{"text":[[{"start":5.12,"text":"Tuesday night looks like the beginning of the end of Donald Trump. His response to what amounts to America’s stinging personal midterm rebuke is likely to be volatile. Yet it is hard to see how he could claw his way back from such a strong Democratic wave having urged voters to act as though his name were on the ballot. Against advice, Trump turned the elections into a referendum on him. He thus owns the historic scale of the Republican defeat."}],[{"start":30.92,"text":"There were plenty of other losers on Tuesday night. Elon Musk, who pumped more than $200mn of his own money into the Texas Senate race, learnt that even historically large donations can’t buy you love or results against so strong a public swing. His candidate, Ken Paxton, lost to Democratic nominee James Talarico, who was not even born the last time a Democrat won a Texas Senate seat. It was also a disastrous night for the once-powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which spent a lot of money trying to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan. El-Sayed is set to become the first Muslim senator in US history having also got the votes of a majority of Michigan’s Jewish vote, according to exit polls."}],[{"start":74.6,"text":"It was also a terrible night for Vivek Ramaswamy, the bombastic Trump understudy, who was defeated in Ohio’s gubernatorial race. He might now bow out from politics having spent a large chunk of his personal fortune on what was seen only a few months ago as a safe bet. Likewise, the late Lindsey Graham would be turning in his proverbial grave to watch his recently appointed sister, Darline Graham, lose his long-held South Carolina seat to a Democrat — the first time the party has won a Senate race there in almost 30 years. Many other landmarks will be passed in America’s 2026 midterms in what early numbers suggest was a historically high turnout. America seems finally to have fallen out of Trump’s spell."}],[{"start":115.52,"text":"In each race, Trump’s heavy-handed input boomeranged. In a telephone interview with me an hour before the first polling stations closed, Trump said he had been energised by the enthusiasm he saw on his recent frenetic campaign schedule. Presidents normally strive to keep their name out of the headlines in midterm elections. Many avoid the hustings altogether. Trump covered the map with the energy of a far younger person yet seems only to have exacerbated his party’s electoral quagmire."}],[{"start":145.42,"text":"Not only did Trump thrust himself into the centre of each news cycle; he went out of his way to belittle the electorate’s chief concerns. Affordability was a “Dumocrat [sic] hoax”, Trump insisted. Though the Iran war and its inflationary effects was a dominant theme, Trump told voters he had kept every promise. One of those was to avoid wars in the Middle East. Some believe that he showed clear signs of cognitive decline. “I’ve actually kept far more promises than I made,” Trump cryptically suggested the day before the election."}],[{"start":176,"text":"Perhaps his most psychologically wayward choice was to deliver his big campaign closing speech in front of Washington’s Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool — a Trump obsession that few Americans seem to share. In the annals of US political campaigning, no more bizarre closing argument can have been tried. The majority of Trump’s one-hour election eve peroration was about the pool."}],[{"start":197.72,"text":"“The reflecting pool right now looks better than it ever looked,” Trump said, having claimed that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden tried and failed to upgrade the water feature. “We’re replacing all of the grass and all of the parks. Because like the human being, grass has a life also.” Some members of Trump’s White House staff watching it on television reportedly buried their faces in their hands as he spoke."}],[{"start":221.88,"text":"Democrats will now control both chambers of the US Congress in a result that even Trump might find “too big to rig”. There are two immediate consequences. The first is that the Republican campaign to replace him as the 2028 nominee will begin straightaway. Indeed, Ron DeSantis, the outgoing governor of Florida, arguably kicked that off before the polls had even closed. Without naming Trump, he said no public official should make money from holding office. That suggests an anti-corruption backlash following an election where that theme topped many recent polls."}],[{"start":254.08,"text":"The second consequence is that Trump’s unpredictability is likely to become an even larger feature of his presidency. To those who oppose him, Tuesday night was a lightning strike. But Trump is rarely outbid in the drama stakes. Whichever way he reacts, the 2026 result will change America’s course. The 2018 Republican midterm defeat was the end of Trump’s beginning, to borrow Churchill’s phrase. This week’s high turnout a decade after Trump descended that escalator spells the beginning of his end."}],[{"start":287.96,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793781743_1297.mp3"}