A more reliable predictor is that US President Donald Trump will do what he believes best serves him, says Marc Champion for Bloomberg Opinion.
President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
LONDON: Conventional wisdom has it that after President Donald Trump suffered a stinging rebuke from American voters this week, losing both houses of Congress, he’s now all the more likely to lash out via foreign policy - the one area where his power remains undiluted.
That has Ukrainians fretting (and Russia’s state-controlled media speculating) that Trump could blame them for his defeat, decide that his legacy depends on forcing their capitulation to Moscow or both. Iranians worry he could try to “finish” them. Israelis are concerned he may follow the shifting tide of opinion against them. And if Cuba’s leaders didn’t already assume they’re on his menu, they now should.
Some of those fears may well materialise, but it’s far from clear how the least predictable US president in memory will react. The one sure bet - as my Bloomberg Opinion colleague and Trump biographer Timothy O’Brien put it on Thursday (Nov 5) - is to expect volatility. Trump, he writes, has always tended “to double down when he fails, with little regard for consequences”.