US allies see chastened Trump but fear midterm backlash

Many foreign governments welcomed the Democrats' sweeping midterm gains on Wednesday as a sign that President Donald Trump now faces new limits on his power, especially over Iran. They also warned that a weakened Trump could prove more disruptive in his final two years, according to Bloomberg reporting carried by The Straits Times.straitstimes.com

"On international affairs, he remains in charge," French Finance Minister Roland Lescure told RMC radio on November 4. "You know how unpredictable the US president can be." He said Trump would either acknowledge that "things need to change" or he would not, and that "we're going to have to watch this closely over the coming days".straitstimes.com

A rebuke at home

Democrats took both the House and the Senate in what the Associated Press called a decisive rebuke driven by high prices, the Iran war and concerns about corruption. They flipped Senate seats in Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, Maine and North Carolina, CNN projected. Trump said he would accept the results, and he told The Wall Street Journal that "Iran was a piece of it". He also posted an image of a red cap reading "VETO".edition.cnn.com+1

Trump told the Financial Times he had no immediate plans to escalate with Tehran. Even so, some European officials have privately worried for weeks that he might do so after the vote. One senior official told EU colleagues not to expect a real improvement in transatlantic ties. The new Congress will not take over for another two months.straitstimes.com

Mixed signals abroad

"The remainder of President Trump's term will be marked by impeachments, vetoes and a certain paralysis," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis told reporters. "On the other hand, of course, Trump will simply do whatever he wants." He added that he hoped Trump would end the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Americans had voted "NO TO WAR." Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said Moscow would not change its approach to Ukraine.straitstimes.com

China responded cautiously. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called the elections "a domestic affair" and said Beijing stands ready to keep working with Washington to carry out the consensus reached by the two leaders, PTI reported via The Economic Times. Xi Jinping and Trump have held two summits this year. Mao said talks are under way on a possible meeting of Xi, Trump and Vladimir Putin at the APEC summit in Shenzhen on November 18–19.economictimes.com

Bilahari Kausikan, Singapore's former top foreign ministry official, predicted "no major change of policy direction" on China, Iran or tariffs. "If I were a gambling man, I would give even odds that Trump will feel 'liberated' and double down on what he wants to do".straitstimes.com