Democrats may have ridden a blue wave into reclaiming control of Congress in the midterm elections, but one senior figure within the party is issuing a clear warning.
Even as President Donald Trump has pledged to become the “Mr. Veto,” Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren argues that Democrats must deliver for voters regardless of the obstacles.
Warren concurred in a talk with The New York Times that Trump can indeed veto anything he wishes, yet she stressed there are areas where both parties can agree. She pointed to potential common ground on ending private equity’s outsized influence on housing and placing caps on credit card fees.
“If Democrats don’t deliver — or at least appear to be trying — it will be exceedingly hard to persuade the American people to put us in charge again,” Warren told the Times.
Two days before the midterms on Nov. 1, Trump told Fox News that he would use his veto power to compel Democrats to the negotiating table if they gained control of Congress. He also noted that he had faced a similar scenario when Republicans lost the House in 2019.
“Well, if that happens, I guess I’ll become Mr. Veto … and then at some point we’ll probably make deals. That’s what happened. I mean this is, this wouldn’t be the first time,” Trump said bluntly.
“You’ll have a president and you won’t have the House or the Senate. They’ll be sending stuff up. You veto it and eventually after a month or two of getting all vetoed … they come over and you make a deal. I think that probably would happen,” the president added, appearing to cling to hope that poll numbers and public sentiment weren’t as grim as projected.
But the reality proved otherwise.
After the election, as the scale of Republicans’ losses became clearer, Trump posted on social media a photo of his red MAGA cap with the word “VETO” emblazoned across it.
And again, on Sunday, Nov. 8, following what was one of the GOP’s most crushing electoral defeats in decades, Trump reiterated his vow to use veto power to constrain Democrats.
In an interview on the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast, he repeated the threats and said he expected to issue vetoes for “a month or two” before reaching agreements with Democrats, The Independent reported.
“I guess I’ll become Mr. Veto,” he told the Post before adding, “And then at some point, we’ll probably make deals.”
Trump can veto as many bills as he wishes, but a two-thirds majority in both chambers would be enough to override a presidential veto and pass the measure into law.
Yet Warren—who ran in the 2020 presidential race—argues that Democrats should not permit Trump’s threats of “Mr. Veto” to derail their agenda or policies. And they should not delay in hopes of winning the presidency in 2028.
“It would be a tremendous breach of faith with Americans if Democrats spend the next few years railing against Trump and waiting for some future Democratic trifecta before we deliver real change,” she told the Times.
She also said the party must call out Trump and push him to take a stand on proposals that also enjoy GOP backing.
“He claims he wants to lower costs, then let’s put a lot of proposals in front of him,” she said. Some of those could include raising the federal minimum wage, banning AI surveillance pricing and prohibiting stock trading among members of Congress, the Times reported.
The president did show a touch of conciliatory tone right after the election, when Democrats flipped as many as seven Senate seats and more than 40 House seats.
“I’ll get along, probably, with the Democrats, unless they want to be destructive,” Trump told reporters last week, according to PBS.
But after the release of the first promising jobs report in months, Trump attacked Democrats once again.
“Democrats may control Congress, but I will NEVER stop fighting for you, and I will veto anything that hurts America,” he told his supporters in a text message, the outlet reported.
Experts say that Democrats received a clear mandate from voters: lower inflation and lower prices. In other words, address the affordability crisis affecting so many Americans.
