An analysis published Thursday by the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner laid out the key elements of President Donald Trump's lame-duck agenda for the next two years — and, judging by its tone, the paper was unimpressed with what it expects from Trump and his allies: "obsolete" rhetoric and "shifting blame." In US politics, the lame-duck stretch — a second-term president's final two years, when he cannot run again and midterm losses weaken his party's grip on Congress — typically shifts the weight of an agenda from legislation toward executive action and public messaging.

As the Examiner documented, Trump began Thursday morning by attacking Democrats on Truth Social before turning to "Iran, fraud, border security, and his tax returns." He directed Vice President JD Vance to investigate blue states for corruption, threatened Mexico with sanctions if it fails to stop migrants reportedly headed for the United States, and complained about Senate Republicans' failure to pass his SAVE America Act.

"In other words," the Examiner wrote, "it amounted to a selection of his greatest hits, reprising old themes and shifting blame for last week's electoral disaster."

"With the perceived loss by the Republicans in the Midterms – I was not on the ballot- the invasion of our Country is taking place again," Trump declared in one post. "Huge caravans are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico."

According to Trump, Mexico will face doubled tariffs if it fails to block the migrants — the majority of whom, experts note, are unlikely to reach the U.S. border at all. The threat comes despite data showing that voters overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump's tariff regime: midterm exit polls found that 66 percent of respondents believed the tariffs hurt the economy, versus just 21 percent who said they helped. Tying trade penalties to migration enforcement is a familiar construction for Trump — one reason the Examiner read the threat as a reprise rather than a pivot.

Trump's post-midterm 60 Minutes interview had appeared to suggest he was "softening" on immigration. But according to the Examiner, "That approach didn't last long. Soon after the interview was recorded on Friday, Trump announced that he was installing immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff." The analysis continued: "Either way, his Truth Social screed marks a return to the rhetoric that helped him win a sensational election victory in 2024, and which became obsolete with the success of his border security policies." The chief-of-staff role sits at the center of White House personnel and policy flow, which makes the Miller announcement a concrete indicator of which instincts will shape the administration's day-to-day agenda.

Official figures indicate that undocumented border crossings have dropped by 90 percent during Trump's second term, though critics point out that the decline was already part of a downward trend that began in 2024 due to earlier policy shifts. That gap between rhetoric and data is one of the clearest things to track next: official border figures, not posts, will remain the test of whether Thursday's caravan warnings reflect any actual change on the ground.

The Examiner also flagged a Trump post pulling Vance away from Iran peace talks as a signal of his other priorities. "I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S.," Trump wrote.

In other words, Trump is done with the war against Iran and is shifting his focus to "shore up defenses" for his war against the Democrats.

Whether any of Trump's efforts end up impacting policy, the Examiner concluded, "will now depend on a Congress he no longer fully controls, and on investigators who have not yet started. His agenda is a series of posts. The test is what happens after he stops typing."