Paper: Reading the US midterm results — signals and consequences / researcher Mansour Abu Karim

A paper titled:

A reading of the results of the American midterm elections: indications and repercussions

Prepared by: Mr Mansour Abu Karim, researcher specialised in political affairs and international relations

Introduction:

The American political system is marked by the balance of the executive, legislative, and judicial powers; yet the American constitution grants the executive power, embodied in the American president, wider powers in managing public affairs. It is the one that holds the reins of matters: the task of leadership lies in preserving the cohesion of society's fabric from every internal or external threat, and this task cannot be performed except with the presence of power — power makes unity, and when leadership loses power it thereby loses its existence. The executive power's role in public policies stands out in the process of public-policy making, especially in the frame of foreign and military policy, where its role in the majority of political systems, if not all of them, is greatly prominent. “James Anderson” pointed in his book Public Policymaking to the executive power's importance, saying that we live in a stage called the stage of executive dominance, in which the government's effectiveness rests entirely on the executive leadership in drawing and implementing public policies.

Although the American constitution granted the American president great powers, it granted Congress (the parliament) great powers in drawing the internal and foreign policies of the United States of America — which gives the legislative elections great importance. The importance of the American midterm elections this time followed from their coming roughly two years after the current American president Donald Trump took the reins in the White House, amid the escalating intensity of the controversy around his internal and foreign policies — which made the American midterm elections count as a popular referendum on his internal and foreign policies. This opens the door to raising several questions about the reflection of the American midterm elections' results on the American interior after the Democratic Party's takeover of the House of Representatives — and on the Trump administration's foreign policy, especially toward the Middle East region — amid the Republican Party's continued hold on the Senate.

First: the results of the midterm elections

The results of the elections — the full renewal of the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate — came in keeping with the expectations of the opinion polls, which gave the Democratic Party the advantage in winning the majority in the House of Representatives against the Republicans' continued superiority in the Senate.

The Democrats won 234 seats in the House of Representatives, against the Republicans obtaining 199 seats, while two seats had not yet been decided — at a rate of (52.1%) for the Democrats against (46.1%) for the Republicans; the Republican Party thus lost 39 seats in the House of Representatives to the Democratic Party's benefit, making their winning of the House majority the first in 8 years, according to the latest statistic of the American newspaper the New York Times ^([1]). In return, the Republican Party managed to keep the majority in the Senate, holding 51 seats against 43 for the Democratic Party, according to the latest unofficial result shown by the “CNN” network. The Democrats regained their majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in years, despite the expectations that ruled that out given the party's need to win states that had voted for Trump and the Republicans, such as Indiana, West Virginia, Montana, and North Dakota ^([2]).

The Democrats achieved a great victory in the American midterm elections by seizing control of the House of Representatives; yet the awaited “blue wave” against the American president Donald Trump did not happen! This Democratic victory will shackle the work of the forty-fifth president of the United States in the second half of his term until the year 2020. The Democrats' leader in the House of Representatives, “Nancy Pelosi”, pledged “to restore the checks and accountability the constitution set down over the Trump administration”, promising in return that “a Democratic Congress will work on solutions that bring us together, because we are all weary of the divisions”^(([3].

The legislative elections are held in the middle of the term of the president of the United States, which lasts four years — hence the name “midterm elections”. In these elections all the seats of the House of Representatives, numbering 435, are renewed, in addition to 35 of the Senate's 100 seats, and the governors of 36 states. These elections also coincide in some areas with the municipal or local elections. Many states allow voting for a few days or weeks before election day, by post or at the polling stations already open. For this reason Americans interact on social-media platforms to say they have voted^([4]). The Democrats achieved their victory early after securing their win in each of Washington, Miami, Detroit, Denver, Philadelphia, and New Jersey, while expectations pointed to the possibility of the Democrats winning 35 seats instead of the 23 seats they needed to secure the majority ^([5]).

