Hello and welcome to White House Watch. Donald Trump and the Republican Party suffered a huge blow at the hands of US voters on Tuesday night, losing control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The rebuke was astounding, as Americans rejected Trump’s handling of the economy and the war with Iran, and showed their concern about corruption during his administration. The FT had reporters in all the key swing states and districts to tell the tale, from Alaska to Maine, Michigan to Texas and Georgia to Iowa.

Let’s get into:

• The great humbling of Trump

• What do the midterms mean for the Middle East?  

• How Democrats can seize on their victory

US presidents have been beaten badly in previous midterm elections, from the “thumping” of George W Bush in 2006 to the “shellacking” of Barack Obama in 2010. But the humbling of Trump and his Republican Party in 2026 is in a category of its own — a savage rejection from across the country of the president, his allies and his second-term agenda.

Classic battleground states and districts easily swung back to the Democrats, while Republicans suffered bruising defeats on their home turf in deeply conservative parts of southern and rural America where they had seemed untouchable.

“Brutal night!!” said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump aide now at Mercury, a consultancy in Washington. “Midterms were always going to be rough but this isn’t what anyone expected.”

“I have never seen a night like this,” said Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia Democrat who will become chair of the House budget committee in January. “No president has been so fully repudiated like this in my lifetime.”

At the White House on Tuesday night, officials sought to project defiance and argued that without Trump, the result would have been even worse for Republicans.

“President Trump did a better job promoting many of the candidates on the ballot than the candidates did themselves,” a White House official said, adding that voters who rejected the party would have “buyer’s remorse” when the Iran war ends and prices come down.

“Regardless of how today plays out, President Trump’s resolve to stop the radical left is only going to become stronger. Buckle up,” the official added.

Even more traditional Republicans, including Maine’s veteran senator Susan Collins and moderate Republican Brian Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania, were swept under by the backlash against Trump, despite trying to distance themselves from the White House at various points over the past two years.

“THE WAVE COMES FOR ALL,” David Kochel, a Republican strategist in Iowa, wrote on X.

How will the Democrats’ wide-ranging victories change US politics? The FT’s senior US columnists Edward Luce and Rana Foroohar will be answering your questions for the latest instalment of Ask an Expert taking place tomorrow at 1pm (ET) / 6pm (GMT). Submit your question here.

• The midterms could reshape the US’s Middle East policy, from the Iran war to ties with Israel. Here’s what a Democratic majority in Congress could push for.

• Republicans across the country are lashing out at Trump and turning on each other after the disastrous midterms.

• Silicon Valley billionaires courted Trump and donated more than $600mn to Republican candidates. “The money didn’t work,” said one political operative.

• Wall Street stocks yesterday posted their biggest daily gain in months as investors bet that the Democrats’ resounding victory could restrain White House policymaking. Here’s more on what investors are thinking about the outlook.

• Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, which includes Fox News and the New York Post, is turning on the president following Tuesday’s results.

Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, spoke to the FT at length yesterday about the lessons from the midterms and where the party goes from here.

After the 2024 presidential election, Democrats seemed rudderless, ineffective and stuck in a gloomy political wilderness.

But they have now emerged from that period buoyed by the scale of their midterm success and determined to preserve their political momentum into 2028.

“We’ve got work to do in Congress to maintain our trust with the American people,” Martin said. “Candidates matter, the mood of the electorate matters.”

“But this should be a massive warning sign to Republicans and a massive opportunity for Democrats. We’ve got new territory that we can compete in if we’re willing to do it,” he added.

There are also questions over the extent to which different parts of the party will be willing to compromise with Trump on trade, healthcare or budgetary issues should the White House decide it wants to co-operate with a Democratic Congress — although it is unclear whether the administration will be looking for any substantive deals.

“This was a massive, massive mandate that the Americans sent to the Democratic Party and a massive message they sent to Donald Trump,” Martin said.

“The real question is: will Donald Trump receive that message, and will he actually look to find common ground with Democrats as we move an agenda forward that’s going to help the American people?”

Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, is now set to be Speaker. While Nancy Pelosi, the last Democrat to hold the role, was highly effective in keeping her members in line during presidencies spanning Bush, Obama and Trump, Jeffries is relatively untested. The scale of the party’s win will help.

“Large majorities mean the centre can and will hold; leftists can scream and yell at the fringes, but the Democrats will still be able to govern,” said Paul Begala, a veteran Democratic strategist.

• A stunning rebuke by Americans of Trump and his candidates offers a chance to start rebuilding US democracy, argues the FT’s editorial board.

• “Against advice, Trump turned the elections into a referendum on him,” Edward Luce writes. “He thus owns the historic scale of the Republican defeat.”

• The thumping wins for Democrats now open up a path back to something resembling normal life for investors, notes Katie Martin.

• How did the Trump era crash? As Janan Ganesh says, the president, like lots of populists, forgot the economic bit of populism.

• Even with a looming market crash, the price may be worth paying for a new morning in American values and leadership, writes Stephen Roach.

• If Republicans want to keep the White House in 2028, they should separate the wheat from the chaff of Trump’s economic policies, says Michael Strain.

• Jemima Kelly spent Tuesday at a conservative watch party minutes away from Mar-a-Lago. She takes us inside the election night mood of the “Trumpsterz Tuesday Triumph” event.