PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Trump is gearing up for a bloody, partisan brawl with Congress during his final two years in office.
He spent the weekend huddling with his closest advisers at Mar-a-Lago, plotting a strategy for what is shaping up to be a vicious showdown with Democrats who are preparing to pounce.
Party leaders said on Sunday they will subpoena Mr. Trump’s administration and family and impeach members of the president’s cabinet when they take control of the House and Senate in January.
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“If you’ve got folks out there who’ve been short-changing the American people, screwing over the American people, or stealing from the American people, then they need to be held accountable in a manner consistent with Congress’ role, constitutionally, as a separate and co-equal branch of government and a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is poised to become speaker, said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Mr. Trump moved quickly following his party’s election wipeout. He reset his staff with big changes at the top — moves that suggest he is ready for a nasty fight.
He ousted White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and replaced her with Stephen Miller, one of his most incendiary aides and mastermind of the America First agenda as well as the administration’s aggressive illegal immigrant deportation program.
Mr. Miller is a longtime and trusted confidante who has proven himself unafraid to organize, execute and promote some of Mr. Trump’s most polarizing policies.
In addition to the deportation blitz, Mr. Miller oversaw the rollback of federal diversity policies, the bid to take over Greenland, and the military strikes against suspected “narco-terrorist” boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Mr. Miller spent the weekend hunkered down with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
The president told reporters that Mr. Miller was a “very good manager,” and the right person to take over the position.
“Stephen has been with me from the beginning,” Mr. Trump said. “He gets it, very good politically, and he’s a very good man. He’ll do a great job.”
Mr. Miller pledged his “absolute loyalty” to Mr. Trump while on stage at the conservative CPAC event held at Mar-a-Lago Saturday. He credited the president for saving the United States and its military.
“We need to stand with the man who has stood with us and this country with every fiber of our being,” Mr. Miller told the CPAC crowd.
Mr. Trump pushed back against threats from Democrats.
He ordered Attorney General Todd Blanche to launch an immediate investigation into Democratic lawmakers.
The president believes Democrats broke the law following the election by threatening to use their majority to punish Republicans, GOP donors and Big Tech CEOs who have worked with him.
“This is extortion at the highest level, and they should be held accountable for this,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Blanche said on “Fox News Sunday” that the Trump administration will not “tolerate” threats from Democrats against Republican lawmakers but stopped short of pledging a Justice Department investigation called for by the president.
“It is important that they exercise oversight responsibly. They are not allowed to just go around threatening existing members of the administration, to just go around threatening companies. And that is what President Trump is extremely worried about, and he should be,” Mr. Blanche said.
Democrats plan to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and are discussing attempts to oust additional cabinet members, including Mr. Blanche and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont socialist who will head the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he is “absolutely open” to impeaching Mr. Kennedy, who has angered Democrats over his position on some vaccines.
Mr. Sanders accused Mr. Kennedy of endorsing “crazy conspiracy theories.”
Democrats said they plan to block or reverse much of Mr. Trump’s agenda.
Mr. Jeffries said House Democrats will move to stop the Iran war, end Mr. Trump’s slate of tariffs, reverse the reductions and expanded work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps and reimplement the expired, Biden-era subsidies for Obamacare.
“And hopefully we’ll see some courage by a few of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work on these issues to get things done,” Mr. Jeffries said.
Mr. Trump, meanwhile, is dusting off his veto pen.
The president posted an image on Truth Social over the weekend of a red MAGA-style baseball cap emblazoned with “VETO” in white letters, indicating his plans for any Democratic legislation that reaches his desk.
Mr. Trump said in a video on Truth Social that he will get along with Democrats as much as possible, and that the two parties working together “could be very productive.”
Mr. Trump said if “bad or foolish ideas come in, we’ll veto.”
The president told CBS’s “60 Minutes” in a taped interview that aired Sunday night he would even tone down his rhetoric to get big deals done with the new Congress.
Mr. Trump said he could “very easily” refrain from using insulting nicknames for Democrats if it would help pass legislation he supports.
Democrats are projected to win more than 250 seats in the House, which would give the party a 30-plus seat majority. In the Senate, Democrats will have at least a four-seat majority.
The House can easily pass legislation but it likely won’t go far. Thanks to the Senate filibuster, Democrats will need support from up to six Republicans to pass most legislation, depending on who wins the yet-uncalled races in Alaska and Mississippi.
Mr. Trump can easily block a bill he opposes that reaches his desk. It takes 67 votes in the Senate and 290 in the House to override a presidential veto.
The numbers put much of the far-left Democratic wish list, including a Medicare for All proposal, out of reach in divided government.
Mr. Trump over the weekend offered UFC CEO Dana White the job of press secretary, describing him as a “violent fighter and warrior,” although it was unclear if Mr. Trump was trolling his followers as he’s done in the past. Mr. White reportedly declined.
• Susan Ferrechio reported from Boston.
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