A red hat stamped with a single word has become President Donald Trump’s answer to the Democrats who just took Congress.
Trump promised to veto legislation he called “insane” after Democrats seized control of both the House and the Senate in midterm elections held Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, making the pledge by phone to Fox News during the network’s live election-night coverage, “FOX News Democracy 26.”
“They’ll send over things that are insane, and I’ll veto them,” Trump said.
Late Tuesday night, he posted an image on Truth Social of a red hat stamped with the word “Veto.” The same cap sat on the Resolute Desk on Thursday, Nov. 5, during an Oval Office signing ceremony.
Trump refused to describe the night as a loss. “I don’t like to consider it a defeat,” he said. He predicted that after a couple of months of vetoes, Democrats would start asking how to get things done and the two sides would work together.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York insisted Democrats will push their agenda with or without the Republican president’s help. Schumer said he believes Democrats can gain some Republican votes on restoring enhanced subsidies for ACA plans.
Several Democratic lawmakers have already reached out to him, Trump said. He said the number of races Democrats won somewhat surprised him, that he has maintained friendships across the aisle, and that he would give no ground on border policy and transgender ideology. The results are not prompting a Cabinet change, he added.
Republicans Brace for a Hegseth Vote
The House could vote as early as the week of Nov. 9 on a resolution to impeach Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky forced the resolution, accusing Hegseth of defying Congress and illegally continuing the war against Iran. Republican leaders are bracing for enough of their own members to back it for passage.
“I have every intention to keep him,” Trump said Thursday, Nov. 5. He said he had confidence in Hegseth in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview scheduled to air in full Sunday night, Nov. 8. In the same interview, Trump acknowledged receiving calls from people unhappy with his defense secretary and conceded that confirming a replacement would be easier now, while Republicans still control the Senate.
He Blames the Gasoline Price
Trump pinned the Republican losses on the pump rather than the fighting. “I don’t think it’s the war, Bret, I think it’s the gasoline price,” he told Bret Baier of Fox News.
He traced part of the losses to Iran all the same, and argued that voters grasped why he acted. Many Americans largely backed the war but balked at paying more at the pump, he said. Trump defended the decision as the only way to keep the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and he said his Tehran policy mattered historically more than the night’s results.
Trump praised Democrats, who he said fought hard, did a good job and have been fighting him for a very long time. Some candidates he endorsed alienated his base by opposing him, he said, and he argued that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lost to a Democrat because Abbott had behaved less like a conservative in recent months. Republicans would have won in a landslide with his own name on the ballot, Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Vice President JD Vance pointed at the war. “The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in a post. Donald Trump Jr. shared it and said he agreed with every word.
House Democrats’ numbers will exceed 250 in the 435-member House. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, in line to become speaker, said early votes after the Jan. 3 swearing-in would focus on Medicaid, restoring enhanced ACA subsidies, stopping the war with Iran and reversing Trump tariffs. “We’re going to get out of the gate fast,” Jeffries said.
Why Overriding Him Takes 290 Votes
Article I, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution gives the president the power to reject bills passed by Congress. Lawmakers can override a veto only with two-thirds of members voting in each chamber — 290 votes if all 435 House members cast ballots, 67 if all 100 senators do. The chamber where a bill originated votes first, and if the override fails there, the other chamber never takes it up.
A quieter route runs around the signing pen. A bill that Trump neither signs nor returns within 10 days, excluding Sundays, becomes law without his signature.
The veto pen does not touch the new majorities’ power over congressional investigations, government oversight, federal spending and Senate confirmations. Trump keeps his executive authority over trade, foreign policy and the federal bureaucracy, along with executive orders.
Collins and Paxton Both Lose
Democrats flipped at least seven Republican-held Senate seats. Troy Jackson beat Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, and James Talarico beat Ken Paxton in Texas, where Democrat Gina Hinojosa unseated Abbott in the governor’s race. Abdul El-Sayed won the Michigan Senate race and will be the nation’s first Muslim senator. Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Georgia governor’s race and will be the state’s first Black governor and its first woman governor.
Democrats will hold at least 54 seats when the new Senate takes office Jan. 3. Two more Republican-held seats remained too close to call as of Friday, Nov. 6. Democrat Scott Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi by more than 2,500 votes, and Democrat Mary Peltola narrowly led Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska, where ranked-choice tabulation is set for Nov. 18.
Elon Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars backing Republican congressional candidates. Florida Gov.-elect Byron Donalds was among the Republicans who did win, and he will be his state’s first Black governor.
In Tehran, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Americans had “said NO TO WAR.”
Trump said House Speaker Mike Johnson “has done a very good job,” stopping short of fully endorsing him to keep leading House Republicans. The next day, Wednesday, Nov. 4, Johnson said he would step aside as the top House Republican in the new Congress.