A stinging rebuke to Donald Trump

Democrats have taken the Senate, the House, a string of Republican strongholds, and the Republicans are blaming the war in Iran.

The World Bulletin is sent to The Spinoff Members weekly. Become a member today.

I wrote last week that democracy wasn't dead, and wow, did America just come to the party. A blue tsunami came crashing down on Donald Trump last night. 

He was dealt a devastating blow to his authority with a succession of crushing defeats in the midterm elections, in which his Republican party was stripped of control of the Senate and the House as his handpicked “MAGA” candidates fell one after the other.

The elections were “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans,” said Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, according to the Fox News station in Tallahassee.

Commentators agreed.

"Trump’s slapdown by America is one for the ages," chief US commentator Edward Luce wrote in the Financial Times (paywalled). "Democrats will now control both chambers of the US Congress in a result that even Trump might find 'too big to rig'."

As of Thursday morning New Zealand time, Democrats had flipped seven seats in the Senate to take an astonishing 54, giving them easy control of the upper house. And they had 228 seats in the House of Representatives, 10 more than they needed to seize control, according to the New York Times. And votes are still being counted.

Elon Musk was also a big loser. He had spent at least US $474m (NZ$842m) on the midterms, almost half on Texas alone. Now he has fewer allies in Congress and could create new political obstacles in Texas, where Tesla, SpaceX and other Musk ventures have major operations, CNBC reported.

Flipping Republican strongholds

Democrats racked up historic victories across the country, flipping seats in unlikely places, including Republican strongholds like Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, Ohio and Texas. Democrats also flipped four governorships, in Georgia, Texas, Ohio and Iowa.

James Talarico became the first Democrat to be sent by Texas to the US Senate since 1988, and Greg Abbott, the most powerful and well-resourced governor in modern Texas history, lost to Democrat Gina Hinojosa.

Deep red Texas had proven impervious to blue waves in the past, but Democrats were hopeful this year, the Texas Tribune reported. "But nothing could have prepared either side for what happened Tuesday night – a full flip of statewide political control on a scale unseen in this state since Reconstruction."

Kansas elected a Democratic senator for the first time since 1932. In New Hampshire, Chris Pappas made history as the first out gay man elected to the U.S. Senate, Axios reported.

And Michigan elected Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Socialist in the Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mould who will become the first Muslim American to serve in the Senate. Trump and other prominent Republicans invoked Islamophobic stereotypes to portray El-Sayed as a threat to American security.

The incoming senator wasted no time in trolling the president. "My name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, he said to a cheering crowd at the Michigan Democratic Party’s election watch party in downtown Detroit, saying the name his Republican detractors had sometimes used like a slur. "I am so proud and honoured to stand here as your senator-elect," he said, according to Michigan Live.

Vance blames Iran war for rout

Already, Trump is standing his ground on Iran, saying the attacks were justified, even as he acknowledged the sharp rise in gas prices led to the Democratic rout of Congress.

“We actually have the greatest economy, but because of the gasoline price, people don’t see it as much as they would have without it. And the gasoline was caused by Iran,” he told Fox News.

Trump, of course, took none of the blame. He declared on social media: "I wasn’t on the Ballot and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!"

But Vice President JD Vance – widely viewed as a potential 2028 Republican presidential contender – bluntly blamed the Iran war for the party's election-night humiliation. 

"The reason we lost is the war," said Vance on X. "The president himself said so last night. If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so... But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there."

Iran wasted no time in seizing on Trump's defeat. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said US military power and global diplomatic influence suffered “irreversible decline” under the Trump government.

“As a result of the arrogance of the oppressors, the waning power and dominance of America has suffered an irreversible collapse in both the hard military power and the soft international power dimensions, and its process of disintegration has been accelerated," Khamenei said in a statement on Telegram, according to Al Jazeera.

Iran's ambassador to Egypt straight-out gloated; “Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind,” said Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour.

What next? 

With this stinging rebuke come expectations, abroad as well as at home, that a hitherto unbridled president can be restrained, Flavia Krause-Jackson writes for Bloomberg.

Whether he will is another question, as is which version of Trump the world will now see after the US midterm elections: a slightly conciliatory president showing willingness to work with Democrats, or a defiant “Mr. Veto.”

"A weakened and humiliated Trump could react in a number of ways on the global stage that, true to his nature, remain highly unpredictable," Krause-Jackson writes.

The most immediate test internationally will be his next move in Iran.

The choices remain escalation – which Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu strongly advocates – or finding an off-ramp that offers relief on energy prices.

Among the speculation: fresh strikes against Iran, an even deeper rupture with Europe over Ukraine, and possible military intervention in Cuba.

James Crabtree, a distinguished visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told CNA that the president could pursue more dramatic moves overseas, including renewed military action against Iran, “to wrest control of the narrative”.

Buckle up, world.