Democrats Win Both Houses of Congress: Trump Responds With a Cap That Says "Veto"

Americans voted on 3 November and, according to preliminary results, the Democrats won both the House of Representatives and the Senate. From January they hold both chambers of the legislature. Over there they call it a "blue wave", and the colour spilled into places that for decades voted nothing but red.

Texas and Kansas got their first Democratic senators in decades - James Talarico and Adam Hamilton. In Texas, Talarico beat the Republican attorney general Ken Paxton. Democrats also took Senate seats in Ohio, Iowa, North and South Carolina, while the governor's mansions in Texas, Georgia and Ohio went to Gina Hinojosa, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Amy Acton.

NBC's exit polls give the reason without much need for interpretation. Trump's job performance is approved by 38 percent of voters, while 62 percent disapprove. More than three quarters are unhappy with Congress, and almost half said they saw the election as a chance to voice their dissatisfaction with the president. According to the same polls, Trump may end up with the lowest rating any president has had at a midterm.

His answer came on election night: a photo of a cap that says "Veto". He said he would work with the Democrats, but also that he would veto everything they send him. "I think we'll work together and get along very well. If that's not the case, we'll be very tough on them, and they'll be tough on us," Trump said. One hand extended, a stick in the other.

Later, in a phone interview with the Wall Street Journal, he admitted that the war with Iran, which he started earlier this year, was part of the defeat. "Iran was a part of it," he said, but immediately added that he has no regrets: "I don't think about it. I did the right thing. I'd do it again." The biggest burden, in his view, was not the war but the higher oil prices. And the main problem? "I wasn't on the ballot."

That explanation is worth reading twice. The party loses in Texas, Kansas and South Carolina, approval drops in many states, and the conclusion is that the problem was the leader himself not being on the ticket. Trump also said he plans no personnel changes and stood behind defence secretary Pete Hegseth, who led the war effort: "I think he's actually great." About some of the losing candidates, several of them with his endorsement, he said they "could have been better".

On the other side, the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, could become the first African American to lead the chamber. He said that with the victory "the great American comeback begins", and the Democrats have already signalled they could open investigations into the work of Trump, members of his family and the administration. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, said that "relief is on the way".

What follows is two years in which Congress investigates and the president vetoes. A politician who loses an election and blames it on not being on the ballot - how many times have we heard the same explanation in the Balkans, just with different names?