Trump to flex muscles on Asia tour after midterms losses

The Korea Times - Nov 12, 2026

WASHINGTON — After his party suffered a midterms hammering, President Donald Trump faces a new challenge: proving he is still the boss of U.S. foreign policy on the global stage. With Trump politically hamstrung as he enters the remaining two-year "lame duck" period of his White House tenure, world leaders may be quietly wondering how to leverage the new balance of power in Washington. The 80-year-old Republican heads to the ASEAN summit in the Philippines and APEC summit in China from a radically transformed and hostile political landscape at home after the Democrats seized both the House of Representatives and Senate. Constitutionally banned from seeking a third term in the 2028 presidential race, the unpredictable billionaire could be all the more inclined to focus his energy on the international stage. "After bad midterms, this is how presidents reset," Edgard Kagan, an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) told a news briefing. Iran, trade, China That is especially true for Trump on his Asian tour, where he is unlikely to be pressed publicly on domestic

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