Donald Trump has spent much of his political life treating the institutions of the American republic as though they were extensions of his personal estate. The presidency, the Justice Department, the intelligence establishment and even the machinery of federal law enforcement have frequently been subjected to the same peculiar test of loyalty; whether they serve the public interest or the interests of Donald Trump. The mid-term verdict though has now delivered a rather inconvenient answer to his political ambitions.

The Democrats have swept both chambers of Congress, wresting control of the House and Senate from the Republicans in an electoral repudiation that cannot be dismissed as a localised inconvenience or blamed on a few insufficiently obedient candidates. Trump, naturally, has responded in the manner of a proprietor whose shareholders have discovered that the accounts do not quite add up. He has distanced himself from defeated candidates and promised to become Mr Veto! The irony is too stark to miss. A man who has spent years demanding almost unqualified executive authority will now discover the constitutional inconvenience of having to govern alongside a legislature that does not consider him its chairman.

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The real significance of this electoral upheaval, however, lies not in the prospect of legislative paralysis but in the investigations that a Democratic Congress can now pursue. The presidency may be occupied by Trump until January 2029, but the House and Senate will no longer be available as an indulgent audience for his performances. Congressional committees will have the authority to subpoena witnesses, demand documents, investigate executive conduct and, where evidence warrants it, refer matters for criminal investigation. The question is whether they will exercise these powers with sufficient determination to establish what has happened behind the White House's increasingly elaborate theatre of self-exoneration.

The war........

© Mathrubhumi English