Why is President Trump stuck on a political message that is leading his party to lose control of Congress?

The answer is staring Republicans in the face. But they can’t find the heart of the daring boy in the fairytale who speaks up to say, “The Emperor has No Clothes.”

Well, if you held a congressional GOP seat, do you think you’d be willing to go to raise your hand and tell Trump that President Biden won the 2020 election fair and square?

Fear of getting that hand chopped off — figuratively speaking — has congressional Republicans refusing to speak up.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is the latest Republican leader to conclude it is better to play along with Trump’s refusal to admit defeat in 2020.

Cornyn is suddenly abandoning his longstanding opposition to eliminating the Senate filibuster to allow a Trump-backed bill to pass on only Republican votes.

The new law imposes sweeping new restrictions on voting that will effectively end mail-in voting. Republicans nationwide warn that the new law will disenfranchise millions of senior citizens and women whose maiden names may differ from their married names. Rural voters will be hurt. Those constituencies that have historically voted for Republicans.

But no one will tell Trump.

Certainly not Cornyn. He still dreams of a Trump endorsement for his bid to win a GOP primary in Texas to be the party’s nominee for a U.S. Senate seat.

“Conversations with nearly a dozen GOP state and county chairs and strategists reveal a party largely eager to move on from relitigating Trump’s election grievances…,” Politico reported last week. “But the president won’t let it go, subpoenaing 2020 election records and putting pressure on lawmakers to pass legislation to overhaul registration laws.”

“The president continues to claim falsely that the 2020 election was stolen…” The Wall Street Journal reported in straight language.

The truth about his 2020 election loss has also been delivered to Trump by federal and local courts, some led by judges appointed by Republicans, including Trump.

Bill Barr, who was Trump’s attorney general during the 2020 election, found no evidence of extensive voter fraud or any conspiracy to deny the election to Trump. Conservative media companies have paid enormous settlements on charges that they advanced Trump’s false claims about election fraud.

None of that appears to matter to Trump. He will be 80 years old before the November election. His social media messages are increasingly violent and angry. He has launched a war without a clear endpoint. Polls show the war is unpopular with most Americans, notably all-important independent voters.

Any strategy to bolster Republican victories in the 2026 midterms is secondary to him. After his party suffered major losses in the 2018 midterms, during his first term, Trump said the problem was simply that he was not on the ballot.

In addition to false claims of voter fraud as his midterm theme, Trump is pushing Republican majority state legislatures to redraw congressional districts to make them more likely to elect a Republican. But that move also provoked countermeasures.

California responded with its own redistricting changes. Virginia could soon follow under newly elected Gov. Abigail Spanberger, whose victory was widely seen as a backlash against the Trump administration’s hostility toward federal workers. Early estimates suggest Virginia’s congressional delegation could tilt as heavily as 10–1 in favor of Democrats.

The political consequences are already visible.

California Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley announced last week that he will run as an independent in his Sacramento-area district while continuing to caucus with House Republicans. Kiley was redistricted into a Democratic-leaning seat after California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) responded to aggressive partisan gerrymandering in Texas.

Kiley’s predicament illustrates how a redistricting war that began in Texas — at Trump’s urging — and triggered retaliation in California has left some incumbents scrambling to salvage their political careers.

Overly aggressive deportation of undocumented immigrants will also carry political costs. Polls show Trump has alienated most Latino voters.

That backlash could cost Republicans seats in Texas and potentially even endanger a GOP Senate seat if Democrats unite behind a candidate like state Rep. James Talarico.

This is the essence of “Boomerang politics.”

Trump’s complaints after losing in 2020 included telling Republicans not to trust elections for the U.S. Senate in Georgia. That led to many of his loyal voters staying home, costing Republicans two U.S. Senate seats.

At recent campaign rallies, Trump often jokes about “the weave” — his description of a winding, unclear speaking style often riddled with insults and no correspondence with the truth, the facts, or objective political reality.

But Republicans may soon find themselves dealing with something beyond the “Weave” —  the “Boomerang.” That refers to policies and power moves that look to be snapping back, ready to hit Republicans this November.

It is no longer outside the realm of possibility that this time next year, House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — armed with large majorities will be looking to pass a series of widely supported Democratic policies. Among them: Medicare for All, a $15 federal minimum wage, an end to the carried-interest loophole, and limits on what critics describe as the blank check of foreign aid to the Netanyahu government in Israel.

And if that happens, Democrats may have Trump to thank.

Juan Williams is senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a prize-winning civil rights historian. He is the author of the new book “New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.