By PHILLIP NIETO, US POLITICAL REPORTER and ROSS IBBETSON, ASSOCIATE EDITOR and ELINA SHIRAZI, US SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER
Donald Trump managed to conceal his rage for the cameras.
asserted
Trump → manage → cameras
Hours after Democrats seized both chambers of Congress in one of the most bruising midterm defeats in modern political history, the President called into Fox News late Tuesday night and did something totally out of character: He praised the opposition.
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He → seize → opposition
'Democrats did a good job,' he said.
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he → do → job
'They fought hard.'
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They → fight → ?
He told the New York Times he was absolutely willing to accept the result, and said he would rather cut deals with Democrats than spend his last two years in office vetoing their bills.
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he → tell → bills
By Wednesday morning, he was standing at the construction site of his new White House ballroom, taking questions with the air of a man discussing someone else's problem.
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he → stand → problem
He said, again, that he had not been on the ballot – even though he had asked voters to pretend he was – and that he had no plans to change his Cabinet because the result had nothing to do with them.
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result → say → them
But behind the ballroom bravado, Trump was working the phones – and he was looking for a scalp.
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he → work → scalp
After his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and even Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been named by GOP operatives hungry for a scapegoat, it seemed Trump – after just a few hours of sleep – had settled on a different name.
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Trump → name → name
Canvassing a handful of close advisers, he asked each of them whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should keep his job, a White House insider familiar with the President's phone calls told the Daily Mail, with two other insiders confirming the account.
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insiders → canvass → account
After his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles (right) and even Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been named by GOP operatives hungry for a scapegoat, it seemed Trump had settled on a different name.
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Trump → name → name
And those sources now expect Hegseth to be gone before the new Congress is sworn in next January, a deadline that has little to do with Trump's anger and everything to do with arithmetic.
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that → expect → arithmetic
Once Democrats take the Senate at the start of next year, confirming a replacement to head up the Pentagon becomes a fight the White House would rather not have.
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House → take → Pentagon
'Trump is making phone calls, contemplating it,' said a senior Republican.
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Republican → make → it
The case against Hegseth is not the Iran war itself – now being blamed in many conservative quarters, including by the Vice President JD Vance, for Tuesday's drubbing – but what the President was told about it, according to one source, who described Trump repeatedly learning of important operational updates from the Persian Gulf after the fact.
uncertain
Trump → blame → fact
'There's always some new information that he's being told after the fact,' said a White House insider, who described Trump demanding to know why Iran's surface-to-air defenses and missiles had not yet been destroyed, after Hegseth had claimed on several occasions that the US military had eliminated them.
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military → be → them
It is also claimed there have been incidents where the President has learned about threats only after they have materialized.
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they → claim → threats
Another source put it plainly: 'The defense secretary is in charge of knowing and explaining accurately what is possible and what the relative risks are.
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risks → put → charge
The White House has, of course, officially dismissed it.
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House → dismiss → it
Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the President retains full confidence in Hegseth.
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President → say → Hegseth
A Pentagon spokesperson was happy to agree, saying: 'Secretary Hegseth always provides the President and White House senior leaders with the full operational picture.
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Hegseth → agree → picture
'
But there is another reason to move quickly here, said a veteran GOP operative, who pointed out that the incoming Democratic House is expected to go after Hegseth, raising the prospect of an impeachment and subsequent Senate trial nobody in the building wants, least of all the President.
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nobody → be → all
Indeed, late Wednesday, Kentucky Democrat Thomas Massie told CNN he plans to trigger a vote to impeach Hegseth when Congress returns next week.
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Congress → tell → Hegseth
Meanwhile Susie Wiles, the all-powerful chief of staff many Republicans are now privately blaming for this defeat, appears to have miraculously pulled it back from the brink.
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Republicans → blame → brink
She is, say multiple insiders, expected to survive the coming 'purge' by playing a very Trumpian game of '4D chess', pitting the President's top Cabinet members – namely Vance and Rubio – against each other and flying herself to safety under the radar.
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insiders → say → radar
The Vice President did not wait, blaming the election results squarely on the Iran war in a statement on Wednesday morning that stopped just short of also blaming the President.
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that → wait → President
Vance wrote in part: 'The reason we lost is the war.
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we → write → part
The president himself said so last night.'
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president → say → ?
But did Trump actually say that?
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Trump → say → that
Sources have called Vance's 600-word statement a carefully calculated effort to distance himself from the disaster of the Iran war – held responsible by a majority of America's for mounting cost of living pressures – and shift blame onto administration hawks like Hegseth and Rubio as he positions for 2028.
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he → call → 2028
Trump, asked about it by journalists at the ballroom construction site, declined to fight, calling Vance's assessment 'largely true' because the war had driven up gas prices in 'the short term'.
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war → ask → term
But, he added, 'you can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon.
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Iran → add → weapon
The question is whether the President knew in advance that Vance's statement was coming.
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statement → know → advance
The answer is now disputed inside the West Wing.
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answer → dispute → Wing
'The President was blindsided by the tweet,' a White House official told the Daily Mail, saying Trump had not authorized it before it went out.
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it → blindside → it
A second official said the opposite: 'Yes the White House was aware before the post went out.
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post → say → opposite
POTUS was briefed beforehand as well and did not have any issues with it.
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POTUS → brief → it
Which is why he backed it up when asked by reporters.'
Another close source gave the same account, saying the post was flagged to the White House and cleared for publication.
Within hours, the President's eldest son Donald Trump Jr had endorsed the Vance post on X.
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son → back → post
'The President was blindsided by the tweet,' a White House official told the Daily Mail, saying Trump had not authorized Vance's statement before it went out.
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it → blindside → statement
'It's too little, too late,' said a top Trump official.
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official → say → ?
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
