US Democrats win both chambers, leaving Trump weakened

Democrats have won control of both chambers of the US Congress in the 2026 midterm elections, leaving President Donald Trump to serve his final two years in office without a party majority on Capitol Hill.

CNA reported that Democrats needed a net gain of three Republican-held House seats and four Senate seats. By its count at the time of writing, they had flipped 21 in the House and seven in the Senate. Euronews called the result one of the most crushing defeats in modern American political history. Trump's name was not on the ballot.

European officials and legislators are working on the assumption that a weakened president turns outward. "He will be more a 'mad dog' than a 'lame duck'," an EU diplomat told Euronews, using the term for a president who spends his last years facing a hostile Congress.

Brando Benifei, an Italian centre-left MEP who chairs the European Parliament's delegation for relations with the US, told Euronews that Trump "could pursue an even more erratic foreign policy over the next two years", with decisions on Ukraine and the Middle East that "will have a significant impact on us".

The war in Iran began on 28 February and has raised energy prices in Europe. Iran has largely blocked the Strait of Hormuz since then, apart from a brief reopening in June, Euronews reported. "The elections themselves will not bring down energy prices. What matters is whether the United States and Iran move towards de-escalation," Romanian centre-right MEP Virgil-Daniel Popescu told the outlet. Trump has since played down the prospect of further strikes while saying the US remains "locked and loaded". Dimitar Likov, of the Brussels-based Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, told Euronews he did not see that happening soon, citing what he called Trump's chaotic military intervention and the domestic position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Congress can declare war and legislate to end military involvement, but a veto override needs two-thirds in both chambers.

On Ukraine, a Democratic Congress is expected to press Trump to keep supplying air defence systems and ballistic missile interceptors. "We hope this change will result in a smoother delivery of military aid to Ukraine," a diplomat told Euronews. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in Berlin on Tuesday before the result was known, stressed the importance of continued US and European support. Russia said it hoped the outcome would not affect Trump's efforts to negotiate what Moscow calls a peace settlement.

The US announced the withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany in May and opened a six-month review of its force posture in Europe in June, due around the end of the year. The Pentagon cannot go below 76,000 soldiers in Europe in 2026 without certifying to Congress that it would not harm US or NATO security, Euronews reported. David McAllister, the EPP MEP who chairs the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, told the outlet that a shift in the balance of power does not guarantee a change, and that Europe must do more for its own defence.

Trade policy stays largely in Trump's hands. A deal struck in July 2025 sets US tariffs on most EU goods at 15% and commits the EU to removing tariffs on US industrial goods, while US steel tariffs stand at 50%, a rate Brussels is trying to reduce. EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said on Wednesday that respect for the Turnberry deal was "of paramount importance" and that he continues regular contacts with US counterparts. Pasquale Tridico, an MEP from The Left, said the agreement needs a review.

Writing for CNA, Kevin Chen of Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies argued Trump could prove an "angry duck", pointing to his 2019 national emergency declaration to fund a border wall after Congress refused. He wrote that presidents keep wide latitude in foreign policy, noting George W Bush went ahead with the 2007 troop surge in Iraq despite the 2006 midterms. Chen saw no immediate effects for Asia, and noted Trump's two meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping fall before the new House opens in January 2027.