In his last interview before voters had their turn, President Trump said he regretted using a harsh tone during much of his first two years.
“I would like to have a much softer tone,” he told the Sinclair Broadcasting Group.
“I would love to get along, and I think after the election, a lot of things can happen.”
Is he promising a Trump 2.0, a softer, kinder Donald Trump? We’re about to find out.
He made those remarks knowing that Democrats were likely to take the House. Because they did, his commitment to a softer tone surely will be tested.
With so many top Democrats vowing to use their new powers to torture the president with subpoenas and investigations, and then impeach him, the man who describes himself as a great counterpuncher will find it difficult not to take the bait. But it may be the only way he can get anything done in the next two years and then win his own re-election in 2020.
Midterms are generally referendums on the policies of the president, but it’s more accurate to say that Tuesday was a referendum on the president’s tone. With the economy booming and middle-class incomes rising, and with no new wars in sight, a case can be made that Trump’s policies alone deserved a better outcome than the split decision he got.
But Dems and their media handmaidens never got over Trump’s election in 2016, and no president in modern times has been subjected to such a daily barrage of vile attacks and outrageous insults.
Trump gave just about as good as he got, and sometimes was gratuitous in punching down. Yet his rough tone also had its advantages, and he taught the Republican Party how to fight back.
Had he not, Brett Kavanaugh would have been hounded out of public life instead of sitting on the Supreme Court as one of five constitutional conservatives.
And Trump can also claim credit for the fact that Tuesday delivered some good news, too, with the GOP expanding its Senate margin and winning important gubernatorial races in Ohio and Florida.
While the results were not the vindication he wanted, neither were they the Blue Wave pollsters had predicted.
Yet there is no denying that a Democratic House is a very big deal in Washington, and Nancy Pelosi was quick to crow about her party being back in power. “Tomorrow will be a new day in America,” she declared.
While it’s not clear that Pelosi will be elected speaker again — her disjointed, word-salad victory speech would be hard to distinguish from a skit on “Saturday Night Live” — it seems certain that many Dems can’t wait to use their gavels to hammer Trump.
Those who will chair major committees, such as Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and Maxine Waters, have made no secret of the fact that they are out for revenge. So Pelosi can talk platitudes about “bringing us together because we’ve all had enough of division,” but even if she is sincere, she may be alone.
It is also likely that we will now get a better idea of what special counsel Robert Mueller is up to. Assuming he makes public a report of his findings, the House Dems will use it as a roadmap for their probes.
Still, the president holds his fate in his own hands. He has proven himself to be a very skilled politician with extraordinary stamina, and the crowds he drew on the stump in recent weeks were striking for their size and enthusiasm. He is still the straw that stirs the drink.
Of course, he stirs it for both teams, so his challenge now is to try to make the new reality his friend. His deal-making skills have gone unused because Dems decided that, as long as they were in the minority, resistance was the better route.
That strategy yielded results, but their tendency to overplay their hand in their fits of rage could undo them again. If they investigate at the expense of legislating and refuse to bargain in good faith over such issues as immigration and infrastructure, they will offer voters a stark contrast for 2020.
Which is why a cooler Trump could be just the ticket to lower the too-hot political temperature.
Trump 2.0 can make deals with the Dems, if they are inclined, or he can let them make fools of themselves. Either way, he will be the grownup in the room.
Wouldn’t that be a kick?