 

He’s working on Ukraine. He’s working to make sure that Iran is done with nuclear projects. He’s going to try to liberate Cuba. He’s got too much on his mind to get into another campaign.  

Sami: Maybe he’s looking forward to golfing like Barack Obama did.  

Victor Davis Hanson: I hope so. 

Yeah, he’s a very good golfer, and he should. 

Sami: I have one question, though, a big one on the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America. They were saying before the election that if [Abdul] El-Sayed wins, then this will be bring AOC in as a presidential candidate. There’s that question I would like. 

But the other one is, how do you think it will be in the Democratic caucus with these new—with so many more DSA and so many more progressive- 

Victor Davis Hanson: So everybody remind you, we gave the symptoms of this disease and then we gave a diagnosis and said it had to do with the, the two … explained the economy, we explained the border, we explained the war andthe paradoxes of them. 

And then we came up with a diagnosis that this was … And then we talked about the therapy, the medicine. I just said what we should do. 

He’ll be a lame duck, but he will have problems. Speak softly, carry [a big stick]. 

And now we’re in our final cycle, and that is the prognosis of the patient. 

I don’t think, number one, you can address this size loss. It’s not like 2028, you’re gonna get back those seats. It’s too much. You’d have to have a tsunami in a non-midterm, and that’s very rare. 

So what I’m getting at is this is a very critical election in 2028 because I think they’re going to nominate what you just said, a very radical leftist, not Josh Shapiro, maybe the new commie, or he thinks he’s a communist or socialist, Newsom, but he could even be a Sayyed vice president or AOC. 

Or somebody even more radical. 

And so, what’s the outlook for that? That if they should win, they will have the Senate for sure and the House. Even if the Republicans pick up seats, [it’s not] gonna erase such a huge deficit. 

So what you’re talking about in 2028 is the first time in my life and many of the people listening’s lives where there is a real potential that in January of 2029, which is, you know, it’s only what, two year — a little over — It’s gonna be two years from now in January. 

You could see people say, “We’re gonna get rid of the Electoral College. We don’t really care about the Constitution, whether you have to get three-quarters to amend it. We’re gonna pack the court. There’s nothing that says we can’t. We want 15 new judges. We’re gonna get all left-wing and ram them through, and the court’s gonna be more liberal than the Warren Court. We’re going to bring in two states. I don’t like the idea that we have to have three-quarters of the states vote for that. Screw that. We have the power.” 

I think they’ll get rid of the filibuster, by the way, next year. The Republicans wouldn’t dare do that, but they will.  

And then they’re going to open the border, and they’re gonna stop all deportations. They’re going to defund ICE. 

They are probably going to war as Biden and … When Biden came into office, remember Harris and he said they were against fracking. They stopped new leases. And then they, for the midterms, they relented a little bit. But you’re gonna see windmills and solar panels and subsidies. 

And then they’re gonna go after people. They are going to go after Don Jr., all of associates, Eric, all of the Trump family. 

And what do I mean by that? Subpoena, subpoena, subpoena, investigation, investigation. And even if there’s nothing there, they’re going to say, you know, this is going to cost them a billion dollars in legal fees. They’re going to run out of cash when we get … 

They’ve already said that. They’ve said subpoena and lawfare. [Robert] Garcia has already said that. 

Sami: Well, Trump will pardon them, of course, before he leaves office.  

Victor Davis Hanson: Yes, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not going to pardon them from a subpoena. They’re still going to have show there, and they’re still going to have to spend a fortune. 

And then, in addition to that, they’re going to go after Elon Musk in Texas. The governor will go after him. [James] Talarico will go after him. They will call him in. They will … 

Robert Reich’s already talked about nationalizing his company. I think the AI data centers, which will give it the lead to China, are dead. They will ban those. 

And it’s going to be radical if they get elected. This is all predicated in 2028, if they elect … Because they’re going to have all branches of government by then. Because if they get elected, they will pack the court and they will have the presidency and they already have the House and Senate. 

And so that is scary, and that’s what they will try to do. 

Then the next question is, as you said, well, are they going to have an agenda? No, they’re not going to have an agenda. They had an agenda and nobody liked it. 

It was a 30% open the border. It was a 30% let’s let in 10,000 a day. It was a 30% let’s have drag shows on military bases. Let’s have trans women competing biologically as men in sports. Let’s say DEI runs the Pentagon and lose 50,000 volunteer [soldiers], let’s try to defund the police. 

Nobody wanted that, so that’s why they didn’t have an agenda. 

They never mentioned any of that in this election. 

Their election was two things. Donald Trump is Satan, and he caused your gas to be high while he bombed poor kids in Iran for nothing. 

That was it. 

Well, after that’s over and there is no Trump around, and I mean, he won’t be in the campaign. He won’t be out there. He’s not the candidate. He won’t be on the ballot, and the Iran war will be over, and gas — and I think the economy’s gonna boom. 

That’s gonna be another irony. You get all that foreign investment, the GDP growth, the inflation going down, cheap, cheap energy, it’s gonna go crazy, and they’re gonna try to take credit for it, even though it was Trump’s doing. 

But my point is, they don’t have an agenda. Their agenda will be pack the court and everybody said, “Well, they’re not stupid. They’re not gonna show they’re radical.” 

Well, did you hear El-Sayed victory speech? Tell everybody Mike Rogers and he, you know, and “Free Palestine, free Palestine.” 

You think Talarico’s suddenly gonna say, “Get me a Big Mac”? 

Is he suddenly gonna get his cowboy hat and his Ram and go visit an oil field? No. He is what he is for six years. 

Sami: Yes. 

Victor Davis Hanson: And they’re all going to do that. Is it wise for them to do it? No. They can’t help themselves. They’re socialists and Islamicists, and it’s gonna get ugly. 

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