Конец формы
2 November 2026
as from minute 11.00
As we approach the U.S. midterm elections tomorrow, global media have made this the number one news feature, and News X World is no different in this regard. Already yesterday afternoon, the likely impact of the loss of one or two houses of Congress by the Republicans was the line of questioning addressed to me.
In this 10-minute interview I was given ample opportunity to explain that if Trump loses the House, even if he loses the Senate as well it will have no impact at all on his foreign policy initiatives, only on his domestic agenda. Even putting aside the very assertive behavior of Donald Trump, in general he enjoys a king’s royal prerogatives in foreign policy, as do most heads of state and government in countries around the world. Moreover, the constitutional constraints on his exercise of power in this domain as stated in the rights and obligations of the Senate have not been exercised by the Senate for 50 years or more.
Least of all will a Democratic victory tomorrow taking both houses of Congress have any impact on Trump’s policy with respect to Russia. The reality of politics in America is that the overwhelming majority of members of Congress and of the Washington-based foreign policy establishment is deeply anti-Russian. When you consider that the vicious sanctions imposed on Russia by the Lindsey Graham Act passed the Senate in an 89-11 vote, when you consider that the arm in arm partner of the Republican Graham in his anti-Moscow antics was the Democratic Senator from the state of Connecticut, my Harvard ’67 classmate Richard Blumenthal, then you must appreciate that Trump has been and will in future ride roughshod over the wishes of both parties as regards his approach to settling the Russia-Ukraine War whatever the composition of the Congress that takes its seats in January 2027.
This is not to say that other foreign and defense initiatives of Trump are invulnerable to the outcome of tomorrow’s balloting. The Iran War will likely be subjected to much greater scrutiny and to a cut-off of financing if the Democrats take control of Congress. Power of the purse is the one lever that the legislature has against a president and sometimes actually uses. The same may apply to the 1.5 trillion that Trump and Pete Hegseth want to get from Congress for the War Department in 2027.
But in most other areas of foreign and defense policy which are not budgetary approval dependent, Trump will continue to be Trump. He will continue the work of dismantling NATO, of removing the US forces from the Middle East by provoking Iranian destruction of all American assets in the region, and the like. Is this the work of an imbecile, of someone in advanced senility? Absolutely not, and it is a great pity that nearly all of my peers are missing the obvious reality of Trump’s ambitions.
News X World have scheduled an interview on Wednesday to go over at length the results of the elections and what affect they will have on Trump’s remaining two years in office.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2026
P.S. – as readers of these pages may note, my determination with respect to Trump’s ability to continue his foreign policy initiatives in the face of an electoral defeat in the mid-term voting represents a change in my thinking that has been prompted by points of view expressed by experts in U.S. domestic policy appearing in media these past several weeks. My concern that should he lose the Senate Trump would once again face impeachment procedures that would consume all of his energy has been allayed by the argument that this time, two years from his departure from office, the Democrats will not try to bring him down as they did at the very start of his first presidency. Instead, their efforts will be concentrated on preparing their own presidential candidates and policy positions for the next round of elections. It will be quite sufficient for them to impeach Pete Hegseth, which will have little bearing on Trump’s management of foreign and defense policy.
