Page B54From§Eachthe afternoon edition — 8 November 2026
THE AUTOPSY
As it ran on the front
The Trump coalition died this week, in three installments: at the Justice Department, in the House Republican leadership race, and inside the Make America Healthy Again movement, all inside the same seven days. It was born on November 5, 2024, the night Donald Trump won the presidency — a win that would, two years and one lost midterm later, still leave him $2.7 billion richer than the man who walked into office, a figure recorded Wednesday, the same day Trump Media stock and his WLFI coin both fell on the news of Tuesday's results.
By Thursday, Caroline Sunshine, a former Trump staffer, told Fox News's Jesse Watters she would say "what a lot of people are saying privately": that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles should resign over the wipeout. The same day, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s health movement found itself, The Hill reported, at a crossroads, its allies beaten at the polls and its alliance with the party that hosts it looking shakier than anyone had said out loud.…
…(cont) The Justice Department went last, and went hardest. Their exits followed an earlier one from the Civil Rights Division, the one that set the week's pattern: whoever was going to leave, left before the weekend.
By the weekend the postmortems were arriving faster than the bodies. The New York Times found Republicans pointing fingers at staff, at strategy, at anything penny-ante enough not to require blaming the man in the Oval Office — whom the paper reported did not appear to be listening regardless. The BBC asked, not unreasonably, what Republicans intend to do now.
The coalition is survived by the invitation it extended three weeks before the vote, when Trump told reporters flying back from Tennessee that he'd "love to see" Senator John Fetterman switch parties. It is preceded in death by that earlier Civil Rights Division departure, the first domino of a week that ended with a Speaker who wouldn't run, a chief of staff under open fire from her own former colleague, and a health movement with nowhere left to point.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that mourners register for whichever election comes next, and that they not wait for permission from anyone still inside the building.
“They lost the House and the Senate on Tuesday, and by Friday the guy who ran national security cases for the Justice Department had already cleared his desk. Nobody walks out of that job the same week his bosses got flattened at the polls unless he already knows what's sitting in the next box of files. Johnson won't even run for the demotion they handed him, Kennedy's people don't know whose side they're standing on anymore, and the three who could've testified left before anybody got around to asking.”
“These are routine personnel matters, happens after every election, people move on — three senior Justice Department officials in one week isn't a pattern, it's a transition period, that's exactly what this is. Susie Wiles has the President's full confidence, full stop, and anybody saying different is a disgruntled former staffer chasing a cable hit. Did I just call a former colleague disgruntled on the record? That's not — let's just move past that one.”
Earlier in this story
The receipts
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
The Trump coalition is shattered - what will Republicans do now?Republicans can stick with Trumpism or chart a new path, writes BBC Washington correspondent Daniel Bush.
Caroline Sunshine, a former staffer to President Trump, on Wednesday called for White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to resign over the massive losses Republicans saw in the midterm elections. Sunshine told Fox News's Jesse Watters on "Jesse Watters Primetime" that she was going to say "what a lot of people are saying privately."...
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told staff Wednesday morning that he will not seek to become House minority leader in the next Congress, sources familiar with the matter told the Washington Examiner. Johnson’s decision comes after steep Republican losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, where Democrats swept several House and Senate…
After last week’s midterm losses, the Republican Party entered its most uncertain moment in years. Some Republicans called for moderation and cleaning house, but that will be difficult with President Trump still in the White House.
Trump Media stock and WLFI coin saw declines but he is still $2.7bn wealthier than when he won election in 2024 US midterms 2026 live – latest updates Send us your questions about the midterm results Track live results from all 50 states Donald Trump ’s wealth is falling along with his political fortunes. Tradable investment assets that…
The US declared measles eliminated in 2000. The last two years carry more cases than the rest of the century combined - the worst count since 1991 The Hill / CDC measles data, July 2026
Following midterm losses, MAHA is at a crossroadsPresented by AstraZeneca {beacon} Healthcare Healthcare The Big Story Following midterm losses, MAHA is at a crossroads Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again movement faces an uncertain future and a shaky alliance with Republicans, after key allies were swept from office and MAHA-backed candidates lost in…
The Justice Department is weathering the Trump administration’s first wave of post-midterm departures, with three senior officials announcing their exits in the days following Democrats’ sweeping victories on Tuesday. U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quinones and Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg, the department’s top national security…
· Trump urges John Fetterman to switch parties: ‘I’d love to see him as a Republican’ from the morgue, 11 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.