Fight or flight? Trump mixes signals after midterms

President Donald Trump's political mantra is "fight, fight, fight." But he has given decidedly mixed messages about whether he will do so after Republicans were hammered in the midterms. In the week since becoming a lame duck, Trump named the hardline architect of his migration crackdown as his chief of staff, while admitting his deportation policy was too tough.

The 80-year-old raised eyebrows when he publicly asked Ultimate Fighting Championship boss Dana White to be his new press secretary – then claimed he was just joking, reporter Agence France-Presse. He has admitted that the Iran war was largely to blame for the midterms rout. But he has strongly backed Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth's battle against impeachment.

And despite saying on election night that he'd accept the results of the Democratic sweep, he has reverted to type and revived baseless claims of election fraud. "One of the characteristics of Donald Trump is that he changes his mind on a dime," Democratic Senator Chris Coons told CNN. "He'll be praising someone on Monday, firing them on Tuesday, and pretending he never knew them on Wednesday. So it's hard to predict exactly what Donald Trump is going to do."

Democrats have promised to rein in Trump and launch a series of investigations into corruption and abuse of power. He could face a third impeachment. But for a president supposedly facing his last stand, he has at times struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone. As results came in, he congratulated Democrats on seizing Congress and said he could work with them.

Instead of a press conference the next day, he gave reporters a tour of his new White House ballroom – sparking speculation he might spend the rest of his term on his building projects. But the signs of volatility were still there. In the Oval Office, Trump placed a red baseball cap saying "veto" on his desk, according to Agence France-Presse.

And when Trump announced on Friday that ultraloyalist Stephen Miller would replace Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, it seemed that the gloves were finally off. The brains behind the masked immigration raids that left two Americans dead, Miller has also been instrumental in using executive orders to help Trump bypass Congress.

Yet in an interview the same day – though broadcast on Sunday – Trump conceded voters had been turned off by the aggressive deportation push. "I think it was too tough," Trump told the CBS News "60 Minutes" programme. Still, the chances of Trump doing a deal with Democrats – possibly even for an amnesty for undocumented migrants – remain low.

"It doesn't seem likely. Not with this decision to have Stephen Miller running the show," Sarah Binder, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said in a panel discussion this week. Trump's astonishing announcement on Saturday that he wanted "violent fighter and warrior" Dana White to be his new spokesman also seemed to signal a war footing. If it seemed too ironic to be true, it was. A day later Trump said he was "kidding."

Ever the showman, the former reality TV star brought the UFC boss to the White House podium for an unexpected visit on Monday, where White turned down the job. The administration's biggest fight now is against Hegseth's impeachment.

It's a fight Trump appears to be joining with relish – saying that Hegseth "gets an 'A' PLUS, PLUS, PLUS" shortly after the Pentagon chief gave a press conference calling the charges a "farce." But Hegseth will know that Trump is rarely shy of shaking up his staff. He jettisoned Wiles just over two weeks after saying there was "zero chance" he would sack her. And Trump himself admitted he isn't likely to change his stripes.