Those Americans didn’t feel they were “winning” under Mr Trump.

Even the Supreme Court seems to be not be all that convinced by Mr Trump’s tariffs.

Is Trump a lame duck now?

For the first time since January, it feels like Congress may have a role; the electorate can bite back, the courts do have teeth and – crucially – some Republicans now have the licence to speak their minds.

Does Mr Trump suddenly seem fallible?

Witness the White House’s hurried axing of tariffs on a range of foods – including beef – in the week after the Republican drubbing at the elections. The Trump administration appears to have acknowledged it actually has to do something about lowering prices rather than just demand the electorate revel in all the “winning”.

New Jersey Democratic Mikie Sherrill (L) won an election the Republicans were hopeful they might win. Getty Images via AFP

Trump accuses Democrats of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death,’ for urging military to ignore illegal orders

Seems swampy

Many Americans appear to be pondering if Teflon Trump is maybe not as non-stick as they thought.

Demolishing the East Wing to replace it with a glided ballroom while in a cost of living crisis. Is that really a good look?

As for draining the swamp, Americans may be wondering if it has the appearance of remaining suspiciously swampy. There’s that “gift” of a 747. And making nice in the White House with a leader accused of orchestrating a murder. The quashing of Trump supporters’ criminal convictions while Trump’s critics are charged. Then there’s the threatening of entire TV networks because of one hosts’ jokes. Don’t forget the scatter gunning of gold over the Oval Office.

Court after court has questioned or stopped Mr Trump’s actions. The White House’s default response is to berate “activist judges”. It wears thin when some of those judges were appointed by Donald Trump. Are they “activists” or is it just possible the administration has overstepped the mark?

IS a Donald Trump gettings 747 from Qatar winning for the American people? (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)

Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene may be pushing back against Mr Trump – but that will bring little joy to the Democrats.

Both are on the far right of the party. Their main issue is they feel the US president isn’t hardcore enough.

Mr Massie is no Democrat in Republican’s clothing. Indeed, he has an alarming habit of being sympathetic to Russia. While Ms Taylor Greene would happily extricate the US military from any and every posting overseas.

Mr Trump regular admonishes many of his own party’s politicians for being “RINO,” Republican in Name Only, code for not sufficiently loyal to his every desire.

The Massies and Taylor Greenes of this world seem to be openly suggesting Mr Trump is “MINO” – MAGA in name only.

The Epstein saga has vividly illustrated the sheer power the MAGA end of the Republican Party now has on the presidency.

is knocking down the East Wing of the White House a win? (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The prospect of an embarrassing defeat convinced Trump to reverse course on Epstein files

Pincer movement

But suburban Republicans in places like New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia – less MAGA and more centrist – have also seemingly shook themselves from their stupors and decided they’re not sure of Trump 2.0 either.

The US president is caught in a pincer movement of his own making: too MAGA for many, not MAGA enough for his own party. The Democrats are never going to win over the MAGAs but they might be able to win over alarmed middle of the road Republicans.

Of course, Mr Trump’s troubles could blow over. The Epstein files might end up of being of little consequence; the wars he’s “stopped” could actually remain stopped; the Democrats could go full far left and scare off the centrists.

But perhaps the last weeks have shown something it was easy to forget: Donald Trump does not “win” every day – no matter how many time he says he has. He doesn’t have unlimited power and Americans don’t want him to have it. The current White House doesn’t have to be a spectator sport.

Most importantly, that voters and politicians – even Republicans – do have the power to push back against the Trump machine. When they do, Sometimes they’re the ones who are “winning”.

Trump calls on House Republicans to vote to release Epstein files: ‘We have nothing to hide’

Single word coming back to haunt Trump

Donald Trump to sue BBC for $7.7 billion after broadcaster apologised for editing his speech

The BBC has issued a personal apology to Donald Trump over a key mistake – but the US president is not satisfied.