The opinion polls had described the American midterm elections — which saw the election of a new House of Representatives and a third of the Senate alongside the choosing of governors for a large number of states — as revealing themselves one of the most divisive elections in recent memory, and one followed intensely as well. The American newspaper “USA Today” said that in general the numbers point to the same likely results the polls had pointed to over months: that despite the strong economic performance with the Republicans' hold on Congress and the White House, the Democrats hold the advantage, even if their lead in the race had retreated somewhat from what it was a few months earlier. A poll conducted by the “Washington Post” and the “ABC News” network found that 52% would choose a Democrat in Congress, while 44% said they would elect a Republican. A poll conducted by the “Wall Street Journal” and the “NBC” network found similar results: 50% of the participants' votes would go to the Democrats, granting them control of Congress, while 43% preferred the Republicans^([6]). During the electoral campaign the Democrats played on the benefits of health insurance within the frame of the “Obamacare” system, which the Republicans threaten to repeal, while the Republicans relied on the country's good economic health. But Donald Trump took part and applied the same recipe of 2016: dividing America through denouncing immigration, criticising the elites and the media, and the issues relating to family and religion^([7]).

Second: a strong showing for women and minorities

The results of the American midterm elections held in the United States on Tuesday 6 November 2018 produced new, diverse faces that will be able to enter the famous Capitol building for the first time in its history. Among the most prominent of those faces are young progressives, Muslim women, and representatives of the indigenous population.

These elections were marked by heavy participation from youth, the middle class, and the minorities — which had always formed the natural base of the Democratic Party, but whose participation retreated in past years because of the party's own policy and its heading toward the centre-right. Striking in the American midterm elections is women's distinguished presence in the elections: the number of winning women rose by more than 15 women in the two chambers. As for youth, the important presence of the minorities likewise stood out clearly^([8]).

The midterm elections, which count as a referendum on Trump's policies, showed a sharp division in American society — specifically around the internal policies such as immigration, education, health insurance, women, and minorities' rights, and not necessarily around foreign policy, because local issues predominate in the legislative elections.

These elections comprised many precedents: the Democrat from Kansas “Sharice Davids”, the lawyer devoted to the martial arts, won to become the first American of the indigenous population to enter Congress with her victory in a conservative district. And in Colorado (west), “Jared Polis” became the first state governor open about being gay ^([9]).

Likewise “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”, 29 years of age and of Latin American descent, who entered the national political arena with force, was elected a member of the House of Representatives, thereby becoming the youngest congresswoman. Thanks to her strong left-wing programme, this young woman — who previously worked as a waitress and a teacher, and worked on Bernie Sanders's electoral campaign in 2016 — won her working-class district in New York, stretching between the Bronx neighbourhood where she grew up in a modest family, and the Queens neighbourhood^([10]).

“Ayanna Pressley” registered as the first black woman to represent the state of Massachusetts. This Democratic representative for Boston (44 years) will be the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in Congress. “Pressley” managed to defeat “Mike Capuano” in the Democrats' primary elections in an electoral district counted among the most left-leaning in the United States, comprising the greater part of Boston and Harvard University. Pressley considered, like “Ocasio-Cortez”, that her election falls within the frame of the need for better representation in the era of the women's “Me Too” movement. When she won the primary elections she denounced the American president Donald Trump, describing him as “a racist who hates women” ^([11])

The midterm elections saw two Muslim women win two seats in the American Congress for the first time — the Democrats “Rashida Tlaib” and “Ilhan Omar”. Tlaib is a candidate for the state of Michigan, while Omar is a candidate for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in the state of Minnesota. Tlaib is supported by the “Democratic Socialists of America” — a rising left-wing group that also includes the Democrats' candidate in New York. In addition to Omar being one of the first Muslim women in Congress, she will also be the first American member of Somali origin: she will take the seat of “Keith Ellison”, the first Muslim elected as a member of Congress ^([12]). In addition to the election of “Sharice Davids” and “Deb Haaland” as the first two representatives of the indigenous population: these two Democrats were elected to membership of the House of Representatives for the states of Kansas and New Mexico respectively, becoming the first two women of the indigenous population to enter Congress^([13]).

