Dear readers,

Democrats won a decisive victory in the blue tsunami that swept through America in the midterm elections this week. But the biggest victory was for American democracy, which proved, once again, its remarkable ability to self-correct, even in the face of the most brutal Trumpian assault. 

For the past two years, we’ve watched with astonishment Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine the rule of law, degrade the political discourse and punish friends as well as foes. On Tuesday Americans said they’d had enough of him and his policies, which have driven up the cost of living and enriched cronies. As the results came in, vice-president JD Vance, who is likely to be running in 2028, acknowledged what has been obvious for many months: that the Iran war and its impact on fuel prices was a determining factor in voters’ shift to the left. 

To tell the story of how Democrats flipped both the House and the Senate, our reporters scattered across various states, our data journalists pored over the results, and our commentators analysed the outcome.

As our editorial board concluded, there are two main risks now: the first is that a frustrated Trump doubles down on misguided adventures, whether in Iran or elsewhere; the second is that the Democrats squander this victory with infighting and attempts to extract revenge. With two more years to go until the presidential election, the midterms were only the beginning of the end of Trump. 

My choices this week

1. Of course, the economy was not Trump’s only downfall. The blue tsunami was also fuelled by mounting opposition to AI data centres, and went on to trigger a powerful tech market rout. (Wall Street stocks steadied on Friday.) As our reporters explain, Silicon Valley’s elites now have a big task on their hands: rebuilding their relationship with the American public.