Who is next out of the door?
That is the question being asked at the White House as a major vibe change in the political landscape was being felt all the way from Washington D.C. to the Great Lakes and way beyond.
Not to Greenland. Not yet. But the tectonic shift overnight has shaken up everything before it.
For the first time in almost five months, the Democratic Party is smiling again, Donald Trump’s hibernating Republican opponents are waking from their slumber, the DOGE wrecking ball is whiffing, and Emperor Elon Musk is about to be out on his own and fumbling for his clothes.Who would have thought that an Upper Midwest state famous for beer and cheese would cause such a cataclysm in American politics?
The winds of change were already gathering after the two-month Trump tornado that will leave the nation irrevocably changed, whatever happens next.
Judges were balking, DOGE math wasn’t adding up, and folks around the country were realizing that they were the ones losing their jobs.
But a 10-point thumping in a race between two candidates nobody outside Wisconsin’s judicial system had ever heard of in a battleground state that Trump had appeared to have conquered has caught everybody’s attention.
Including President Trump.
Trump and Musk both stuck their necks out to make the failed case for conservative Judge Brian Schimel, but only one got the chop.
Musk splashed out $25 million of his own cash and took a Badger State weekend break only to return to Washington and find he was dispensable.
One night can be a lifetime when the vibe shifts. The president had a ready-made fall guy in his chainsaw slasher. Nobody ever thought the partnership would last, not even Trump and Musk.
Elon Musk holds a chainsaw reading “Long live freedom, damn it” during the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
But while much of the media was playing Wisconsin as Musk’s mea culpa, the truth was quite different.
The importance of Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court election was illustrated by the $100 million spent to try and bamboozle the electorate to pick the right (or left) side.
The Democratic Party focused on demonizing Musk. He’d lost people jobs, he wore T-shirts in the Oval Office, he drove a Tesla, and, worst of all, he was as rich as Croesus.
The Republicans, on the other hand, campaigned on Trump as the hero of change who would make America wealthy again and hand people the cash to buy as much beer and dairy as their hearts desired. Red caps were de rigueur.
The Dems clearly wounded Musk, perhaps even fatally, as a political force.
But the Republicans also hurt the president. Voters didn’t drink the MAGA Kool-Aid and it was suddenly very clear for the world to see.
Trump was vulnerable.
It is a message that reverberated across the sleeping Democratic Party giant on Wednesday. Even two Democratic House losses in Florida were sufficiently benign to celebrate with a glass or two of warm champagne. It was deep, deep red state. The losses were not so bad that the losers couldn’t claim a moral victory.
Fresh from his November election victory, Trump had little reason to fear the consequences when he picked Matt Gaetz for attorney general and Mike Waltz as national security adviser. Both had safe seats.
Two months later, it wasn’t looking such a great idea (it took a couple of days to work out he was onto a loser with Gaetz, who quickly dropped out in a welter of bad publicity). The Democrats outspent Trumper Republican Randy Fine to half the majority in Waltz’s old seat, even if Jimmy Patronis took Gaetz’s place with relative ease. It wasn’t the cakewalk the GOP expected.
Trump was already trying to plug the cracks by forcing Elise Stefanik to drop her UN plans and defend her House seat.
The hint of chaos ahead was beginning to feel more like Trump 1.0 shambles—where an unending revolving door became a feature, not a bug—rather than the controlled aggression of the 2.0 administration.
Trump 1.0’s revolving door of chaos swept up many of his closest aides, including Hope Hicks, who resigned as communications director after her boyfriend, staff secretary Rob Porter, was forced out when it was revealed he had assaulted both his ex-wives. CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS
His first term was marked by one scandal after another. Author Michael Wolff sat and listened in the White House and soon had enough crazy content for a best seller.
In the relentless destruction of his second go around, Trump and Musk directed their troops with a focused energy. If there was any resistance, it was contained.
For two months.
But the vibe feels different now.
Cory Booker set a record for the longest Senate speech in history, talking for 25 hours without a bathroom break. That was 25 hours of trash-talking Trump—and suddenly buoying up Democrats. All this happened while Wisconsin’s people were voting their discontent. The gleeful comeback feeling among Democrats was summed up by a meme from The Wire. MAGA has made “we are so back” a meme; Democrats now found their own.
Trump’s control on the Capitol was loosening. His power couldn’t stop Booker any more than he could force voters in Wisconsin to bend to his will.
A money man to his core, the president can’t control the markets either. His tariff plan will hold him hostage to fortune. He can’t sign an executive order and make stocks rise.
Uncertainty is kryptonite to Wall Street. The changing vibe is being felt there, too. Liberation Day is all well and good but you tend to feel a little less free when your 401k is in the toilet.
In Washington on Wednesday morning, the deficit hawks in the House were spreading their wings and biting back at Mike Johnson’s (and Trump’s) spending bill. Stop the tax cuts, they told the president. What about the deficit? They felt emboldened. They felt the vibe.
Trump feels it, too.
And you can be sure he doesn’t like it.
So who’s next out the door?