The American midterm elections were marked by the arrival at Capitol Hill of a historic number of women, of candidates contesting elections for the first time, and of candidates of relatively weak funding — most of them contesting the elections for the Democratic Party. The number of women who reached Congress according to the latest results was 100 women, the largest number in history, according to the “New York Times”. The “Washington Post” likewise mentioned that the midterm elections' results yielded “one of the most diverse groups in American history, bringing a wave of state governors and members of the Senate and House who will break barriers centuries old”^([14]).

The midterm elections wrote a new chapter in the history of the United States, with women winning a larger number of House seats than ever in the chamber's history, and representatives of the ethnic minorities within the United States of America entering the American Congress — making the new Congress an oasis of ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity. This means an increase in the communities' role in influencing American political life — meaning that in the coming presidential elections the minorities will have an influential word.

Third: the results' reflection on the American interior

The midterm elections drew the features of the current and near-future political reality in the United States, and were likewise considered an indicator of certain changes that had come over American voters' orientations two years after president Donald Trump's arrival at the White House. The ending of single-party control of the reins of power represented the most prominent result of election day, after the Democratic Party seized the majority within the House of Representatives from the Republicans by obtaining at least 35 seats, securing the majority in the chamber formed of 435 seats according to the American media ^([15]).

This victory will authorise the Democratic representatives to impose institutional oversight on Trump's presidency — the role the Republicans chose not to perform given his complete hold on the right — which will affect the White House's agenda in passing a number of files fundamental in Trump's eyes. This victory will shed light on the tactics the American president followed before the midterm elections, which rested on attacking the Democrats and using “racist language” when taking up matters such as immigration, instead of resting on matters such as the American economy ^([16]).

The most effective tool of the House of Representatives remains the power of the budget(9): the constitution sets down that no funds may be drawn from the American public treasury without appropriations from the chamber, which grants it great power to influence policy. The Republican Congress itself used the budget power to check Trump's policies last year, when the administration tried to cancel billions of dollars of foreign-aid funds and cut the budgets of the state department and the American agency for international development, months after Trump signed the appropriations law funding them; and in the face of Congress's anger, Trump's White House was forced to retreat at once^([17]).

The Democratic Party may not be able to stop Trump's policies or reverse them, but it will certainly constrain his capacity to pass his policies, especially the internal ones. It also constrains him in appointments. Most important of all, it will allow the Democratic Party to begin the procedures of impeaching the American president, should the investigations prove his involvement in grave offences — particularly in the matter of the Russian interference in the presidential elections; with the affirmation that it will not be able to remove him, because that also requires their obtaining a majority in the Senate, and this is not possible, because the Republicans control it. But should it happen, it will greatly affect Trump's political future ^([18]).

The former American president “Barack Obama” considered that the results of the midterm elections for the American Congress form “a beginning” of change, after the Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives. “Obama” said in a statement: “Our work continues. The change we need will not come from one ballot. It is a beginning”; last night, voters across the country set this process going”. The former Democratic president took part in the campaign forcefully. Despite the Democrats' failure to take the Senate, Obama stated he was confident that “attention” would centre on the majority regained in the House of Representatives and the governorships his party won. “Obama” praised the large number of women and “distinguished young leaders” and “candidates belonging to minorities”, and likewise praised the “record participation” in the ballot and the decisions voters settled at the state level, such as “strengthening the right to vote”^([19]).

Observers hold that the great rise in the participation rate in the elections, and the Democrats' seizure of the majority of House seats, stands as an objection to Trump's policies. The “New York Times” mentioned in its report on election day that “the liberals and Democrats united together to deliver a strong rebuke to Mr Trump, even as the Republicans strengthened their majority within the Senate by obtaining seats in some districts leaning in the conservative direction. The latest elections were marked by the Democrats' reliance on the support of voters in the major cities and the suburbs — the areas that had represented “fortresses of Republican strength but became the place of voters' recoil from the president's demagoguery in the race”, in the expression of the “New York Times”^([20]).

