‘I Have Seen the Enemy, and It Is Us’: Inside Team Trump's Historic Collapse  —  How an unpopular president and an unpopular war provided an opening for Democrats to make sweeping gains in the midterms.  —  President Trump at a campaign rally in Kalispell, Mont., last month.Doug Mills/The New York Times

Why Pete Hegseth could fall through “thin ice”  —  It's a de facto motto in the Trump White House: “Somebody's gotta take the fall.”  Lately, that person looks like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. … - “Hegseth is definitely on thin ice,” a Trump adviser told Axios.

Tucker Carlson Marks The ‘End Of The Trump Era’ In Devastating Midterms Postmortem  —  The ex-MAGA loyalist declared that there's “kind of no coming back” from the red wipeout “for a generation.”  —  Tucker Carlson — who joined Donald Trump on the final stretch of the campaign trail two years ago …

Vance takes a step toward 2028 in MAGA power play  —  Vice President Vance stepped out of President Trump's shadow Wednesday, seizing on the GOP's midterm catastrophe to begin the explosive task of claiming MAGA as his own.  — “The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote …

Republicans turn on Trump after devastating midterm losses hand Democrats control of Congress  —  Donor Dan Eberhart called it ‘a Trump loss’ as Democrats flipped seven Senate seats and 27 House seats on Election Night  —  Seismic political change is coming to Washington, D.C. …

Don't Be Fooled.  This Is What Trump Wanted.  —  Talk about a thumping.  After months of struggling to overcome brutal political fundamentals, most Republicans awoke Wednesday to the fresh pain of getting kicked to the curb by the American people, along with a fat dollop of dread about what comes next.

Justice Alito Will Not Retire Immediately, Despite Election Outcome  —  The conservative justice has told friends he does not plan to step down before the end of the court's term, even as Democrats are set to seize the Senate in January.  —  Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has told people close …

Trump defends Hegseth but acknowledges easier path to replacing him before new Congress  —  President Trump said Thursday morning he intends to keep Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in his current role but acknowledged it would be easier to confirm someone new to lead the Pentagon before Democrats take control of Congress next year.

On the Democrats' Agenda: Investigations of Trump and His Family  —  When a new Congress is sworn in, it will have the power to hold hearings and issue subpoenas, prompting one representative to advise White House officials and others to “lawyer up.”  —  A $1.4 billion cryptocurrency windfall.

Look in the mirror, President Trump, after Republicans' midterm rout  —  As we survey the wreckage of Republican political fortunes, it's clear what comes next.  Payback is the first priority of Democrats who want to use their victories to grind Republicans into the mud.

Anger over GOP education agenda helped fuel Democratic sweeps in Texas, advocates say  —  Before they flipped Texas blue, Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico made names for themselves fighting book bans, private school vouchers and restrictions on classroom instruction.