Barring medical developments, political violence, or the man deciding his true calling is gaudy interior decorating, Donald Trump’s ongoing presidency is a given for the next two years. But American voters had a chance to offer a preview of their assessment of his administration via congressional and gubernatorial elections. And going by the sheer enthusiasm with which Americans voted for Democrats in the midterms, MAGA’s moment has passed. My fellow Canadians (I’m dual but live in Toronto), we can rest easy, or easier, that we’re not about to be invaded from the south. Maybe there’s a future where we could order stuff from American eBay un-tariffed. My fellow Jews: it’s complicated. American Jews are now just another Diaspora Jewry, not because of the results of the midterms, but affirmed.  

I don’t really do nitty-gritty political analysis. But zoomed-out, yes. As pundit Matthew Yglesias put it, and as basically every other Jew who posts also observed, if less succinctly, we’re looking at “the rapid demise of the bipartisan pro-Israel consensus.” That much is clear. It’s not self-evident what it means for Jews, which is why I will get into that in this column.

What we’re looking at with the midterms, as pertains to Jews, is not literally the first post-Oct. 7 US election, but the first major one after a rift on the Republican side following prominent young conservative Charlie Kirk’s 2025 murder. Both of these turning points matter. It’s the post-Oct. 7, post-Kirk landscape setting the stage here.

There’s a Democratic party shaped by campus encampment protests and Zohran Mamdani adulation, on which calling Gaza a genocide seems like a possible litmus test on the horizon. Most American Jews are and long have been Democrats. This has not changed, with Jewish voters supporting even famously anti-Zionist Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed. Some are staying put despite the anti-Zionist shift. Some are the anti-Zionist shift.

Then there’s a Republican party catering to or animated by young right-wing men, whose star YouTubers are antisemitic edgelords. But also, Americans who are not bigots are displeased with the Iran war and its impact on the American economy. Which, fair! One might say, here’s an easy win for the Democrats, and it was. But the Republicans who are not personally Donald Trump also have the option of distancing themselves from him and saying, in effect, that Trump is a performer but a buffoon, a fool, who allowed himself to get arm-twisted by Netanyahu and The Jews into making foreign policy decisions against the interests of the American people. Vice president JD Vance reacted to the results with a long post on X that amounted to a highfalutin........

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