For the American president, losing the majority in the midterm elections can impede him from applying the programme for which he was elected two years earlier. And for Donald Trump, who holds more than 40 per cent positive opinions, the stake relates likewise to his candidacy for a second term in the year 2020 ^([21])

The elections' results showed quickly on Trump when he threatened on Wednesday 7 November to adopt “a warlike posture” against the Democrats should they use their new control of the House of Representatives to investigate his financial and political dealings — drawing a line at the start of a new era of divided government. The president began a post-election press conference with an offer to work across party lines, but a conciliatory tone soon turned into discord. The Democrats in the House likewise offered the traditional gesture toward the two parties, affirming that they would examine everything from Mr Trump's taxes to his campaign's ties with Russia in 2016 ^([22]).

For Trump, the midterm elections of 2018 were nothing but an early round of the awaited battle of his re-election in 2020; and looking from that angle alone, the American president's reactions appear greatly consistent — beginning with his scathing mockery of his losing Republican opponents, to his magnifying of the Senate victories and his minimising of the House defeat, and ending with his welcoming of his Democratic opponents' rise, to make use of their presence to ignite more of the verbal battles Trump excels at managing ^([23]).

“A tremendous success, or a worrying loss” — surveying the preliminary results of the midterm renewal elections for the American Congress, you find they are neither this nor that. One may borrow the American “Washington Post”'s description of these results as “a sad victory” for the American president Donald Trump and his Republican Party. Trump and the Republicans secured in those elections control of the Senate at 51%, while the Democratic Party contented itself with 43% of this chamber's members — 52 seats for the Republican Party against 44 for the Democratic; but the American president lost the comfortable majority in the American House of Representatives to the benefit of the Democrats, who came to control the House. The American “NBC News” network described the Democrats' victory as “an awl” in Trump's side that will strongly impede a large number of his policies and laws he seeks to pass ^([24]).

The midterm elections likewise represented a new and perhaps final proof of the waning of the traditional current in the Republican Party, and the entrenchment of Trump's hold on the American political right: the president can take pride that his party would not have offered this relatively good electoral performance without support from his own base of populist whites. With the traditional Republican current's distance from the spotlight, and the departure of Paul Ryan, the former House speaker and one of Trump's greatest rivals within the party, the road remains open before the president's current to speed the populist transformation within the party and pave the way for the rise of a new Republican majority in 2020, whose orientations are expected to look entirely different from those of the majority Ryan led during the past two years^([25]).

The Democrats, by winning the House majority, will be able to “impose institutional oversight” on Trump and end Republican control of the two chambers of the House and Senate — which will make the American president's passing of the right-wing agenda a difficult matter, according to the “CNN” television network. The American network said Trump's loss of states that had supported him and the Republican Party goes back to the “racist” language Trump used against his opponents in the Democratic Party, and his “racist” views toward thorny matters such as the issues of “immigration” and “the economy”. But the greatest source of worry, according to what the “Washington Post” mentioned, is that the House of Representatives can actually this time use major tools of intimidation against Trump, and wave for the first time the card of “impeachment” ^([26]).

But the divided Congress is expected not to strengthen the possibility of deeper investigations concerning the trade power Donald Trump exercises. That goes back fundamentally to the failure of the Democratic candidates who campaigned in opposition to Trump's agenda in the trade field to win the elections. During the past few months the American Congress saw many proposals focusing on the trade power granted Trump under article 232 of the trade expansion act of 1962. According to this article, the American president exercises his power to impose customs tariffs and quota systems on a wide scale under the pretext of national security. Passing the implementing legislation of any of the free agreements the White House may negotiate requires the House of Representatives' approval^([27]).

The American “Time” magazine noted a number of lessons learned from these elections as follows ^([28]):

– The 2020 presidential campaign begins at once and will be crazy: although the latest elections held no vote on Donald Trump, their results certainly send a message; the American president has remained the heart of the storm.

– The Democrats are rebuilding themselves but lack stars: the Democrats' attention centred on three candidates — “Stacey Abrams” in Georgia, “Andrew Gillum” in Florida, and “Beto O'Rourke” in Texas; the second and third lost, while the matter had not yet been decided for Abrams.

