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‘Political hell’: Axios founder says Trump can ignore subpoenas after midterms, ‘friends and family can’t’

April 25, 2026 | | Print Article

A corporate media CEO wasn’t coy about how he thinks Democrats would use regained control of the House, as he predicted more lawfare would amount to “political hell” for the president’s allies.

(Video Credit: MS NOW)

While the implications of a misstep out of the White House are rivaled only by the benefit at home and abroad as President Donald Trump navigates the ongoing operation in the Middle East, leftist sharks contend they sense blood and are leaning into the political fallout. As such, Axios co-founder Jim VandeHei’s response to poor polling for the president was to propose that a Democrat-controlled House would set its sights on Trump’s “friends and family.”

After contending there was “a tremendous amount of pressure” on inner circles to see changes to the cabinet, VandeHei reminded on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” that the priority of Democrats if they regain control will be impeachment. “I don’t think [Trump] cares that much. He’s been impeached before. He’ll survive it in the Senate, but that’s the fate. And he can ignore the subpoenas, but his friends and family can’t. All those companies can’t. Like, he’s heading for a political hell, and that’s going to be tough.”

The argument was part of a longer assessment that followed coverage of a recent Fox News poll that found 70% of voters believe the economy is getting worse while only 26% feel it is improving, said to mark the worst outlook since April 2023.

“And you need to put the polls in some context,” argued VanderHei. “It’s almost impossible in modern polling, given the ideological impulses of base voters, to get much lower than he is in terms of his unfavorable ratings, but also how unpopular he is when it comes the economy, when it comes to inflation, even when it comes to, you know, the non-border enforcement part of immigrations. Like, he is very, very low.”

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“He still has most Republicans with him, but that’s even sinking,” continued the Axios CEO, who turned to the midterm elections and the “almost impossible” task of holding control in the House. He then argued, “states like Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, Texas, Maine, all of which should be very, very winnable — maybe not even competitive — and they all look suddenly in danger.”

VandeHei further suggested those near the president have had a change in body language, “They know they’re in a huge hole and it’s going to be really, really hard to get out of it.”

“They don’t even really defend it anymore. They understand that we’re here by a series of choices that the president made by himself. How to prosecute this war was his choice. To do tariffs the way he did was his choice. To unleash ICE into neighborhoods before ICE was properly trained to do it was his choice. To then promote that in a very chest-thumping type of way was his choice. And now Republicans are having to pay for that,” he contended.

The latest assessment comes only weeks after VandeHei had proposed a “hit list” for victorious Democrats post-midterms, including:

  • Law firms that signed deals with President Trump.
  • Media giants that settled.
  • Donors to the White House ballroom.
  • Top execs who negotiated to give the government a stake in their companies.
  • Profit enablers of Trump relatives or families of Cabinet members.

 

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Introducing some cold water to that leftist lawfare dream, MS NOW co-host Joe Scarborough reacted, “Well, you know, it’s going to be difficult on one side of it. On the other side of it, Donald Trump even told me after he got elected that he understands that it was all the trials, it was the perceived political persecution, that got him elected president.”

After quoting the president as telling Scarborough one charge would have endangered him and that it was the pile-on that was the problem for Democrats leading up to 2024, the co-host posited, “And I wonder, Jim, if there’s not a part of him that’s thinking, ‘Okay, I’ll be much better off fighting against a Democratic Congress where they’re trying to impeach me and they’ll never succeed. I’ll win there, too, and my numbers will go up.”

Contrasting the current action in Iran with a suggested past version of Trump that “would have figured out a way to go into Iran for two weeks and come out,” Scarborough added, “I’m just curious, does it seem to you that he actually is focused more on his legacy of being the one president that can do what seven other presidents have not been able to do with Iran since 1979? And if he loses the midterms, okay, they’re going to impeach him again — once, twice, three times — and he’s gonna win all of those and his numbers are going to go up.”

“I just don’t think that’s how he thinks,” responded VandeHei as social media reactions to his analysis called out the quiet part on how the Democratic Party platform remained obstructing Trump.

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Kevin Haggerty
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