Midterm Madness

Polls point to a Democratic sweep in the Nov. 3 midterm elections as President Donald Trump’s approval rating slumps to 32% and voters grow upset about living costs and his corruption. If that plays out, then the US will be run for two more years by a vengeful and angry lame-duck leader who will be besieged and lash out domestically and geopolitically. A Democratic House seems certain while a Republican Senate remains possible. But, ironically, Wall Street Journal columnist and famous Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan hopes for a Democratic landslide. “If Tuesday yields only a small wave, it will embolden and empower the President’s attempts to undo the results. He will try. He’s Donald Trump. “They rigged it! We won’t certify!” Noonan’s right: if Democrats don’t win a massive mandate, Trump, as the sitting president, will cause trouble again. He will deny results. He will fight, and it will lead to a constitutional crisis and permanent gridlock. Or worse. And the showdown is coming. Results from organizations like Gallup and the Guardian/Harris Poll indicate that roughly 87% to 89% of Americans consider government corruption a widespread, top-tier issue heading into the 2026 midterms. The public is most upset with Trump’s “sticky fingers” or profiteering. The Trump family has made a fortune buying the stocks of companies that benefit from his policies. Public filings show that in 2025 it made $2.2 billion in the stock market and, in the first quarter of 2026, executed 3,600 stock trades involving defense, tech, energy, and other companies that profited from presidential policies. Other Topics of Interest Ukraine, UN Agencies Launch Aid for Farmers on Mined Land Farmers across 25 communities can now apply for aid through the State Agrarian Register, with funding allocated from four countries. JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Making profits in markets is not a crime, per se, but making them based on insider information undisclosed to the public certainly is, and Congress, plus regulators and market experts, should have investigated each trade. They haven’t, but a Democratic-controlled Congress certainly will. To date, there have been only preliminary probes into Trump crypto deals, jet gifts, and other questionable transactions. The President maintains he is legally exempt from federal conflict-of-interest statutes and, unfortunately, he’s correct. That’s why the first order of business will be to legislatively remove the ban that protects presidents and vice presidents from federal conflict-of-interest laws. The only enforcement now is impeachment, as traditional criminal or civil conflict statutes do not cover the office. Besides legislative reforms, another impeachment attempt will likely result following the many probes that Democrats plan to unleash after the midterms. The greatest impact from a midterm electoral reversal and Congressional battle will be felt geopolitically. Democratic preparations include scrutiny of the Iran war and of foreign diplomacy and private financial interests. Concerning Ukraine, the issues re-examined will include intelligence-sharing restrictions, sanctions enforcement, and concerns over negotiations with Moscow. Conflict-of-interest restrictions will be at the top of the agenda because Trump has been dealing with corrupt and violent regimes in Russia and the Middle East. For example, US Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut publicly posted about large-scale bribery and claimed he has evidence: “There was a secret payment of at least $187 million to the Trump family, and at least $31 million to the family of Trump’s top Middle East advisor. Shortly after, a gift of national security secrets was given to the UAE. This is corruption. These are elements of bribery. This is potentially criminal behavior. Republicans may not be willing to do anything about this corruption simply because the President is from your party.” The House Committee on Oversight has found that Trump’s family’s digital assets (crypto) and real estate projects have allowed foreign entities and investors to become partners. There are also concerns raised by the fact that Trump’s top negotiators are his son-in-law Jared Kushner and business partner Steve Witkoff, who are negotiating deals as well as cease-fire arrangements with corrupt countries. However, Trump’s “friendship” with Russian Vladimir Putin, who batters Ukraine and helps Iran, feeds the narrative that the President is corrupt. Americans support Ukraine and dislike Putin and Russia. Likewise, there’s little support for the Iran war and widespread disdain for the lavish gifts and financial arrangements involving wealthy Arab sheikhs who support Trump’s war against Tehran. The Wall Street Journal reported that plans are already underway to challenge the administration on policy and payoffs: “Democrats are readying multifront investigations into the Trump administration should they win the House majority in November, and the White House is gearing up for an onslaught of subpoenas. But there are early divisions within the party over where to focus their investigative firepower and whether to impeach the President for a third time.” Of greatest concern is that Trump will refute and nullify an election outcome that doesn’t suit him. Preparations are underway to overturn voting results, claims former Federal Judge Mark Wolf: “The President has said earlier this year to The New York Times that he regrets not using the National Guard to seize voting machines and ballots in 2020. I think if the President loses elections relating to the House of Representatives and/or the Senate, there’s the risk that he’ll attempt to seize ballots. The only way that could be done lawfully is to get a judicial warrant, and there’s never been a request for a federal judicial warrant to seize ballots before an election is concluded. I’ve removed the word unimaginable from my lexicon.” This may be why a potential Blue Wave hasn’t slowed down the pace of domestic corruption. In October alone, the media reported that the US ambassador to the Netherlands donated $1 million to Trump’s ballroom two months after he was appointed. Reports noted that the Republican campaigns and political groups have spent nearly $3 million at Trump businesses since the start of the President’s second term, primarily at Mar-a-Lago and Trump National Doral. A Financial Times investigation found that since the start of the President’s second term, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have held at least 18 meetings with foreign officials, often being treated as White House emissaries despite holding no government roles. During that time, they have also expanded overseas Trump-branded projects and investments in crypto, defense, and prediction markets. For these and other reasons, Republican pundit Peggy Noonan hopes the voter backlash is so enormous that Trump will be chastened and the Republic saved. “The President should be dealt a rebuke, a rebellion and a rout. Only then can the Republican Party be rebuilt.” The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post. Diane FrancisDiane Francis is an award-winning columnist, bestselling author, investigative journalist, and television commentator. She writes twice weekly at https://dianefrancis.substack.com/ and is Editor at Large with the National Post and Postmedia newspapers writing twice weekly. She is Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Eurasia section, in Washington DC. She has written pieces for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Daily Beast, Politico, Miami Herald and the New York Post. In addition she is a Distinguished Professor at Ryerson University's Ted Rogers School of Management and has been a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. In 1991, she became Editor of Canada's Financial Post, the first woman editor of a national daily newspaper in Canada, a position she held until the paper was sold in 1998.