– The electoral map is certainly changing, but not clearly: the easy win the Democratic senator “Tim Kaine” achieved in Virginia showed it has become to a great degree a blue state now, while the state of Ohio seems to have turned to the Republicans after their great win there. The heated races in the states of Arizona, Georgia, and Texas point to their possibly becoming swing states. Meanwhile the Democrats' win in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania raises questions over whether Trump can repeat his narrow-margin win there as happened in 2016?

There is no doubt that the Democratic Party's winning of the majority in the House of Representatives will confound the Trump administration's calculations at the internal American level, amid the escalating intensity of the internal confrontation. The results of the American midterm elections showed clearly the extent of the division within American society around Trump's internal and foreign policies, and the results showed that the coming presidential elections will be the fiercest between the Democratic and Republican parties — the electoral campaign began with the closing of the American midterm ballot boxes.

Fourth: the elections' results' reflection on Trump's foreign policy

Usually the American midterm elections cause no effect on American foreign policy, coming two years after the president's election; but these elections carry a different weight — they stood as a popular referendum on Trump's internal and foreign policies, and they give a real indicator of Trump's capacity to carry out his internal and foreign policies, and make clear to what extent Trump can convince the American electorate to re-elect him.

The principal priority of the Democrats who now control the House of Representatives will be the attempt to preserve the state department's work as a vital institution. The House foreign-affairs committee under Democratic leadership is likely to increase attention to human rights at the world level — at a time when the Trump administration has largely abandoned the focus on rights violations and the strengthening of democracy. The committee under Democratic leadership is likely also to push for holding hearings on human-rights violations in many other countries, seeking to raise the defence of rights once more as a fundamental element in the foreign policy of the United States of America^([29]).

Despite the growing erosion of Congress's power in American politics — by force of the growing party alignment, the electoral motives that have come to govern representatives' decisions more than at any time, and the expanded powers the presidents have gained since the events of the eleventh of September 2001 — despite all that, Congress still holds great power in overseeing the policies of any American administration, including the power to declare war or stop it, and the capacity to organise the armed forces and regulate trade and immigration — through two principal tools: the first is withholding approval of any legislation the administration requests that comprises controversial policies and seeking to enact counter-legislation; the second tool is the power of the budget, whereby the chamber can fund the programmes it supports and withhold funds from those it does not^([30]).

On the plane of climate change, the expected House speaker “Nancy Pelosi” has already said the Democrats “will revive a select committee focused on climate change similar to that the Democrats funded from 2007 to early 2011” to prepare the way with evidence “for energy conservation and other legislation to mitigate climate change”, according to the New York Times. The Democrats will push especially to shed light on climate change — after Trump's exit from the Paris climate agreement the previous year — and its potentially grave consequences for migration, security, and trade in Asia. The Democrats on the House foreign-affairs committee are likely to push the White House to make clear how it intends to develop its trade strategy in Asia, which currently seems to rest on pushing bilateral deals with states including Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam; and the House Democrats will likely want the White House to make clearer whether any new bilateral agreements will rest on the model of the amended agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico^([31]).

With the Democrats' control of the House, New York's representative “Eliot Engel” will take the chairmanship of the House foreign-affairs committee. Engel and the other Democrats on the committee will probably hold several priorities. They will probably try to relaunch the legislation that would strengthen sanctions on any party, such as the Russian actors, who interfere in American elections in the future. Engel and the other Democrats are likely to increase the pressures on Russia in other ways, such as holding more hearings on the Russian (and perhaps) Chinese interference in the elections, and perhaps shedding light on the continuing gaps in American preparedness in the face of the external actors who interfere in elections ^([32]).

On the plane of the Middle East there will be no substantive change in the Trump administration's policy, whether in what relates to America's policy toward the principal states and actors or toward the Palestinian cause specifically; rather, Trump and the lobby around him are expected to try to hasten the passing of what is known as the deal of the century. But the change within Congress may have an echo on foreign policy through the Democratic Party leaders' opposition to the American decisions, especially toward the Palestinian cause after his controversial decisions toward Jerusalem and the refugees.

