TRUMP’S FOREIGN POLICY COULD NOW CHANGE

The votes have now been counted in the first US national election of the Donald Trump era and, as expected, the Democrats have seized majority control of the House of Representatives, significantly shifting the political balance of power away from Trump’s party. The president’s Republican Party expanded its majority control of the US Senate, but the Democrats now have real power for the first time in two years.

This result was not as clear a repudiation of the president and his party as voters delivered against Barack Obama’s Democrats in 2010, but it is significant nonetheless. Much more than Obama and other presidents of the past, Trump invited voters and the media to treat this election as a referendum on his performance in the White House. Angry Democrats, and a good number of voters unaffiliated with either party, turned out to vote against him in large numbers.

Where does president Trump go from here? How will the new reality in Washington influence his foreign policy? First, Trump will face a heightened level of political pressure from the opposition party. With their House majority, Democrats have new powers to investigate the president, win access to White House and personal Trump documents that may deeply embarrass him, and force members of his administration, perhaps even his family, to testify under oath before Congress on a wide variety of questions.

There will also be pressure on the Democratic House majority to impeach the president. Democrats will likely wait until Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivers a report on possible criminal conspiracy between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government and the possibility that Trump has obstructed justice during the investigation.

President Trump will respond to

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