Democrats won back majorities in both the House and the Senate in the US midterm elections, a result the Kyoto Shimbun called in an editorial a sharp no to "Trump politics" — the unilateral policies the president has forced through at home and abroad.
The editorial said anger over the Iran strikes, high tariffs and the inflation and inequality that followed plainly drove voters, and that the result will deal a heavy blow to the president's running of the government over his remaining two years in office.
Trump has said he accepts the outcome, but has also dangled vetoes of bills and resolutions passed by a Democratic-led Congress. The editorial argued he should take the clearly expressed will of the people seriously, drop his high-handed posture and quickly correct policies that have stalled.
A landslide, and a verdict on the president
Midterms often serve as a judgment on the sitting president and frequently go badly for the governing party. This time the headwind far exceeded forecasts, producing a landslide for the Democrats.
In the House the party cleared the majority by a wide margin. In the Senate it won in Kansas, a conservative stronghold in the Midwest, for the first time in 94 years, and in Texas in the South for the first time in 38 years, sweeping the battleground states.
The editorial described the Republican rout as historic and said Trump brought it on himself. He returned to the presidency two years ago on discontent with inflation under the Biden administration, it said, and broke the public's trust soon after.
Alongside baseless high-tariff policies, the Iran strikes he launched himself have bogged down and pushed energy prices higher still. Voters left to carry the burden hit back hard, the editorial said.
It also pointed to widening alarm over the way power is used. Trump has concentrated authority in himself and forced through measures that trample conventional norms and law, including repressive immigration enforcement and the dismantling of administrative agencies, while his words and actions continue to stoke partisan conflict and division.
Toward the end of the campaign, anger grew over revelations that Trump and his family had joined with wealthy figures to reap huge profits in crypto assets and elsewhere. In opinion polls, concern about "corruption in the administration" outweighed worries over inflation and immigration policy, helping push his approval rating to a record-low 31 percent.
Divided government, and a warning for Tokyo
With the presidency and both chambers now split, the Democrats are expected to push bills to bring down prices and to go on the offensive over suspected illicit enrichment by the administration. Trump may respond with a flood of vetoes and executive orders.
If confrontation intensifies and deliberation of bills and the budget descends into chaos, it is the public that loses, the editorial said. It asked whether US politics as a whole can overcome division, rebuild livelihoods and show the resilience of a democratic nation.
The editorial also warned that if Trump, impatient for diplomatic wins to secure his legacy, turns to deals on the "rule of force" by courting China and Russia, world order will be further shaken. In that situation, it said, Japan needs to work multilaterally with Europe and others to advance the rule of law and international cooperation, rather than leaning one-sidedly on the United States.