The professor of political science at the University of Jordan, “Sabri Samira”, made clear that “the great importance of these midterm elections comes because they give an indicator of the American voter's satisfaction concerning president Donald Trump's performance during the past period of his first term”. He expected these results to cause no great change in the Trump administration's foreign policy, “because American foreign policy is in the president's hand”; but he said “there may be a kind of internal counsel, away from the public eye, from the Congress leaderships to Trump and his secretary of state, to be calmer and more balanced in their dealing with the Palestinian cause”^([33]).

As for America's policy toward the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi: with the year's start Congress will become free in its decision to refocus on the policy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to strengthen the bipartisan forces needed to pass the legislation concerned with this purpose. Congress will take up reviewing the extent of the United States of America's cooperation with Saudi Arabia in its war on Yemen; this review will probably yield the imposition of at least some restrictions on American policy ^([34]). We may see a stricter approach followed, which could include an attempt to stop American arms sales to Saudi Arabia — a step that would gain the support of some influential Republicans as well. The Democrats on the foreign-affairs committee and the armed-services committee may push for more supervision of American military operations in Africa and the Middle East ^([35]).

The current American policy toward Iran will likely not fall among Congress's priorities: it will carry out no examination of the iniquitous American sanctions policy currently in effect. Worth mentioning is that all the decisions falling within the frame of the United States' policy toward Iran fall within the scope of the executive power. For its part, the Donald Trump administration raised the possibility of its seeking to conclude a treaty with Iran, which requires support from both parties. In return, the possibility of Iran's arrival at the negotiating table is exceedingly small ^([36]).

The midterm elections' results will not clearly affect American foreign policy, especially in the Middle East region, but they may have effects on certain sides of this policy — such as the arms deals with certain Arab states, the human-rights files, and other important issues. But the Democratic awakening in the midterm legislative elections will restore balance to internal politics and constrain Trump's capacity to take decisions and adopt policies — which may have an effect on his re-election two years on; yet at the same time it showed a sharp division in American society, despite Trump's describing it as a tremendous success.

Conclusion

The American midterm elections held on the sixth of November 2018 cast their shadows over the American political scene, after leading to mixed results — the Democratic Party obtaining the majority in the House of Representatives against the Republican Party strengthening its presence in the Senate; which confounded the Trump administration's internal and external calculations amid the many challenges it suffers at the internal and external levels.

The divided control of the American Congress between the Republican and Democratic parties represents the depth of the crisis the American political system suffers at the present time, and counts likewise as additional proof that the policy priorities the White House follows in certain areas will face greater resistance from the Democratic legislators — especially amid the inevitable clash between the two sides before the presidential-elections race in 2020. The Democratic Party's control of the House of Representatives will probably not greatly affect American foreign policy, but it will restore internal balance in the United States of America: these results will impede the Trump administration in applying its vision during the coming two years, and will increase the internal division between Republicans and Democrats around many political, economic, social, and cultural issues within American society — meaning that America, under Trump's rule, heads toward more political division.

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[1] House Election Results: Democrats Take Control, New York Times NOV. 11, 2018, https://goo.gl/6ygVLt

[2] The near-final results of the Congress elections: a thorn in Trump's side and a victory with the taste of defeat, Russia Today (RT) website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/p86Lmo

[3] The results of the American midterm elections: a “Democratic victory” in the House of Representatives shackles the work of the Trump administration, France 24 website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/VTsWyK

[4] Qorti, Rachid, All you want to know about the American midterm elections, Euronews website, 5 November 2018, at the following link https://goo.gl/7ApdqY

[5] The Democrats win the House majority for the first time in 8 years, CNN Arabic website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/87x4WF

[6] Abdel Hamid, Reem, Learn the results of the opinion polls on the American midterm elections a day before their holding, the Egyptian newspaper Youm7, 5 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/VCFMgc

[7] Qorti, Rachid, All you want to know about the American midterm elections, Euronews website, 5 November 2018, at the following link https://goo.gl/7ApdqY

[8] Shteiwi, Musa, The American midterm elections, Arabi 21 website, 10 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/7EoDCA

