In North America, the United States has finally gotten a new Congress, filled with Democrats who will have an overwhelming majority.
asserted
who → get → majority
And this means serious shifts in American policy.”
asserted
this → mean → policy
This jubilant declaration by popular Ukrainian journalist and streamer Ivan Yakovina reflected Ukraine’s general reaction to the American midterm elections and the “blue tsunami.”
asserted
declaration → reflect → elections
To be sure, many Ukrainians, both journalists and everyday citizens, have shown only cautious optimism, since Trump will retain a strong grip on foreign policy even after the new Congress convenes and still has two months left as king of the mountain.
asserted
Congress → show → mountain
(Ukrainians fear, among other things, that he will escalate his efforts to bully Ukraine into self-defeating concessions.)
asserted
he → fear → concessions
Still, for most Ukrainian commentators, there is no ambiguity about whether Trump is friend or foe—especially after his depraved attempts to blame Volodymyr Zelensky for high diesel prices in the midterm campaign’s final days and his recent rush to make “deals” with Vladimir Putin.
asserted
Trump → be → Putin
In a November 5 interview, journalist Matvey Ganapolsky described the real message of America’s vote as “get that jerk out of here—we’re sick of him.”
asserted
Ganapolsky → describe → him
While he was summing up the American mood, there’s little doubt that he spoke for Ukrainians too.
asserted
he → sum → Ukrainians
For these men and women, Trump’s humiliation in the midterms represents both the defeat of a Putin pal and a deeply envied example of successful anti-authoritarian mobilization: As political satirist Viktor Shenderovich put it, America will not be a country for “old crocodiles who hang on to power for forty years.”
asserted
who → represent → years
On the Breakfast Show, a YouTube project run by refugees from the canceled independent radio station Ekho Moskvy, the beaming faces of host Alexander Plyushchev and U.S.-based guest analyst Alexandra Filippenko on November 4 told the story.
asserted
On → run → story
Said Filippenko, “I really am happy to see you, with a very optimistic report on the Democrats’ victories absolutely everywhere.”
asserted
I → say → victories
The tenor of election commentary from Michael Nacke, who hosts some of the best coverage of the war in Ukraine, can be gleaned from the titles of his recent streams: “TRUMP IS DESTROYED,” “TRUMP’S COLLAPSE,” “THE RATS ARE FLEEING TRUMP’S SHIP.”
asserted
RATS → host → SHIP
Dmitry Bykov, who before the election expressed the hope that a Republican defeat would be the beginning of the end for authoritarian right-wing populism around the world, warned that America still faces a painful reckoning as the full extent of the Trump administration’s abuses is exposed.
asserted
extent → express → abuses
He still concluded on an optimistic note: A more competent and less ego-obsessed authoritarian in the White House, Bykov said, could have been far more dangerous: “God blessed America by sending it the temptation of right-wing populism in a form grotesque enough to open most people’s eyes over the last two years.
uncertain
God → conclude → years
FOR THE WAILING AND GNASHING OF TEETH, we have to turn—where else?—to official Russian opinion.
asserted
we → have → opinion
TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov was glumly belligerent on his web show the day after the election, describing Trump’s defeat as “resounding” and “egregious” and punctuating his commentary with loud sighs and snarls, particularly in his riff on what he called Zelensky’s triumph: “He staked everything on Trump’s defeat, and he won. . . .
asserted
he → describe → defeat
His boorish insolence worked.
asserted
insolence → work → ?
People ate up what Zelensky fed them in spoonfuls.”
asserted
Zelensky → eat → spoonfuls
The king of Kremlin propaganda jocks was more restrained two days later on his evening show on the national Rossiya-1 channel, where, I’m sorry to report, he opened his review of the midterms with some pretty good zingers: “I hoped until the last minute that Trump would, as usual, pull a rabbit out of a hat.
asserted
Trump → ’m → hat
The problem is that there was no rabbit in the hat.”
asserted
problem → be → hat
Or: “When you stand before the Reflecting Pool literally on the eve of the elections and say, ‘Let’s rename it after me,’ the people are not going to react very positively.”
asserted
people → stand → me
But Solovyov’s brief moment of clarity was followed by some, shall we say, eccentric takes:
asserted
we → follow → takes
Did you know that one reason Trump took such a beating in the midterms was that he had “allowed people to publicly walk all over him, including shady characters like Zelensky”?
asserted
people → know → Zelensky
Or that Trump fatally self-sabotaged by throwing Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene overboard?
asserted
Trump → sabotage → Carlson
Or that Elon Musk may end up seeking asylum in Russia if things become too uncomfortable for him in the United States with the Democrats in charge?
uncertain
things → end → charge
In another unintentionally amusing moment, Solovyov contrasted Trump’s unpopularity with Putin’s “very high public support, as demonstrated, among other things, by the elections to the Duma.”
asserted
Solovyov → contrast → Duma
Those are, of course, the elections in which even a small and defanged opposition party, Yabloko, was taken off the ballotfor spurious violations of election laws.
asserted
party → defang → laws
No doubt Trump would have loved to have such well-managed midterms—as would his new White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who declared on Fox News in August 2025 that “the Democrat party is not a political party; it is a domestic extremist organization.”
asserted
it → love → August
Luckily for the rest of us, Trumpist norm-busting was not allowed to follow the Russian example too far.
asserted
busting → allow → example
Solovyov also concluded that the midterms had ended any hope of the United States pressuring Ukraine into a Russia-friendly peace deal:
Who are the Ukrainians going to talk to?
asserted
Ukrainians → conclude → Who
Zelensky is going to say, “It was us—we toppled your guy!”
asserted
we → go → guy
They don’t need any meetings.
asserted
They → need → meetings
Zelensky has already said, “I’m going to get everything I want.”
asserted
I → say → everything
So it’s very painful for Trump, but for us, it’s a lesson that we can never rely on anyone but ourselves.
asserted
we → ’ → ourselves
Russia has never won any wars if it fought them with one arm tied behind its back.
asserted
arm → win → back
One wonders whether fighting with both arms would mean a million dead Russian soldiers, rather than the current estimate of half a million.
asserted
fighting → wonder → million
Solovyov’s guests offered some measured thoughts of their own.
asserted
guests → offer → own
“Political scientist” Dmitry Kulikov asserted that Trump had never really been a friend of Russia but just another “deep state” figure who started the war in Iran in order to undermine both Putin and Xi Jinping.
asserted
who → assert → Putin
Another analyst, Andrei Sidorov, started hisassessment with a fairly straightforward breakdown of the election results before pronouncing that the Democrats’ program is “to stop fertility and move life entirely into virtual space.”
asserted
program → start → space
As a rule, there is no thought, however unhinged, from the fever swamps of far-right X that won’t eventually make its way to state-run Russian TV.
asserted
that → be → TV
…and 9 more, not listed.
The Aporia
