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Donald Trump
CommentUnited States
Andrew Sheng
Andrew Sheng

Opinion | All in all, US midterm results are but a blip in the great populist revolt

  • Andrew Sheng says election gains by the Democrats and the predictable Trump tweets that followed show that America is fundamentally divided over values
  • The fear and anger that drive the rise of the right will continue to propel the dismantling of the old international order

Reading Time:4 minutes
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A Donald Trump supporter attends the election night party of Wisconsin’s Republican governor Scott Walker, who was narrowly defeated by Democrat Tom Evers in a race seen as a key test of partisan control in the Midwest. The Democrats may have regained the majority in the House of Representatives, but the Republican Party is now Trump’s to direct. Photo: Reuters
Andrew Sheng
Elections are supposed to be a period of exciting campaigns, after which everyone goes back to business as usual. In Tuesday’s US midterm elections, the Democrats regained the House of Representatives and the Republicans increased their majority in the Senate. The next day, President Donald Trump held an ill-tempered press conference during which he called CNN an enemy of the people and then, immediately after the conference, tweeted his thanks to attorney general Jeff Sessions for his services as he dismissed him. 
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In this firing, Trump did not lose a beat in his relentless campaign for 2020 re-election. Expect in the next two years more fire and fury for not just America, but the rest of the world.
Trump saw the midterm results as a “tremendous success” and “Big Victory”, mainly because his campaigning for three key Senate seats made the difference for his Republican candidates.

Moreover, large numbers of his supporters came out to vote. If the estimated voter turnout of 114 million proves correct, it would be the biggest in the midterms since 1970. The Republican Party is now his to direct.

Watch: Trump clashes with the media in the post-election press conference

Nevertheless, the election was a vote on his performance to date. Surprisingly, even though the US economy has been doing well, the swing to the Democrats showed that America is fundamentally divided over different values.

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