The midterms may wrest Congress from Trump. What does he want until then?

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump may have only a year left with a Republican-controlled Congress.

But it's anyone's guess exactly what he wants to do with it – and what's possible with a razor-thin majority – especially if he wants to keep the Senate and House of Representatives in the GOP's hands after the midterm elections in November.

Codifying his global tariffs, for instance, in the wake of a bruising Supreme Court defeat likely isn't on the table. Even after Neil Gorsuch, a conservative justice he appointed to the court, scolded him to respect congressional authority over the issue, he told lawmakers during his State of the Union address on Feb. 24 he wouldn't need their help.

"Congressional action will not be necessary" to keep tariffs in place, he said to a chamber packed with Republicans and sparingly few Democrats.

If the speech were any indication, Trump may not feel he needs Congress over the coming year to prevent a potential Democratic takeover of Capitol Hill from derailing the rest of his second term.

Through executive orders and regulatory actions, Trump said he's already making efforts on his own to do things like bringing down prescription drug costs. He had spare requests of the legislative branch – though he did ask them to pass a voter ID law known as the SAVE Act, and to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down for nearly a dozen days amid an impasse over reforming federal immigration enforcement.

He also called for housing reform, a ban on stock trading by members of Congress and a crackdown on driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.

Yet none of Trump's entreaties included specifically passing another massive domestic policy law similar to his so-called "One, Big Beautiful Bill Act" from last summer.

Instead, the president largely used arguably the biggest stage he'll have this year – before voters will cast ballots that, unlike in 2024, won't have his name on them – to implore Americans to look at what his Republican colleagues have already done for them.

“Our Republican majorities delivered so beautifully," Trump said.

It was a reflection of several political realities: For one thing, the GOP is only holding onto full control of the legislative branch by vanishingly few seats and facing long odds in the upcoming elections given historical trends.

And for another, Trump has repeatedly treated Congress as an obstacle to bulldoze, rather than a coequal branch of government necessary for the success of his administration.

Even if Trump himself didn't outline an ambitious vision for Capitol Hill in 2026, the ticking clock before November isn't lost on members of his own Cabinet. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told NBC News after the speech that the policy vehicle for securing improved retirement accounts for more Americans would be through Congress.

“We can do it through reconciliation,” Bessent said, referring to the same budget process that passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

Republican congressional leaders are already keeping a wary eye on the political calendar. That's part of why Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, hasn't yet fully bowed to White House pressure to pass the SAVE Act, which would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote. With a 60-vote threshold standing in the way of the legislation's success, some lawmakers have floated a plan to revive an old tool known as the talking filibuster to get around Senate rules.

That could allow lawmakers to debate for weeks on end, eating up precious time, Thune warned earlier this month.

"The coin of the realm in the Senate is floor time," he told reporters. "There’s a finite amount of it. And we have a lot of things we have to do."

Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.