For the GOP, Trump's campaign for congressional gerrymandering is becoming more complex.

2025, in Washington, President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the McDonald's Impact Summit.

The strategy was straightforward, as President Donald Trump explained to reporters last summer.

The Trump claimed that Republicans were "entitled" to additional seats in other red states as well as five more conservative-leaning U.S. House seats in Texas. In order to prevent losing control of Congress in the next midterm elections, the president defied almost a century of political convention by ordering the GOP to redraw those maps in the middle of the decade.

Four months later, Trump’s audacious ask looks anything but simple. After a federal court panel struck down Republicans’ new map in Texas on Tuesday, the entire exercise holds the potential to net Democrats more winnable seats in the House instead.

According to Rick Hasen, a law professor at UCLA, "Trump may have let the genie out of the bottle, but he may not get the wish he'd hoped for."

In order to prevent Republicans from losing control of the House in the upcoming elections, Trump intends to strengthen his party's slim lead. In the midterm elections, the president's party typically loses seats. However, his participation in redistricting is now serving as an example of the president's power limitations.

Trump is depending on a convoluted political process to maintain Republicans' hold on power in Washington.

A complex web of legal regulations must be navigated in the decentralized process of redrawing maps. Additionally, it includes a complex political calculation because lawmakers who have the authority to create maps frequently prioritize protecting local communities, corporate interests, or themselves over mercilessly advancing their party.

Additionally, active gerrymandering—drawing lines to help one party win elections—runs the risk of encouraging the opposition party to follow suit.

In order to capture five seats, Trump ultimately succeeded in encouraging voters in California to switch from a map created by a nonpartisan panel to one created by Democrats. The Texas Republicans' action would be nullified if the move is successful. That design, which gives Democrats more winnable districts, was approved by California voters earlier this month. If a Republican challenge is unsuccessful, it will continue to be in force even if Texas stays stuck.

Following the Texas decision, Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom wrote on X, "Donald Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned -- and democracy won." He included both the president and his Republican counterpart in Texas.

Republican Representative Kevin Kiley, whose district in northern California will be altered under the state's new plan, concurred.

"When you look at the map, it could very well end up being a net loss for Republicans, or at the very least, it could end up being a wash," Kiley stated. However, it is something that should never have occurred. It was poorly thought out from the beginning.