共和党针对选民在中期选举中对唐纳德·特朗普总统发出的惊人斥责，选择了一个反直觉的补救方案：更多的特朗普主义。
周二，众议院共和党会议选举了好斗的俄亥俄州众议员吉姆·乔丹，让他在下一年担任少数党领袖。此前几天，这位总统将宣扬“美国优先”的鼓动者斯蒂芬·米勒擢升为白宫幕僚长。
而即将成为历史的共和党众议院多数党在选举惨败后走出悲痛，全力保护国防部长皮特·赫格塞特——总统内阁中最具特朗普色彩的成员——使其免遭弹劾。
这些行为绝非一个试图为席卷全国的失利（包括在深红选区的挫败）赎罪的政党该有的举动。相反，共和党人的反抗似乎印证了即将卸任的众议院议长迈克·约翰逊周一的表态：“选民做出了错误的选择。”
除了特朗普，在MAGA政治中没有比乔丹和米勒更具对抗性的组合了。
乔丹是扰乱秩序的顶尖高手，在野时的效率可能甚至高于执政时期，他曾在多次国会听证会上以干脆利落的方式让证人“体面退场”，引发轩然大波。明年民主党启动调查攻势后，他将成为特朗普的第一道防线。
米勒是特朗普阵营中未经过滤的民族主义化身，将充分利用老板剩余的两年权力任期。
他们的高升释放出一个强烈信号：尽管选民上周拒绝了特朗普政策、表现和人格的多个方面，特朗普领导的共和党既不会悔改也不会退缩。
这不是一个寻求重塑自我的政党，而是想要战斗。
外界局外人或许会期待特朗普及其团队在“红墙”崩塌、众议院和参议院都输给民主党后，能有更多反思。诚然，若想扭转颓势、争取在2028年赢回国会并保住白宫，该党显然需要吸引更广泛的选民群体。
但革命很少会变得更温和。在失去中间选民后，特朗普可能现在只能依靠他最忠实的信徒。
周二，众议院共和党出人意料地团结一致，挫败了持不同政见的共和党众议员托马斯·马西弹劾赫格塞特的企图，这暴露了他在党内仍具强大的控制力。
保住赫格塞特的职位可能是对选民的一种冒犯：他是伊朗战争的主要策划者和鼓吹者，即便很多共和党选民也反对这场战争。
但在选举夜遭遇惨败一周后，这次投票为众议院共和党人注入了士气，特朗普在社交媒体上对此大加庆祝。
不过，民主党即将获得的巨大多数席位意味着，这很可能是这支已落败军队的后卫式胜利。“这不是结束，而是刚刚开始，”民主党众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯表示，他有望在明年就任议长。
民主党中期选举的胜利规模——目前参议院已获54个席位，还有两个席位结果待公布；众议院已获256个席位——意味着共和党要在2028年夺回权力面临艰巨任务。
因此，在选民已经反感特朗普路线的情况下，特朗普两年内仍坚持这条路似乎是糟糕的战略。
但新的共和党反映了这位总统的基因，他毕生的作风是在每次遭遇挫败后都强化抗争，且往往采取更极端的方式。
而且特朗普领导的共和党早已不再听取专家、温和派和建制派领导人关于下一步最佳行动的建议。2012年选举失利后，该党曾委托进行一项调查，分析其提名人为啥未能阻止巴拉克·奥巴马总统连任。研究发现，共和党需要扩大基础，吸引更多不同族裔、年轻和女性选民，才能赢回白宫。但结果截然相反：特朗普携其民粹主义、民族主义、反移民的强劲势头登场，重塑了古板的旧共和党，以自己的形象执掌权力。
从2026年选举灾难的废墟中崛起的乔丹和米勒，是这一转向（回归特朗普基本盘）的新版本。
乔丹的获胜也反映了政治现实。上周民主党的大胜摧毁了摇摆选区里最温和的共和党人。幸存者都来自最深红的选区，因此更加保守、也更支持特朗普。更小的共和党可能会因此更紧密地被特朗普掌控。
在新国会中，民主党将面临相反的局面——他们赢得了曾长期被认为无法企及的选区。其意识形态跨度如今要大得多：来自得克萨斯、堪萨斯和南卡罗来纳等红州的参议员，将凸显温和派民主党人与自由堡垒进步派之间的内部分歧。
尽管中期选举惨败，共和党基础拒绝温和化，最能说明这一点的是移民问题引发的激烈争议。此前特朗普在《60分钟》采访中似乎暗示，可能与新的民主党国会达成移民改革协议。国土安全部部长马克韦恩·马伦随后表示，该协议可能包括为早年被带到美国的无证移民——所谓的“追梦人”——提供永久合法身份。
MAGA社交媒体上的一片哗然，让人们担心特朗普正在背叛他最忠实的支持者。大多数美国人可能反对他告诉CBS记者可能做得太过火的苛刻移民打压。但基础选民不想退缩。
福克斯新闻明星劳拉·英格拉哈姆周一在她名为《错误的教训》的节目中警告反对“特赦”。到周二晚间，马伦在她的节目中坚称，移民和驱逐政策没有任何改变。
实际上，对于一个仍由特朗普掌控的政党来说，选举后调整路线总是不切实际的。关于后特朗普时代共和党可能如何调整的辩论，最好留给那些可能领导该党的人。上周，副总统JD·万斯（反对战争）和佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯（警告可能面临十年政治损害）在对共和党惨败的反应中，已经初步显现出这一进程的开端。
但就目前而言，特朗普、米勒、乔丹和赫格塞特的“秀”正在为最后一季做准备。这意味着2027年华盛顿将是多事之秋。
Republicans have chosen a counterintuitive remedy for voters’ stunning midterm election rebuke of President Donald Trump: more Trumpism.
