What Trump shares with Truman after a midterm shellacking

Brett McGurk, a CNN global affairs analyst, argues that President Donald Trump's midterm defeat, which put both chambers of Congress in Democratic hands, echoes the position Harry S. Truman found himself in after 1946. That year Republicans picked up 55 House seats and 12 Senate seats, leaving Truman's presidency in doubt. Instead, Truman enlisted Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the new Foreign Relations chairman, and the two shaped the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan and NATO despite continuing partisan fights.

McGurk contends the stakes today are comparable: an artificial intelligence contest with China, Russia's war in Ukraine approaching its fifth year, and an unresolved standoff with Iran. Rivals, he says, see little reason to bargain if Washington looks divided. Iran's new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, claimed American collapse "has accelerated." Allies hedge, and manufacturers hesitate to invest.

He says both sides would need to give ground, with Trump accepting Democratic input and Democrats tolerating a policy that hands the president a win. He points to Senator Chris Coons and Representative Gregory Meeks, positioned to lead the foreign affairs committees, as plausible partners.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CNN’s reporting. Read the full story at CNN →