Kamala Harris’s Memoir Shows Exactly Why Her Campaign Flopped

The broadcaster has apologised to Mr Trump over the editing of his 2021 speech on its Panorama program, which spliced separate parts of a video together, making it look like he had urged the storming of the Capitol in January of that year.

Two BBC executives, Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, have resigned over the scandal.

But the apology wasn’t enough for Mr Trump, who told reporters on board Air Force One at the weekend that he would take legal action.

The BBC’s apology was not enough for Mr Trump. Picture: Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

“We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion, probably some time next week,” the president said.

“I think I have to do it. They’ve even admitted that they cheated … They changed the words coming out of my mouth.

“The people of the UK are very angry about what happened as you can imagine because it shows the BBC is fake news.”

The BBC has admitted to editing the speech, saying it “unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action”.

Department of War Investigating Sen. Mark Kelly for ‘Seditious’ Video Urging Military to Disobey Trump

Former BBC Director-General Tim Davie resigned over the scandal. Picture: Lucy North/AP

BBC lawyers disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim, however, and have written to Mr Trump’s legal team saying as much.

They argued it didn’t cause Mr Trump any harm, because he was re-elected soon afterwards. The program was also restricted to UK viewers and the edit was done to shorten a long speech.

Pressure mounts on Donald Trump as Epstein files drive a rift in the Republican Party

After months of hesitation, President Donald Trump is now poised to sign legislation that has exposed a rift in his once-faithful MAGA camp.

The debate over the release of the long-sealed Epstien files may have revealed a power shift within the Republican Party a year before US midterm elections.

After months of hesitation, US President Donald Trump is now poised to sign legislation that compels the Justice Department to hand over its Epstein records.

Not long ago, he had brushed off growing demands for full transparency around the government’s Epstein documents, dismissing the matter in July as “pretty boring stuff”.

But by Sunday, with a wave of House Republicans signalling their intent to vote for disclosure, the 79-year-old abruptly encouraged them to proceed. That encouragement cleared the way for a lopsided 427–1 vote on Tuesday.

The episode stood out in US politics. Instead of Republicans rallying behind Mr Trump, it was the party’s rusted-on loyalists who nudged him into shifting course.

Whether the forthcoming documents reveal anything new remains to be seen, but the political manoeuvring has already laid bare tensions within the Republican Party.

It has also exposed the influence of Mr Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, whose views on the Epstein matter have been hard for party leaders to ignore. Mr Trump famously ran on the Epstein issue but performed a stunning about-face once in office, assuming that the millions who voted for him would follow suit.

They didn’t.

A billboard in Times Square, paid for by the group Home of the Brave, highlights Jeffrey Epstein’s comment that Donald Trump “knew about the girls.” (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)

Some strategists argue Mr Trump would have struggled to drag attention elsewhere had he not backed the release, with millions on both sides of the fence pushing for the release that many believe will expose prominent figures on the left and right.

The US last week dropped the blanket 10 per cent tariffs on several agricultural imports, including beef, coffee and bananas, as American consumers endure higher prices to meet their needs.

Beef was Australia’s second-biggest export to the US in 2024, worth some $4.2bn.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said on Sunday that “persisting with our argument with the United States that tariffs on Australian products are an act of economic self harm” had paid off.

“Right from day one, at my first discussions with Howard Lutnick, the American commerce secretary, and Jamieson Greer, the United States Trade Representative, we argued that the tariffs were the wrong policy,” he said.

“Firstly, it was in breach of our free trade agreement with the United States, and secondly, it was simply going to push up prices for American consumers, whether it was in hamburgers or steaks at a restaurant.”

The Trump administration has dropped tariffs on some agricultural products. Picture: Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer / NewsWire

Senator Farrell said that it was because those warnings of higher prices in the US that the Trump administration conceded.

“And so our persistent and consistent argument to the Americans, they have finally understood what we were saying and have acted accordingly,” he said.

“Now we’re not going to stop there.