In the 2026 midterms, congressional Republicans and, by association, the Trump administration took what someone once described as a "shellacking." The fallout of all this will be some time making itself known, but on Thursday, another item popped up: What becomes of President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's ambitious plans for our armed forces, now that the national checkbook will be in the hands of the Democrat-majority House of Representatives?

The answer, from ArmyTechnology's Richard Thomas: Nothing good.

The US midterms have delivered a huge win for the Democrats and upended the final years of Republican President Donald Trump’s time in the White House, with the result also offering the potential for significant changes to US defence spending and procurement programmes.

At the time of publishing, the Democrats had made sweeping gains in both the House and the Senate, seizing both, with the remaining results only serving to determine the margin of victory.

President Trump’s bumpy second term in office has made a significant play into US defence manufacturing and spending, as well as using the country’s military to force a regime change in Venezuela and now apparently stuck in an open-ended conflict with Iran.

That's the big picture, but there are three particularly ambitious new and proposed pieces of military hardware that will now be coming under the beady-eyed scrutiny of Hakeem Jeffries. Those are the Trump-class battleships, the F-47 fighter, and the Golden Dome missile-defense system. Here's Richard Thomas's assessment.

Here's my assessment.

First, the Trump-class battleship. This was likely an overly ambitious project in the first place, and likely won't survive in any upcoming appropriations in the Democrat-controlled House. This is no surprise, and it frankly wasn't all that likely that the Trump-class battleship would have made it through the acquisition process in any case. In this, I agree with Richard Thomas.

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Second, the F-47 fighter. This is a necessary development if the United States is to retain its ability to enforce not only air superiority but outright air dominance, and we should bear in mind that China is almost certainly developing its own sixth-generation fighters. The development of the F-47 is well underway and will continue, but if Democrats have any budgetary say in the matter, and they will, the numbers of F-47s will likely be cut. They'll push for redesignating it, as well; it's unlikely they will look fondly on the F-47's intentional homage to the 47th president. This, again, aligns pretty well with Mr. Thomas's estimate.

Third, the Golden Dome missile-defense program. About this, Mr. Thomas says:

According to Dabbiru, Golden Dome will most likely be “trimmed down” rather than cancelled outright, with lawmakers challenging its most ambitious elements, such as space-based systems and the idea of an ‘orbital shield’, which would carry significant price tags.

“A more realistic outcome is that funding shifts towards practical upgrades for existing ground-based radars, interceptors, and regional defences,” Dabbiru suggested.

I'm not so sure. It's more of a gut-level instinct, but I don't see the Golden Dome surviving in any form. It's associated with President Trump and it's associated with Israel's Iron Dome, and Democrats have no love for the president or Israel. Mostly, though, it's likely that Democrats just don't take any missile threat to the American heartland seriously. That may prove a calamitous mistake, but that's how it seems to be at the moment.

There's also the B-21 bomber, but that project is already well underway, with the first aircraft expected to enter service in 2027, so I wouldn't expect too much change there, except perhaps for some scaling back of acquisitions.

Our men and women in service should be a little apprehensive. The world is only going to grow more dangerous in the next decade or two, as we approach what may well be a fourth turning; and congressional Democrats are very likely to put our armed forces on a diet of crusts.