The House GOP conference on Tuesday picked combative Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan to lead its minority next year, days after the president promoted Stephen Miller, the “America first” agitator, to serve as White House chief of staff.
And the soon-to-be extinct Republican House majority emerged from mourning the election debacle to save Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — the Trumpiest member of the president’s Cabinet — from impeachment.
These are hardly the actions of a party seeking to atone for sweeping national losses, including in deep-red territory. Rather the GOP’s defiance seems to animate the verdict of outgoing House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday: “The voters made the wrong choice.”
Aside from Trump, there’s no more pugilistic pair in MAGA politics than Jordan and Miller.
Jordan is a sharp-elbowed master of disruption who may be even more effective in opposition than in government, and who has sparked uproar in many a congressional hearing with his staccato defenestration of witnesses. He’ll be Trump’s first line of defense when the Democratic investigative blitz fires up next year.
Miller is the avatar of unfiltered nationalism in Trump’s base and will wring every second from his boss’s remaining two-year lease on power.
Their elevation sends a strong signal that there will be no contrition and no retreats in the Trump GOP just because voters rejected multiple aspects of Trump’s policies, performance and personality last week.
This is not a party looking for reinvention. It wants a fight.
An outsider might have expected more reflection from Trump and his team after his red wall crumbled and they lost the House and the Senate to Democrats. Surely, the party needs to appeal to a wider audience if it is to reverse its losses and have a chance of winning back Congress and retaining the White House in 2028?
But revolutions rarely get more moderate. And having lost the political middle, Trump may now be down to his truest believers.
His still-strong hold in his party was revealed on Tuesday when the House GOP surprisingly united to stave off dissident GOP Rep. Thomas Massie’s attempt to impeach Hegseth.
Saving Hegseth’s job may seem like an insult to voters: He is the primary planner of and cheerleader for the Iran war, which even many GOP voters hate.
But the vote was a morale boost for House Republicans a week after a devastating election night and was exuberantly celebrated by Trump on social media.
Still, massive incoming Democratic majorities mean this was likely a rearguard win by an already-defeated army. “This is not the end of it; it’s just the beginning,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is poised to become speaker in the new year.
The size of the Democrats’ midterm victory — they are up to 54 seats in the Senate with two undeclared, and 256 seats so far in the House — means Republicans have a massive task to win back power in 2028.
So two years of Trump doubling down on an approach that voters already hate seems like poor strategy.
But the new Republican Party reflects the DNA of a president who has spent a lifetime responding to every defeat by intensifying the fight, often on more extreme terms.
And the Trump GOP long ago stopped listening to pundits, moderates and establishment leaders regarding its smartest next steps. After the 2012 election, the party commissioned an autopsy on why its nominee, Mitt Romney, failed to thwart President Barack Obama’s reelection bid. The study found that the GOP needed to broaden its base to appeal to a more diverse base of nonwhite, young and female voters to win back the White House. But the opposite happened: Trump arrived, with his populist, nationalist, anti-immigration juggernaut and swept to power in a race that transformed the starchy old GOP in his image.
The rise of Jordan and Miller from the wreckage of the 2026 electoral catastrophe represents an updated version of this pivot, to Trump’s base.
Jordan’s victory also reflects political physics. The Democratic rout last week wiped out the most moderate Republicans in swing seats. Survivors are from the deepest-red districts and are therefore more conservative and more pro-Trump. The president might have an even tighter grip on a smaller GOP.
Democrats will face an opposite scenario in the new Congress after winning in areas long thought out of reach for their party. Their ideological span is now far wider — senators from red states like Texas, Kansas and South Carolina will highlight internal divides between centrist Democrats and progressives from liberal bastions.
The GOP base’s refusal to moderate despite a heavy midterms defeat is best illustrated by an intense controversy over immigration, after Trump seemed to hint in a “60 Minutes” interview at a potential deal on immigration reform with the new Democratic Congress. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin then suggested such an agreement could involve permanent legal status for undocumented migrants brought to the US as children — so-called Dreamers.
An explosion on MAGA social media raised the prospect that Trump was betraying his most loyal supporters. A majority of Americans might have rebelled against draconian immigration crackdowns that he told CBS may have gone too far. But the base wants no retreat.
Fox News star Laura Ingraham warned on her show Monday against “amnesty” in a segment entitled “Wrong Lessons.” By Tuesday evening, Mullin was on her program to insist nothing had changed in immigration and deportation policy.
In truth, it was always unrealistic for a party still controlled by Trump to course-correct after the election. A debate over the potential repositioning of the GOP in the post-Trump era is best left to those who might lead it. First hints of that process could be seen last week in reactions to the GOP wipeout by Vice President JD Vance, who repudiated the war, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who warned of a possible decade of political damage.
But for now, the Trump, Miller, Jordan and Hegseth show is gearing up for a final season. That means 2027 will be a tempestuous year in Washington.
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