The beginning of the end of Trumpism?
Tuesday’s Democratic sweep suggests the president’s star may be waning

As the dust settles on Tuesday’s US state and local elections, many are hailing a political earthquake.
For the first time in years, the Democrats have made significant gains at state level. Beyond the headline wins in Virginia and New Jersey, hundreds of state seats fell to progressives, even in traditionally conservative districts.
A year on from Trump’s shock election victory, it is hard not to link the president’s 38% approval rating with the Democrats’ victories.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
They “enjoyed particular success in the type of high-income suburban areas that the Clinton campaign was convinced would be sufficiently repulsed by Donald Trump to overwhelmingly back her”, says Ben Jacobs in The Guardian.
Following a shaky performance in 2016, the Democrats have romped home, “reinforcing a growing cultural chasm between white non-college educated voters and the rest of the electorate”, Jacobs adds.
But “as significant as all these wins are in their own right, they will also help shape the political future”, says The New York Times.
Coupled with the ever-growing list of moderate Republican congressmen and senators announcing their retirement in the face of hostility from the far-right, the results could galvanise progressive Democrats to stand, and win, seats they previously have not contested, tipping the balance of power in Congress.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight has declared the Democrats to now be “slight favourites to retake the House [of Representatives] in 2018” - something that until this week had seemed unlikely.
Highlighting the divisions within the Republican Party, Trump mouthpiece Breitbart yesterday denied Tuesday’s results were a repudiation of the president, claiming it "would be more accurate to point out that, once again, the Republican establishment came up short”.
Not so, says The New Yorker. Since last year, “the president’s leverage over Congress has depended in part upon the belief that Republican voters now identified more strongly with Trump than with conservative ideology or the party”, meaning the way for Republican candidates to win office is to stick to Trump’s themes.
Yet following the rout in Virginia, “the questions now will be about whether even Trump can afford to stay loyal to Trumpism”.
He “remains the most powerful person in the country, if not the world”, says The New York Times, “but the election results show that he also remains the weakest first-year president in modern history”.
-
October 5 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday's political cartoons include half-truth hucksters, Capitol lockdown, and more
-
Jaguar Land Rover’s cyber bailout
Talking Point Should the government do more to protect business from the ‘cyber shockwave’?
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Russia: already at war with Europe?
Talking Point As Kremlin begins ‘cranking up attacks’ on Ukraine’s European allies, questions about future action remain unanswered
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
‘This isn’t just semantics’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Miami Freedom Tower’s MAGA library squeeze
THE EXPLAINER Plans to place Donald Trump’s presidential library next to an iconic symbol of Florida’s Cuban immigrant community has South Florida divided
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
YouTube to pay Trump $22M over Jan. 6 expulsion
Speed Read The president accused the company of censorship following the suspension of accounts post-Capitol riot