Knives Are Out in the White House

President Donald Trump’s aides were reeling from the scale of Republican losses on Tuesday night, but they almost immediately began figuring out who to blame.

The ultimate responsibility, officials acknowledged only in private, lay with Trump for taking the country into an unpopular war with Iran that drove up prices, which became the number one issue for voters.

But in the absence of being able to blame Trump publicly, there has been growing pressure to find scapegoats in all places, from cabinet officials to White House aides to conservative media commentators.

Recalling how then-president George W. Bush pushed out defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld after the GOP lost both chambers in 2006, sources say there is an expectation from furious officials and donors for Trump to do something similar.