Trump now has a dilemma. That is, he has a dilemma if he is in control of his own thought processes. Voters in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, California, and elsewhere have defeated him at every turn. What does he do now?

Does he say “I better change my ways to give my party a better result in the 2026 midterms?”, or does he say “Screw the bastards. Full speed ahead”?

With Prop 50 passing in California, and with the possibility of similar legislation passing in New York State, the redistricting already accomplished in Texas may have started as series of changes that will hurt, not help, the Republicans. It may make a Democratic House majority more likely for Trump’s last two years. Can Trump do anything to change that?

Of course, Trump does still have the Supreme Court behind him and, unless something changes, the Court will continue to exert more power than any other president has attempted to wield. And Trump still has a lot of control over US foreign policy. We will see if the Court will allow him to continue to exert dictatorial policy over tariffs, as the next test.

And then there’s the shutdown and, related to it, whether some Republican members of Congress will decide that unbroken fealty may not be in their interests.

On the other side, how will the Democrats capitalize on their victories? This may be a harder question to answer. And what will New York City under Mamdani look like?

There will be tremendous Republican focus on Mamdani. He will be attacked in all ways, and the Trump team has talked about punishing the city, although this may be politically unadvisable.

I did a quick look at voting patterns in the city. White New Yorkers voted strongly for Cuomo. Black, Hispanic, Asian and other minority groups for Mamdani. This will put a lot of pressure on the new mayor, and we will see how he handles it.

In conclusion? There really is no conclusion yet. And much of what happens will be up to the Democrats, not Trump. If the Democrats can prove themselves to be a big tent party and keep themselves from being targeted as crazy, far left Communists, they should do just fine next year. If Trump and the Republicans continue to act as they have been, they should do terribly. But we have a long way to go, and it’s not going to be fun.