November 5, 2026  | By Katrin Bennhold |
Good morning, world. The word “historic” is overused in journalism. But now that we know the results of the U.S. midterms, it feels apt. There were a lot of firsts.
In the end it wasn’t just a blue wave; it was a blue tsunami. (Which may also explain why President Trump told The New York Times on election night that he wouldn’t contest the results.)
The Democrats are poised to control both houses of Congress, confronting a lame duck president heading into the last two years of his second and final term. Today I write about what that means for America and for the world.
Also:
| Coalition talks begin in Israel A lifesaving maternal care solution How vintage T-shirts get more vintage |
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| James Talarico is the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in Texas since 1988. Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times |
The beginning of the end?
There are multiple ways the U.S. midterm elections made history this week.
A Black woman was elected governor for the first time in U.S. history (in Georgia). Native American women were elected as governor (in New Mexico) and as senator (in Minnesota) for the first time.
America will have its first Muslim senator (from Michigan) and its first openly gay male senator (from New Hampshire). There’s now a former Paralympian in the Senate and the first Gen Z woman in the House.
You’d be forgiven for missing all these, though, because they’ve been overshadowed by the scale of the blue tsunami that just swept through America.
Texas — where Elon Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars supporting the Republicans, and where a Democrat hadn’t won statewide office in three decades — elected both a Democratic senator and a Democratic governor. Kansas now has its first Democratic senator since the Great Depression.
It will most likely take a few weeks to process the fallout. But at this point, the results are so stunning that many are seeing in this election not just a reckoning for Republicans, but a seismic shift in American politics: the beginning of the end of the Trump era.
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| In Atlanta on Tuesday evening. Nicole Craine for The New York Times |
A ‘stinging rebuke’
More than any of his predecessors, Trump tried to make the midterms a referendum on himself. He asked voters to “pretend I’m on the ballot,” not once or twice but 47 times.
They did. And they delivered what my colleague Peter Baker calls “a stinging rebuke” to a president who, after dominating the national stage for more than a decade, has become deeply unpopular.
The broad-based coalition that returned Trump to the White House in 2024, when he won over Latino men and nearly doubled his support among Black voters, has collapsed. This chart by my colleagues shows every single American constituency swinging left.
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| The New York Times |
There are many reasons for that. Americans are angry. Many told pollsters that they felt betrayed by Trump. He promised to end wars and bring down prices. Instead he started a war and sent prices at the gas pump soaring. He promised to “drain the swamp” and instead made more than $2 billion in his first year in office, helping propel voter concerns about corruption to heights they rarely reach.
And while many wanted him to close the border, they were uncomfortable with the heavy-handed ICE raids, the arrests targeting people who had been living in the country for years, and the deaths of multiple people, including U.S. citizens, in encounters with immigration officers.
The result: Despite eye-watering levels of pro-Trump campaign spending, despite multiple efforts by the Trump administration to interfere with voter rolls, and despite aggressive redistricting that tried to redraw the electoral map to favor Republicans, the Democrats’ margin of victory in the overall national vote for the House was about 13 percentage points. That’s the biggest win either party has lodged in a congressional election since at least 1976.
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| President Trump in Washington on Tuesday. Anna Rose Layden for The New York Times |
Checks and balances
As a Trump ally told Peter, pundits have written Trump’s political obituary before, only to be proved wrong.
Still, something does seem different about this moment. Trump isn’t eligible to run for the presidency again. The scale of the wipeout has also hurt his credibility when it comes to selecting a successor: His handpicked candidates in some of the midterms’ most important races lost.
In other words, Trump’s power within his party has taken a hit. And Democrats are eager to use their new control of Congress to constrain him further. As my colleague Annie Karni recently explained, Democrats plan to use their oversight powers to investigate the administration on issues related to corruption, including the pardon industry that has emerged around Trump, and what Annie calls the “rivers of cryptocurrency” that are flowing into the government and the Trump family.
They’re also planning “a shock-and-awe legislative sprint,” with bills that, in addition to addressing domestic issues like health care funding, will try to scrap Trump’s tariffs and force a vote on the war in Iran.
On these last ambitions, though, they might only get so far. That’s the thing about lame ducks. Trump might be diminished — but he’s still commander in chief.
On domestic issues, Congress might be able to restrain Trump some.
