Irish Examiner view: Voters deal a blow to Trump

Former President Donald Trump waves after announcing he is running for president for the third time.

As cliches go, they don’t come more ossified through overuse than a week being a long time in politics, but nothing else will do as we survey the shadow cast by the US midterm elections on November 8.

The results of those elections certainly threw a pall over Donald Trump’s announcement this week that he is to run for the US presidency again in 2024.

Before the midterms, Trump was the dominant, or overbearing, personality within the Republican Party; he endorsed a raft of candidates expected to sweep to power in elections which would be seen as a rebuke to the policies of incumbent president Joe Biden — as well as preparing the ground for Trump’s triumphant return to the White House in two years’ time.

Biden’s Democrats turned the tables on Trump and his acolytes, however, with some stunning election results and have retained control of the Senate.

As a parallel referendum on Trump’s power within the Republican party, the midterm elections also functioned as a resounding defeat for the former president, with many of the candidates endorsed personally by Trump losing out.

The gamble of riding an expected wave of Republican victories to a triumphant announcement of his candidacy for 2024 has certainly not paid off and, rather than having the undivided support of his party, Trump is already under fire from credible rivals for the candidacy, such as Ron DeSantis.

Even if his challenge eventually dissipates, however, Trump’s impact is unquestioned. As The Washington Post put it, quite apart from being impeached twice and defending the January 6 rioters, he “has profoundly altered the tenor of American public life” and not for the better. Unfortunately, that is a legacy which will last for quite some time to come.