Key facts
- Democrats won both the House and Senate, a result the report described as a repudiation of Trump's two-year record.
- A European diplomat in Brussels said the result was larger than expected and that pressure was expected to intensify.
- Diplomats said Democratic control of Congress creates openings to press appropriators on Ukraine aid and on limiting Trump's tariffs.
- Few European officials believed the result would be a panacea for transatlantic ties, according to the report.
Democrats won control of both chambers of the US Congress in the midterm elections, a result European officials welcomed on November 4, 2026, according to a South China Morning Post report. The report described the outcome as a rebuke of US President Donald Trump's two-year record.
Few in Europe believed the result would be a panacea for transatlantic ties, the report said, and relief was tempered by the prospect of a backlash from Trump. The report described the two years before the vote as a period in which the transatlantic alliance came close to breaking and deep divisions opened in the Western coalition.
A European diplomat based in Brussels said the scale of the Democratic win exceeded expectations. "I was expecting Trump to take a beating, but not a chainsaw massacre like this," the diplomat said, adding: "We're expecting pressure to intensify."
Diplomats and foreign officials said Democratic control of the House and Senate cannot do much to constrain Trump, who the report said had broken norms, laid claim to entire countries and abandoned traditional international alliances. They said it does create more opportunities to advance their agendas, chiefly pressing congressional appropriators to restore US support for Ukraine and to limit Trump's punitive tariffs.