Democrats win both US chambers in midterms, a setback for Trump's Republicans

Democrats have won majorities in both chambers of Congress in the US midterm elections, according to projections reported on 4 November 2026, a clear setback for Donald Trump and his Republicans. Trump was not on the ballot, but the result limits his room for manoeuvre at home for the rest of his term. Abroad, he keeps considerable power over foreign policy, which is why governments from Berlin to Beijing are assessing what comes next.

Democrats take both chambers

Projections give the Democrats 54 of the 100 Senate seats and the Republicans 44, while Alaska and Mississippi had not yet produced interim results. In the House, the Democrats had won 228 of the 435 seats and the Republicans 139 so far. Republicans lost in traditional strongholds such as Texas and Kansas, and Democrats also took Senate seats in Texas, South Carolina, Kansas and Iowa, which had been Republican bastions. In several classically conservative states, Democratic candidates also won governor races.

Democrats54

Republicans44

Democrats

54 seats

Republicans

44 seats

Data from the article text

Democrats228

Republicans139

Democrats

228 seats

Republicans

139 seats

Data from the article text

Berlin: congratulations and caution

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government declined to assess the outcome. A government spokesperson said the United States remains an important partner and that Germany would keep close cooperation with Washington while pressing its own interests, including a stable international order, rules-based trade and a strong NATO. Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil, who leads the SPD, congratulated the Democrats on their decisive win in Berlin and said it gave cause for confidence.

“Our hand is extended.”

Defence minister Boris Pistorius congratulated the Democrats and praised their victory, but he said the government in Washington, which has two years left in office, would still be worked with in good faith. He said Berlin would also seek close contact with the Democrats.

“But we will, just as in the past, also seek close contact with the Democrats.”

Trump's foreign policy and the transatlantic question

CDU foreign policy politician Jürgen Hardt called the result a verdict on the president's foreign policy and said he hoped for more sense from Washington. He noted that Trump had used the military abroad more than many predecessors, a contradiction that he said had come back to haunt him. SPD foreign policy spokesman Adis Ahmetovic called it a heavy defeat for Trump but said the president remained unpredictable in security policy. Peter Beyer, a CDU foreign policy politician and former transatlantic coordinator, expects continuity in security and economic policy and says Trump's approach could become even more aggressive. He pointed to the approval, a few days earlier, of a sale of 500 Patriot missiles to Kyiv that Europeans will pay for. Marcel Fratzscher of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) called the result a positive signal for the world economy, arguing that Congress could use its budget powers to limit Trump's Iran policy and that this could lower energy prices.

Reactions beyond Germany

China's foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing on 4 November that the result was an internal affair of the United States and that China was ready to implement the agreements reached by Xi Jinping and Trump. Iran's supreme leader Modschtaba Chamenei said Washington's hostility would not change through a change of party power or concessions, and warned that Iran's response to any new US aggression would be far harsher. In Israel, rivals of Benjamin Netanyahu said the change in Congress was a defeat for him because he had squandered decades of bipartisan US backing. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Moscow hoped Trump would keep up his peace efforts in Ukraine. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expects a new era in international relations. French finance minister Roland Lescure said Trump remains the decisive voice in US foreign policy but stays unpredictable, while Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez read the result as a rejection of right-wing politics. Austrian foreign minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said Europe must strengthen its own capabilities regardless of the US vote.

AfD distances itself from Trump

AfD foreign policy spokesman Markus Frohnmaier pointed to clear differences with Trump on tariffs and Iran policy, while saying the party shares broad worldview goals with the Republicans on defending cultural and national identities, migration control and opposing left-wing ideology. AfD leader Alice Weidel said the defeat resulted from broken promises.

“Trump had promised his voters not to pursue an interventionist foreign policy.”

Weidel said Trump had broken that promise with the attack on Iran. Bernd Baumann, the AfD's parliamentary business manager, blamed Trump for unnecessary mistakes, citing tariffs that pushed up inflation and the continuing Iran conflict and blockade of the Strait of Hormuz that drove up energy prices. He said Trump's successor should be a capable Republican, since Trump cannot stand again after his second term.