- How a Democratic U.S. House could alter foreign policy
- Democrats capture House, GOP holds Senate
- Control of Congress, and verdict on Trump, at stake in U.S. elections
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| President Donald Trump. Photo: Reuters. |
"I do not expect the results of the midterm elections to have much impact on Trump's foreign policy. This is for two reasons. First, there is massive cross-party consensus against important aspects of Trump's foreign policy, for instance on Russia, where Republicans and Democrats share the deep skepticism of the deep state to any rapprochement with Moscow.
We have already seen how the deep state (the CIA, the Pentagon, other agencies, and even the Congress itself) have done their best to frustrate Trump's policies on Russia; the Democratic victory will not substantially change this situation," a European Parliament member Jean-Luc Schaffhauser told Sputnik on Wednesday.
The EU lawmaker listed the House of Representatives’ lack of constitutional power in US foreign policy as the second reason, "unlike the Senate where the Republicans have made gains."
He also noted that "the US constitution requires that the Senate ratify international treaties but is silent on how the country can withdraw from treaties. The consensus is that the House of Representatives cannot prevent the administration from denouncing treaties."
Overall, the voice of the Democratic party will now be better heard in the usual political process in the United States, but will not be able to "rein Trump in," according to Schaffhauser.
Following the Tuesday elections, Democrats retook control of the House of Representatives, but Republicans managed to secure their hold on the Senate. According to the latest media reports, Republicans hold a 52-44 seat majority in the Senate. In the lower chamber of Congress, Democrats so far have 219-193 seat majority.
