| What’s on tap for President Donald Trump’s next 100 days? How resurgent, if at all, are Democrats right now? And has Trump ever acknowledged making a mistake? Washington Post readers had great questions Thursday for our White House and senior national political reporters. Below is some of their conversation; check out the full live chat here. I'd like a reporter to ask Trump if he has ever made a mistake, and if so what it was. Natalie Allison, White House reporter: The president was asked this last night! A News Nation town hall participant posed the question, to which Trump replied, “I don’t really believe I’ve made any mistakes.” The audience laughed. It’s unlikely Trump will admit failure on his part — though he very well may blame others in his administration at some point for policies gone wrong. Or, as he continues to do, blame [President Joe] Biden. How do you rate Democrats’ chances of retaking the House in 2026? How about the Senate? Are those odds improving as Trump's approval ratings sink? My fondest daydream is Democrats getting sufficient majorities to impeach and remove the president. Totally out of the question? Or not? Matt Viser, White House bureau chief: Given past elections, I would say the chance is pretty good that Democrats take back the House. The margins are narrow, and typically the party out of power does quite well. And many in the White House seem to realize that reality — which is one reason why Trump has tried to act at a rapid pace, realizing his time of unchecked power may be limited. The bar for impeachment, however, seems pretty high, so would perhaps wager less on Democrats getting enough new members to proceed down that path. [From] border enforcement by the military, [to] tariff imposition without congressional approval, lots of things are being done by the president declaring a situation an emergency. There seems to be no limit on his power to do so, no limit on how long these “emergencies” can last. Congress seems to have left itself out of the loop. Am I misunderstanding something here? Naftali Bendavid, senior national political reporter: This is a very good point. Many presidents like states of emergency in a sense, because it provides the justification for more sweeping actions than they would ordinarily be expected to take. President Trump has leaned into this, declaring an energy emergency, an invasion at the border and so on. He has also used an emergency declaration as groundwork for his tariffs. It must be said that an emergency can be in the eye of the beholder, and that many Trump supporters would agree that we are in a state of emergency, even as other Americans might disagree with that. Hasn’t he overdelivered? He has done everything he said he would do. He is implementing Project 2025 that although he did not say he would support it, he clearly did. He is attacking immigrants in ways never done before and has literally shut down the border. He has a locked-in Senate majority for a generation, so nothing can stop him. Polls of Republicans don’t seem to see any decline at all except at the margins, right? They seem to have bought the short-term pain for long-term benefits bit. Yes, he has delivered to his MAGA and Bros. base. He will continue to do so. His base won’t waiver. I think that defines a pretty great 100 days, right? Natalie: You’re right that Trump and his team are pretty ecstatic about his first 100 days. They’re less convinced the next 100 days will be as easy for them — comments that people like Trump’s [White House] Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and his vice president, JD Vance, have made in their own “100 day” interviews. He will be able to rely less on a flurry of executive actions, as he has to address what could be serious economic concerns from voters, as well as try to finally broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, among other major tasks. Have the Republicans been asked how comfortable they are in establishing new precedents in governance that will be available to the Democrats next time around? Naftali: Not only Democrats but also a few conservatives have made this point — that if a future liberal president exercises the same sort of far-reaching authority that President Trump is now embracing, Republicans would likely be very unhappy. Those arguments have made little headway, though, in persuading GOP lawmakers to publicly oppose the way President Trump is using his powers. I get the sense that for the moment, most people in both parties have their hands full simply responding to the rapid-fire activity coming out of the White House. | 
