It is early 2026, and the air in Washington feels heavy. Everyone is asking the same question over breakfast, in the halls of the Rayburn Building, and definitely on your social media feed: will Congress stop Trump? It’s a messy question. Honestly, it’s not just about one man. It’s about a system that was built to move slowly, now facing a political engine that wants to move very, very fast.
The 119th Congress is currently in a weird spot. You have Republicans holding a razor-thin majority in the House, and a Senate where the filibuster still looms like a ghost in the machine. But "stopping" someone in D.C. doesn't usually look like a dramatic movie standoff. It looks like paperwork. It looks like a committee chairman refusing to schedule a hearing or a Senator from your own party quietly leaking a memo because they’re worried about their own re-election in the 2026 midterms.
The Power of the Purse and the Reality of 2026
If you want to know if Congress can actually put the brakes on the White House, you have to look at the money. Basically, the "power of the purse" is the biggest stick Congress has. Right now, there’s a massive tug-of-war over the FY 2026 appropriations. On January 8th, the House passed a bill to fund the government, but the Senate is where the real friction is happening.
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Think about the offshore wind projects. Just a few days ago, on January 15, 2026, House Democrats like Jared Huffman and Martin Heinrich started screaming about the administration’s sudden halt of large-scale wind farms. They’re demanding classified briefings. Why? Because the administration is using "national security" as a reason to stop projects that were already building. This is where Congress tries to "stop" things—by demanding transparency and threatening to cut off funding for other pet projects if they don't get answers.
But here is the kicker. Trump’s team is move-fast-and-break-things. They’ve already reshaped the federal bureaucracy by firing thousands of civil servants and replacing them with loyalists. When you replace the people who know how to say "no" with people who only say "yes," the traditional congressional oversight becomes a lot harder. It’s like trying to stop a car when the person you’re calling to hit the brakes is actually the one pushing the accelerator.
Will Congress Stop Trump on the Insurrection Act?
The biggest flashpoint right now isn't a tax bill. It’s the military. This week, we saw a huge blow-up over the Insurrection Act. The President threatened to invoke it in Minnesota to deal with protests. This is where the legal rubber meets the road.
Can Congress stop him from using the military on U.S. soil? Technically, the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 says the military can’t be used for domestic law enforcement. But the Insurrection Act is the "break glass in case of emergency" loophole. Groups like the ACLU are sounding the alarm, but the real power lies with the Senate Armed Services Committee. If they don't push back, or if they don't pass legislation to clarify the Act's limits, the White House basically has a green light.
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It's a high-stakes game of chicken. Some Republicans, like Senator John Thune, are trying to manage the floor and give the President wins, but even within the GOP, there are "quiet" resistances. You’ve got people like Brian Fitzpatrick—the most bipartisan guy in the House—who are essentially stuck in a system they hate, trying to find a middle ground while the fringes of both parties are pulling at the seams.
The 2026 Midterm Factor
The most honest answer to "will Congress stop Trump" depends on the calendar. We are in a midterm year.
Everything—and I mean everything—is being viewed through the lens of November 3, 2026.
- The House Margin: Republicans have such a tiny majority that if just three or four members decide a White House policy is toxic for their district, a bill dies.
- Retirements: Look at the list of people leaving. From Jerry Nadler to Chip Roy (who is running for AG in Texas), the 120th Congress is going to look totally different. Lame-duck members sometimes find a spine because they don't have to worry about voters, but more often, they just check out.
- The "Lame Duck" Threat: If Democrats retake the House in November—which many pundits are predicting—Trump becomes a "lame duck" for the final two years of his term. That is when the real stopping happens. Subpoenas will fly like confetti.
Oversight or Just Political Theater?
We have to be real: a lot of what looks like "stopping" is just noise. H.Res. 353 is sitting there—a resolution to impeach Trump again. Will it go anywhere? With a GOP-controlled House, probably not. It's a marker. It's a way for Democrats to say to their base, "We are trying."
The real "stop" happens in the shadows of the committee rooms. For example, the fight over H-1B visas and the new $100,000 employer fee. Business-friendly Republicans aren't fans of this. They’re hearing from tech donors who are furious. This is a spot where you might see Congress quietly defund the enforcement of that specific proclamation. It's not a headline-grabbing "No," but it’s a functional "Not today."
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Then you have the courts. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on cases like Trump v. Barbara (birthright citizenship) and the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago soon. Congress often waits for the Court to do the "stopping" so they don't have to take a hard vote that might alienate MAGA voters or the suburban moderates they need to survive.
Why It’s Harder Than It Looks
You can't just "stop" a President who is willing to use executive orders for everything. Since January 2025, we’ve seen a "tsunami" of orders—travel bans, vaccine rollbacks, and radical changes to the Department of Education. To stop an Executive Order, Congress has to pass a law. To pass a law, they need the President to sign it. See the problem?
Unless they have a two-thirds majority in both houses to override a veto—which they definitely don't have—Congress is mostly playing a game of "slow down." They can slow down nominations. They can slow down the budget. They can make life very difficult for Cabinet secretaries like Doug Burgum (Interior) or Pete Hegseth (Defense) by dragging them into hearings every week to talk about offshore wind or the Insurrection Act.
Actionable Insights: What to Watch Next
If you’re trying to figure out if the legislative branch is actually going to exert its power, don’t watch the speeches on the floor. Watch these three things instead:
- The Discharge Petitions: Watch if House Democrats and a few brave Republicans use this maneuver to force votes on things the GOP leadership wants to bury. It’s a rare move, but in a thin-majority House, it's a heat-seeking missile.
- The 2027 Oversight Planning: Notice that Democrats are already "plotting" their 2027 targets. This tells you they’ve shifted their strategy from "stop him now" to "win the House and gut the administration later."
- Senate Filibuster Votes: There is immense pressure on GOP Senators to kill the filibuster to let Trump’s agenda slide through. If they keep the filibuster, they are effectively "stopping" the most radical parts of the agenda by default.
The reality of 2026 is that Congress is a divided, exhausted body. It isn't a wall; it's more like a series of speed bumps. Some are high enough to scrap the bottom of the car, and others are just there for show. Whether they actually "stop" anything depends entirely on how much political capital individual members are willing to burn before they face the voters in November.
Keep your eyes on the January 30th appropriations deadline. If the government shuts down, it’s the ultimate sign that the "stopping" has moved from rhetoric to reality.