US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party has received a stunning rebuke in the US midterm elections.
asserted
Party → receive → elections
Republicans went into the evening hoping that the polls might be wrong and that they could at least cling on to control of the Senate.
uncertain
they → go → Senate
But by midnight in Washington, the GOP was staring down what looked like its worst defeat in 50 years.
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what → star → years
Republican losses were not just confined to the type of swing districts that parties usually worry about on election night.
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parties → confine → night
They lost Senate seats in deep red states such as Texas and South Carolina.
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They → lose → Texas
They lost districts they had gerrymandered and in which they were supposed to be unbeatable.
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they → lose → which
They lost seats that even the sharpest analysts thought were safe.
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analysts → lose → seats
For months, surveys have shown that voters are fed up with high prices, with the war in Iran, and with what is increasingly being talked about as the Trump administration’s corruption.
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what → show → corruption
A president who was narrowly elected on the promise of a steady economic hand instead spent two years pursuing an extreme ideological agenda, favoured only by a minority of Americans.
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who → elect → Americans
He ignored what voters were saying, and now they have delivered a harsh verdict.
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they → ignore → verdict
But these results have implications beyond just the remainder of Trump’s presidency.
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results → have → presidency
They break some of the patterns that have defined American politics for decades.
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that → break → decades
Democrats are suddenly winning in places where they have been counted out for a generation.
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they → win → generation
Suddenly, the American political map looks different.
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map → look → ?
US President Donald Trump’s Republican Party suffered a landslide defeat in the midterms.
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Party → suffer → midterms
What does that mean for the world?
Take Texas.
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mean → mean → Texas
The last time a Democrat won election as a senator there was 1988.
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Democrat → win → senator
Democrats have not won a presidential election in Texas since Jimmy Carter in 1976.
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Democrats → win → 1976
Yet last night, Democrat James Talarico powered to a convincing victory.
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Talarico → power → victory
If elections in Texas become politically competitive on a permanent basis, it will become much harder for Republicans to take the presidency in the future.
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Republicans → become → future
The Republican Party will now be looking nervously towards the 2028 election.
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Party → look → election
For the first time since 2016, there is likely to be a serious debate within the party about whether to move on from the aggressive nationalism and bigotry of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
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America → be → movement
Democrats, meanwhile, face their own questions about how to capitalise on their victories.
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Democrats → face → victories
But for the rest of the world, change might not come so quickly.
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change → come → world
Despite the fact that his party has suffered this electoral setback, Trump remains president until 2028.
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Trump → suffer → 2028
And because, despite its constitutional role in declaring war and ratifying treaties, Congress tends to be less involved in foreign policy, there is still a lot that he can do with that power.
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he → declare → power
Indeed, US presidents whose parties perform badly in midterm elections often become more active in foreign policy than they had previously.
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they → perform → policy
With the chance of passing a significant domestic agenda mostly beyond their reach, they have more time on their hands to think about America’s relations with the rest of the world.
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they → pass → world
The fact that the midterms are over also means that Trump no longer has to be so careful about the political consequences of his actions.
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Trump → mean → actions
As the midterm elections got closer, the president backed down from major military confrontation with Iran and sought a truce in his tariff wars.
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president → get → wars
Now, with political constraints lifted, he could become more erratic and unpredictable.
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he → lift → ?
Congress would not be completely powerless to stop him, at least in theory.
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Congress → stop → theory
But most actions it can take — such as cutting off funding for the war with Iran or seizing tariff power back from the president — require margins of control in both chambers that Democrats are unlikely to have, despite their formidable victories.
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Democrats → take → victories
They would need to have a two-thirds majority to override an almost certain presidential veto on any attempt to pass laws to achieve these outcomes.
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They → need → outcomes
So a key question is whether this midterm drubbing was serious enough to make some Republican members of Congress get serious about joining Democrats in restraining Trump.
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members → make → Trump
Something that Democrats will definitely be able to do is launch all manner of investigations into the conduct of the Trump administration and some of its officials.
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Democrats → do → officials
Their efforts are likely to focus on the war with Iran, Trump’s personal financial dealings with foreign leaders, and the management of the Pentagon by ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth.
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efforts → focus → Hegseth
Hegseth, indeed, could be an early casualty of these efforts — there is speculation that he will resign or be fired rather than face possible impeachment.
But ultimately, a change of direction in US foreign policy depends on the decisions of Trump himself.
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change → be → Trump
A changing of the guard among his advisers, or in Congress, can only do so much to influence a president who has never willingly submitted to constraint.
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who → do → constraint
The world should prepare itself for the possibility that a politically wounded and angry Trump could now decide to vent his frustrations abroad.
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Trump → prepare → frustrations
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
