For Joe Reeve, the midterm afterglow faded fast.
The London startup founder was among the wave around the Trump-weary world awakening to the stunning news that Americans had sharply rejected President Donald Trump’s fist-in-the-eye stewardship of the United States that had started a war with Iran, forged no peace in Ukraine or the Mideast and made gas and food so expensive.
Voters, Reeve saw online, had flipped control of both houses of Congress, handing the power to check the president to his rival Democrats. American democracy, 250 years on, had survived the Trump era.
But a deep and profound distrust of the United States had survived the vote, too. And from national leaders to aspiring American immigrants, no one seemed confident that change was afoot.
What are they even talking about? Tariffs are still there, EU passed laws that force countries to buy European weapons, they are finalizing a deal with Canada. Foreign policy is like a container ship, not a sports car. It took a lot of time to turn it around and it will not turn again anytime soon. The world is not going to just “trust America again”. It will take years to sign new deals and pass new laws and it will start only when US shows they are willing to seat at the table and talk which won’t happen in the next 2 years.