As voters head to the polls in Tuesday’s off-year election, President Donald Trump appears to have his eyes on next year’s midterms and the 2028 presidential election. Democrats are widely expected to chalk up several successes in California, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City.

In a wild Tuesday morning post, the President demanded once again that the Senate kill the filibuster, reducing the threshold to pass legislation to a mere simple majority. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and other top Republicans have indicated they oppose such a move.

“The Democrats are far more likely to win the Midterms, and the next Presidential Election, if we don’t do the Termination of the Filibuster (The Nuclear Option!), because it will be impossible for Republicans to get Common Sense Policies done with these Crazed Democrat Lunatics being able to block everything by withholding their votes,” Trump warned Republicans. “FOR THREE YEARS, NOTHING WILL BE PASSED, AND REPUBLICANS WILL BE BLAMED. Elections, including the Midterms, will be rightfully brutal.”

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The President’s remarks suggest he is aware that Republicans are being blamed for the federal government shutdown more than Democrats.

“If we don’t do it,” Trump said of killing the filibuster, Democrats “are far more likely to do well in the upcoming Elections, which would mean a PACKED Supreme Court, 2 more States and 4 more Democrat Senators (D.C. and Puerto Rico), and 8 more Electoral Votes.”

Trump also rattled off several top Republican goals.

“If we do terminate the Filibuster, we will get EVERYTHING approved, like no Congress in History. We will have FAIR, FREE, and SAFE Elections, No Men in Women’s Sports or Transgender for Everybody, Strong Borders, Major Tax and Energy Cuts, and will secure our Second Amendment, which the Democrats will also terminate, IMMEDIATELY.”

Democrats, he said, will “have much less chance of WINNING if we have Great Policy Wins after Wins after Wins.”

Trump concluded by writing — in all-caps — that Democrats “will lose big, and for a very long time.”

“Terminate the filibuster now,” he demanded, “end the ridiculous shutdown immediately, and then, most importantly, pass every wonderful Republican policy that we have dreamt of, for years, but never gotten. we will be the party that cannot be beaten – the smart party!!!”

READ MORE: Same-Sex Marriage in America: What Happens if the Supreme Court Takes Up Kim Davis’ Case?

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Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune may have just changed the calculus that has allowed House Speaker Mike Johnson to keep Republicans in their home districts since mid-September: he no longer believes continuing resolution legislation should reopen the government only until November 21.

Speaker Johnson has insisted that the House will not vote on any legislation until the Senate passes the House’s bill, but now that Leader Thune has drawn a line in the sand, it appears Johnson might have to change course.

CNN’s Manu Raju reported on Thune’s Monday afternoon remarks: “Says Senate would have to pass new CR and send back to House.”

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The key phrase is “new CR” — and that’s assuming Senate Democrats would back any continuing resolution that doesn’t include health care subsidies, which is far from certain.

Bloomberg News’ Erik Wasson summed it up: “House CR is now dead.”

Semafor’s Burgess Everett reported, “Thune says the Senate’s goal is no longer to pass the House CR, which would expire on Nov. 21. ‘That date’s lost,’ he says, explaining there’s not enough time to pass appropriations bills by then. Says he’s open to a CR lasting into January to give a longer runway.”

Thune added: “I think we’re getting close to an off ramp.”

READ MORE: ‘Disturbing’: Johnson Scorched for Saying He’s Starving SNAP to ‘Pressure’ Democrats

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein noted, “if this is now the case, then the House should in theory get back to work because Johnson’s position has always been that Thune needs to act on their CR. And that should mean grijalva should be seated.”

Stein was referring to Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who was elected in September but whom Speaker Johnson has refused to swear in for 41 days.

Stein subsequently added, “that said, i don’t believe Johnson will bring the house back.”

Leader Thune is also not certain on what would happen.

“Thune says ‘there is a difference’ between being optimistic & confident about shutdown ending soon. As of now, he’s the former,” reported Punchbowl News’ Andrew Desiderio.

Desiderio also reported that Thune said, “The objective here is to try to get something we can send back” to House. The “Senate would amend CR to extend end-date,” Desiderio added.

Seemingly, that would require Johnson to bring the Republicans back and bring the House back into session.

CBS News also reported that “Thune said there are procedural maneuvers for changing the date in the House bill, but doing so would require consent from all senators or at least 60 votes.”

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) says he and three others “have identified a bipartisan path forward on the future of the ACA’s Enhanced Premium Tax Credits. Even in gridlock, Congress can find common ground to lower health care costs & get back to work for the American people.”

READ MORE: ‘Unintimidated’ Jack Smith Vows to Present Case Against Trump: Report

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Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith reportedly has told people close to him that he is not intimidated by the Trump DOJ’s reported investigation into his activities and is looking forward to presenting the public case he made against now-President Donald Trump.

“Mr. Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted Mr. Trump, appears unintimidated by the president’s demand that Republican lawmakers investigate him and that the Justice Department put him in prison for as-yet unproved and unspecified crimes,” The New York Times reported on Monday.

Smith, in an early October interview with fellow former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, said: “The idea that politics played a role in who worked on that case, or who got chosen, is ludicrous.”

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“Smith also said that he had ‘tons of evidence’ that Mr. Trump had willingly retained the classified documents at his residence in Mar-a-Lago and tried ‘to obstruct the investigation.'”

According to those in his “orbit,” Smith is looking forward to presenting the evidence against Trump from the two cases that were scuttled by the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and that of a highly controversial federal judge’s decision

“Mr. Smith, who spent more than two years aggressively collecting evidence to prove Mr. Trump mishandled classified documents and tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election, appears eager to publicly challenge a foundational pillar of MAGA canon: that the president was a sinned-upon innocent who did nothing to deserve scrutiny, much less two prosecutions,” according to the Times, which notes that Smith now sits atop Trump’s “prosecutorial hit list,” along with former Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.

Smith had been prosecuting Trump on two separate fronts.

The so-called classified documents case and the 2020 election interference case.

Last week, President Trump alleged on social media that “Documents show conclusively that Christopher Wray, Deranged Jack Smith, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, and other crooked lowlifes from the failed Biden Administration, signed off on Operation Arctic Frost.”

“They spied on Senators and Congressmen/women, and even taped their calls. They cheated and rigged the 2020 Presidential Election. These Radical Left Lunatics should be prosecuted for their illegal and highly unethical behavior!” Trump claimed.

Also last week, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee urged their Republican chairman, Chuck Grassley, to call on Smith to testify publicly.

READ MORE: ‘Disturbing’: Johnson Scorched for Saying He’s Starving SNAP to ‘Pressure’ Democrats

Image: Screenshot via Public Domain Video