Donald Trump posted a document on social media this summer by a supposed historian that compared him with, among others, Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler.
asserted
that → post → Bonaparte
That now seems fitting: the US president has himself fought one battle too many, and appears to have brought about his own destruction.
asserted
president → seem → destruction
Tuesday’s US midterm elections were a thumping, shellacking and extinction-level event rolled into one.
asserted
elections → thump → one
Ruby-red Republican strongholds once deemed safe toppled like dominoes.
asserted
strongholds → deem → dominoes
Democrats won Senate seats for the first time in Kansas since 1932, in Texas since 1988 and in South Carolina since 1998.
asserted
Democrats → win → 1998
The House of Representatives and Senate had flipped from one party to the other in the same midterm just three times since the second world war – in 1946, 1994 and 2006 – but now it has happened again, ensuring that the US Congress will be a bulwark against Trump’s expansion of executive power.
asserted
Congress → flip → power
The president, who swiftly noted he was not on the ticket on Tuesday, is the architect of his own lame duck status.
asserted
he → note → status
Indeed, having spent months repeatedly urging voters to pretend he was on the ticket, he could hardly have done any more to sabotage his own party.
uncertain
he → spend → party
In 2024 he won the presidency promising to lower prices and end foreign wars; his tariffs added to upward pressure on prices, and his ill-starred attack on Iran pushed them higher still.
asserted
attack → win → them
Then there was Trump’s wild and bizarre campaign, which consisted of long and rambling speeches about architectural projects, outbursts of vile Islamophobia and musings about the “ass” of a Republican senator from Ohio.
asserted
which → be → Ohio
It culminated at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, where he declared victory in the war on algae.
asserted
he → culminate → algae
The voters said: enough is enough.
asserted
enough → say → ?
According to exit polls from the Associated Press, voters said the cost of living and government corruption were their two top issues.
uncertain
cost → accord → living
Trump, who was purported to be an economic populist, had flaunted his self-enrichment and fancy ballroom even as people struggled to put food on the table.
asserted
people → purport → table
How will Trump cope with this new political reality?
asserted
Trump → cope → reality
From January, Democrats will have the power to block legislation, launch investigations into Trump’s administration and thwart his judicial and senior government appointments.
asserted
Democrats → have → appointments
Life could suddenly become uncomfortable for the likes of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, or Big Tech leaders such as Elon Musk.
uncertain
Life → become → Musk
Democrats might even consider impeaching Trump for a third time.
uncertain
Democrats → consider → time
That potentially leaves the president under siege – a diminished figure mired in Washington gridlock and reduced to wielding a veto pen, which he had already starting threatening to use on Tuesday evening.
asserted
he → leave → evening
However, it must be said that Trump paid little attention to Congress during his first two years in office, apart from the passage of his Big, Beautiful Act of tax and spending measures.
asserted
Trump → say → measures
He has acted unilaterally on tariffs and military strikes on Venezuela and Iran.
asserted
He → act → Venezuela
Like his predecessors, he will surely continue to pursue foreign policy as a legacy project, an alarming prospect for the world.
asserted
he → continue → world
He will also push on with his other obsession: giving Washington a radical makeover with a new White House ballroom, a triumphal arch and more gold.
asserted
He → push → ballroom
Congress might take the view that this is a relatively harmless activity to keep him occupied compared to the havoc he could be wreaking elsewhere.
uncertain
he → take → havoc
The race to succeed him in 2028 begins now.
asserted
race → succeed → 2028
This president is psychologically ill-equipped to deal with the prospect of the national spotlight leaving him to focus on JD Vance, Marco Rubio and other potential candidates.
asserted
spotlight → equip → Vance
That shift could also eat away at Trump’s cult-like dominance of the Republican party and the Maga movement.
uncertain
shift → eat → party
He has shaped the party in his own image for a decade and it will not easily snap back.
asserted
it → shape → decade
But members of Congress picking through the wreckage of Tuesday may well conclude that Trump is a creature of the past – and their survival depends on placing the right bets on the future.
uncertain
survival → pick → future
Every swing of the electoral pendulum gets over-interpreted.
asserted
swing → interpret → pendulum
Trump’s two presidential election victories were seen as a fundamental shift in America, even though he never achieved 50% of the national popular vote.
asserted
he → see → vote
His defeat in 2020 was hailed as the end of the Trump era, only for him to rise from the political dead four years later.
asserted
him → hail → dead
Anyone re-proclaiming the end of that era after Tuesday’s landslide should remember that the president is not yet halfway through his second term, and that his id will relish the prospect of fighting Democrats.
asserted
d → re → Democrats
A wounded Trump who feels he has nothing to lose over the next two years might turn out to be the most reckless and dangerous of all.
uncertain
he → wound → all
The Aporia
