Irish Examiner view: 'Trump age' may be ending

US elections

Men wear MAGA-like hats that read "Make America's street safe again" at a Minnesota GOP election night party at Minneapolis on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Picture: Kerem Yucel/Minnesota Public Radio via AP

Mid-term elections in the US can be interpreted as a referendum on the performance of the president of the day, but if they are then they tend to be predictable.

For decades the party with a man in the White House almost always loses seats in either the House of Representatives or Senate — often both — which makes it difficult for the President to get his legislation through Congress.

This year the expectation was that the Republican Party, egged on by Donald Trump lurking just offstage, would punish incumbent President Joe Biden by sweeping Democrats aside in a ‘Red Wave’ to take firm control of both Houses.

The results, however, have not been nearly as decisive. Close races in key battlegrounds yet to be resolved but even without those results the Democrats will take their strong showing as a reasonably close approximation of victory. 

The ‘Red Wave’ has not materialised and surprise Democrat wins such as John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate race — he recovered from a stroke on the campaign trail earlier this year — have grabbed the headlines.

The results can be taken as good news by President Biden, an implicit vote of confidence in his administration, but it is also likely to lead to angry recriminations within the Republican party: disappointing electoral performances usually do.

One of the key strands in this narrative is what the results mean for Donald Trump’s standing as the dominant personality within the Republican party. For the last few years Trump has been figurehead and firebrand for the Republicans, but his endorsement of many candidates counted for little this time round when the ballots were cast.

By contrast, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, seen by many as the rising star in the Republican Party, was greeted by crowds chanting for him to run for president in 2024 — not Donald Trump.

Is the end of the 'Age of Trump' in sight?