But even though the Democrats’ new majorities are relatively large, they’re not big enough to override Trump’s vetoes. And without the ability to pass legislation that Trump doesn’t approve of, Democrats may struggle to show concrete results on their priority issues.
When it comes to foreign policy, it’s even harder. American presidents have enormous leeway to act alone. Some analysts have wondered whether Trump’s losses at home might even make him more inclined to make big moves overseas — including, perhaps, escalating the Iran war, now that he no longer has to worry about electoral consequences. Congress could try to exercise control — but its power to do so would be limited, as my colleague David Sanger explained this week.
If this is the beginning of the end of the Trump era, it won’t necessarily be stable or quiet. Donald Trump is president for another two years. And he is not known for going quietly.
Watch Peter Baker explain in the video below what makes these election results so striking.
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| Click to watch. The New York Times |
| “The reason we lost is the war,” said Vice President JD Vance, who is seen as a likely presidential candidate in 2028.Trump’s enemies and frenemies abroad did not hide their glee at the election results, with celebrations in Iran, China, South Africa and in Brussels. Far-right leaders offered muted reactions.Meet the new generation of Democratic stars who triumphed in the midterms. |
TOP OF THE WORLD
| The most clicked link in your newsletter yesterday was the updates on the midterm elections. That is no longer live, but here’s the inside story of team Trump’s collapse. |
Our U.S. politics coverage is still free in The New York Times app for a limited time.
| MORE TOP NEWS |
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| Kin Cheung/Associated Press |
| Thirty-year-old Joshua Wong, a key figure in pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on conspiracy to collude with foreign forces. Israel’s president began two days of meetings with party leaders to decide who will get the first chance to form a government. Helen Zille, a white woman who has been criticized for her stances on race, could become the next mayor of Johannesburg in South Africa’s local elections. |
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING
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| A photograph released by Vatican media showing Pope Leo and Bob Dylan on Wednesday. Vatican Media |
| Bob Dylan met with the pope. There was no singing.Herbert Blomstedt, a conductor who appeared with the world’s finest orchestras, died at 99. John Frieda, the British hairstylist who created era-defining looks for royals and Hollywood stars, died at 75. |
| SPORTS |
Running: A 24-year-old runner with a rare muscle condition died during the New York City Marathon.
| FASHION HACK OF THE DAY |
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| Owen Richards for The New York Times |
Fade farms
Some savvy vintage sellers have found a quicker way to achieve that coveted worn-in look. One man in the north of England has filled a field with wooden posts draped in T-shirts. The shirts gently flap in the breeze while he hoses them down with salt water and dries them in the sun. Similar “farms” have cropped up in West Virginia, France and Thailand.
| MORNING READ |
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| Taiwo Aina for The New York Times |
Postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal death around the world, affecting one in every 10 women who give birth. At least 70,000 women die from it each year, often because it is surprisingly difficult to tell if they are losing too much blood.
A low-cost, low-tech intervention was pioneered in maternity wards in Africa, and is now saving lives across the continent. A maternal drape — a piece of thin plastic the size of a cookie sheet with a pouch on one end — helps health workers notice blood loss quickly and then respond with a “bundle” of medications. Read more about the maternal drape.
| AROUND THE WORLD |
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| Lauren DeCicca for The New York Times |
The curse of Colonel Sanders
In some Thai hospitals, an enduring superstition holds that ordering KFC during a shift will bring a sudden surge of emergency cases.
A group of surgeons decided to compare chicken consumption at work with hospital caseloads. The resulting inquiry offered a look into the psychology of folklore and offered clues about why even highly educated people cling to irrational omens. Read more about the supposed KFC curse.
| RECOMMENDATIONS |
Discover: Norman Foster’s newest design is a pair of watches.
Gift: Want to score points this holiday season? Give someone a pet portrait.
Read: Here are six books we love, including a cartoon memoir featuring a horny pony.
Trend-set: The New York fashion label SC103 offers clothes that show off their craft.
| RECIPE |
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| Joe Lingeman for The New York Times |
This one-pan seared shrimp is inspired by peperonata, the classic summer dish of stewed bell peppers from southern Italy. Serve the whole thing straight from the skillet with crusty bread, or spoon it over rice, orzo or creamy polenta.