[9] The results of the American midterm elections: a “Democratic victory” in the House of Representatives shackles the work of the Trump administration, France 24 website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/VTsWyK

[10] Young progressives, representatives of minorities, and two Muslim women… new faces in the American Congress, France 24 website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/qiLZKE

[11] Young progressives, representatives of minorities, and two Muslim women… new faces in the American Congress, France 24 website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/qiLZKE

[12] The first two Muslim women in Congress… Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, CNN Arabic website, 7 November 2018, at the link: https://goo.gl/ardTau

[13] Young progressives, representatives of minorities, and two Muslim women — new faces in the American Congress, France 24 website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/qiLZKE

[14] What did the results of the American midterm Congress elections reveal?, Masrawy website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/ceTzRX

[15] What did the results of the American midterm Congress elections reveal?, Masrawy website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/ceTzRX

[16] What does the Democrats' winning of the American House majority mean?, CNN Arabic website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/zshMKT

[17] Judah Grunstein, Will the Midterm Elections Chasten Trump—or Provoke Him?, W.P.R, Nov. 7, 2018: https://goo.gl/NoqcKj

[18] Shteiwi, Musa, The American midterm elections, Arabi 21 website, 10 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/7EoDCA

[19] Obama commenting on the results of the midterm elections for the American Congress: “It is the beginning”, Russia Today, 8 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/9g6eUX

[20] What did the results of the American midterm Congress elections reveal?, Masrawy website, 7 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/ceTzRX

[21] Qorti, Rachid, All you want to know about the American midterm elections, Euronews website, 5 November 2018, at the following link https://goo.gl/7ApdqY

[22]Peter Baker and Michael D. Shear, Trump Vows ‘Warlike Posture’ if Democrats Investigate Him

Video, New York Times, November 7, at the following link: https://goo.gl/CK4w9t

[23] Al-Saeed, Mohammed, The American midterm elections. How did the Republicans lose and Trump win?, Al Jazeera Net, 11 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/K67UD4

[24] The near-final results of the Congress elections: a thorn in Trump's side and a victory with the taste of defeat, Russia Today, previous reference.

[25] Al-Saeed, Mohammed, The American midterm elections. How did the Republicans lose and Trump win?, previous reference

[26] The previous reference

[27] A look at the geopolitical repercussions of the American midterm elections, the Stratfor intelligence centre, translated by Noon Post, 8 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/uTcsfW

[28] Abdel Hamid, Reem, The lessons learned from the American midterm elections, and the battle of the presidency 2020 begins at once, the Egyptian newspaper Youm7, 9 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/8Y1NZo

[29] Joshua Kurlantzick, How Will the Midterm Elections Affect U.S. Foreign Policy? Council on Foreign Relations, November 7, 2018, https://goo.gl/c2Ez15

[30]James Goldgeier and Elizabeth N. Saunders, The Unconstrained Presidency, Foreign Policy. https://goo.gl/uCrCXm

[31] Joshua Kurlantzick, How Will the Midterm Elections Affect U.S. Foreign Policy? Council on Foreign Relations, November 7, 2018, https://goo.gl/c2Ez15

[32] Joshua Kurlantzick, How Will the Midterm Elections Affect U.S. Foreign Policy? Council on Foreign Relations, November 7, 2018, https://goo.gl/c2Ez15

[33] Saqr, Ahmed, What is the effect of the American elections' results on the Palestinian cause?, Arabi 21 website, 8 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/RWddWf

[34] A look at the geopolitical repercussions of the American midterm elections, the Stratfor intelligence centre, translated by Noon Post, 8 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/uTcsfW

[35] Joshua Kurlantzick, How Will the Midterm Elections Affect U.S. Foreign Policy? Council on Foreign Relations, November 7, 2018, https://goo.gl/c2Ez15

[36] A look at the geopolitical repercussions of the American midterm elections, the Stratfor intelligence centre, translated by Noon Post, 8 November 2018, at the following link: https://goo.gl/uTcsfW

The views contained in the paper express only the view of their author, and do not necessarily express the view of Pal-Think for Strategic Studies