In American politics, even presidential power has its limits. And now, the laws of political gravity may finally be catching up with Donald Trump's hyper-aggressive exercise of executive authority. Following what political scientist Ian Bremmer describes as the most consequential electoral reversal for a governing party in more than half…
Page A230From§Eachthe morning edition — 6 November 2026
World leaders grant Trump two more years; his own party is already distancing itself.
As it ran on the front
Today we are making a roast with its timer set in somebody else's kitchen, which is not a dish you can get over here. You will need one president with two years left on that timer, one approval rating of 32 percent recorded on 2 November, one day before the midterm elections, and a great many people elsewhere who have already done the sums on when it comes out of the oven. A midterm is the vote held two years into a four-year term; it cannot remove a president, only his majority.
Clive Timer. I've been on a deadline since March and nobody has offered me so much as a word for it.
Gary You've had the same deadline since March and drafted nothing but excuses. I'll have the toaster in pieces before you finish a stanza.
You will be looking for the vote that removes him early. There is no such vote; the midterms are not that, and nothing here says otherwise. What happened instead is quieter: Republicans began distancing themselves from the president after the midterms, and on American television Jimmy Fallon asked whether the only person left standing by him would turn out to be Melania.
Keith A toaster in pieces still sells for parts if you list it right. I'll have 'Distancing' tea towels off the line by Thursday, no faces, all profit.
Clive Profit. You'd monetise a habit of criticizing if you could, Keith — and knowing you, the invoice is already drafted.
Gary Drafted. Everything of his is 'drafted' and never finished, same as the invoice, same as the poem, same as the washing-up rota.
France 24 has the headline as 'Leaders all over the world understand that Trump is only there for two more years & then he's gone,' crediting the political scientist Ian Bremmer with calling the midterms 'the most consequential electoral reversal for a governing party in more than half a century.' The same week, the New York Times had Fallon's joke about Melania.
The party, taken by both ends and turned over, shows the same thing underneath: the New York Times has Republicans distancing themselves from the president since the midterms. On 26 October, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth term in Brazil, defeating Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence; American Democrats and world leaders congratulated a president who criticises this one.
By the same week, the promise called 'America First' had already gone back in the pan unfinished, and the discontent had reached past the usual opposition into his own coalition.
This serves the leaders who have done the arithmetic on who comes after him, and a party rearranging its own seating for that. The people still waiting on the promise pay for both, with two years left on a clock nobody in this kitchen set.
Rob The boiler's been out since March as well, and we're still two years off anyone fixing that, same clock as everyone else's.
“Thirty-two percent approval one day before his own party even voted, and now Republicans are the ones backing out the door — that's not loyalty, that's math. World leaders did the math too: Bremmer's calling it the biggest reversal for a ruling party in fifty years, while foreign leaders line up to congratulate Lula like Trump's already yesterday's news. Fine, laugh at the lame duck — he's still got two years left to sign whatever he wants before anybody can stop him.”
“Look, every White House loses seats at the midterm, that's just how it works, and polling at this stage is noise, it's nothing — did I just call our own numbers noise? Scratch that. The point is strength isn't measured by some professor in Europe calling it "historic," it's measured by results, and the president's got two more years to deliver plenty of those, so honestly, this isn't even a story.”
Earlier in this story
- Billionaire held in contempt over Epstein ties sues incoming oversight chair for $7.25 million over repeating it By Lou · the evening edition, 5 November 2026
The receipts
“Wouldn’t it be ironic if the only person who stands by Trump is Melania?” Jimmy Fallon said after Republicans began distancing themselves from the president after the midterms.
Is Trump losing the support of the very coalition that brought him back to power? Just one day before the midterm elections, Trump's approval rating stands at 32%, one of the lowest ever recorded at this stage of a presidency. And discontent is growing beyond Democratic voters.
· Democrats, world leaders congratulate Trump critic Lula on reelection in Brazil from the morgue, 26 Oct 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.