“It can only be read as a repudiation of Trump”: Daniel Geary on the US mid-terms
Posted on: 04 November 2026
"I think the polls had suggested the Democrats would have a very good night, but it turned out to be really a great night for them. Not just the scale of the victories, I suppose, but the places where they won, where you wouldn’t have thought they would have stood much of a chance at all, or where they hadn’t won in a very, very long time."
The outcome of the US mid-term elections must be read as a wholehearted rejection of Republican President Donald J Trump, and all that he has done, according to Daniel Geary, Mark Pigott Professor of U.S. History at Trinity College Dublin.
In an interview with Trinity Communications, Prof. Geary said: “I think the polls had suggested the Democrats would have a very good night, but it turned out to be really a great night for them. Not just the scale of the victories, I suppose, but the places where they won, where you wouldn’t have thought they would have stood much of a chance at all, or where they hadn’t won in a very, very long time.
“I think the mood is very discontented, in particular with Donald Trump’s policies. And I think the election can only be read as a repudiation of what he’s done in his past two years in office.”
Overnight, the US Democrats have won both the Senate and the House in US midterm elections, taking control of Congress for the rest of Donald Trump's presidency. Democrats picked up a string of victories in Republican strongholds like Texas, South Carolina and Kansas.
Prof. Geary said he believed the change will restrict President Trump’s actions for the rest of his presidency. “Because the budget needs to go through Congress, through both houses of Congress, and now this will need to be negotiated with Trump. And also, they [Democrats] have the ability to hold hearings, to hold people in the Trump administration to account. And while I don’t think they’ll try to impeach Trump himself again, they could impeach some members of his cabinet, especially, I’d say, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth.”
And what’s next for Donald J Trump himself? Prof. Geary said his relatively muted immediate reaction may be telling. “You know, I wonder about Trump, because he’s not a lifelong Republican. He’s not like a Marine Le Pen or that kind of type who’s highly identified with the party and with the movement. So to some extent, and this is maybe hopeful, he might be dissociating himself a bit and saying, well, look, the Republicans are hopeless without me; they can’t win unless I’m actually on the ballot.
“Which would be the way we’d like him to react, rather than, you know, attempting to overturn electoral results or using other undemocratic mechanisms to try to retain power. I think that would have been a lot more likely if the election had been close.”
ENDS