Press in India, Ukraine and China sees the most important levers of US foreign policy remaining with the president even after the election

In several countries, the press is drawing the same line after the Democrats' victory in the congressional election: the new Congress changes little in US foreign policy because the decisive instruments lie with the president. The basis is projections according to which the Democrats win the Senate and the House of Representatives. There is no official final result yet.

India: trade levers remain with Trump. The newspaper The Pioneer (Mithun MK, 4 November, 11:00 CET) writes that the new majority brings hardly any change for India. The tariff exemption for Russian oil and the fee for H-1B visas are based on decisions by the president, and the tax on foreign remittances is already law. The exemption is something that “one proclamation can end”.

Ukraine: the president remains the key figure. On the broadcaster Fakty ICTV (16:45 CET), the political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta Center says: “Ключова фігура американської політики — президент, а не Конгрес” (The key figure in US politics is the president, not Congress). Congress could, through the budget, push through air defence missiles for Ukraine, for example. But Ukraine must not become a partisan issue. The political scientist Ihor Reiterovych expects the lawmakers to deal with domestic policy first and only later with Ukraine.

China: pendulum swing, not a mandate. The state newspaper Global Times (Huanqiu Shibao), in a roundup report for the 5 November edition, reprinted by Sina (4 November, 23:24 CET), has Chinese experts interpret the result as a pendulum effect, not as approval of the Democrats' policies. The paper quotes France's Economy Minister, according to whom the White House remains at the helm in foreign policy, and a Japanese diplomatic source who fears consequences of chaos in the US for Japan. The state outlet gives no assessment of its own for China.

Dissenting voice: more dangerous for Europe. The US expert Josef Braml, European Director of the Trilateral Commission, writes in a guest article at Euronews (14:27 CET), which does not reflect the editorial line: weakened at home, Trump will play out his power on tariffs, Ukraine and NATO more strongly. Europe cannot sit him out: “the most difficult two years of his second term may only be beginning now”.

These are the views of the respective media and authors. Further press voices are under Reports, what the new Congress can do from January is in the timeline.