Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 5:11amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 5:11am
White House must be ‘pristine’, Trump says
Continuing his event at the White House ballroom, Donald Trump references criticism he has received about his decision to hold media events about the ballroom at a time when many Americans are struggling to pay their bills.
“It was sort of mentioned a little bit during the campaign about: ‘Why does Trump spend time on the White House’?”
“For me, it’s relaxing, for everyone else it’s the opposite.
“I’m doing it because the White House is the ultimate symbol of America, and it’s gotta be pristine, it’s gotta be perfect.”
He said he was “very happy” about bringing down illegal migration and lowering crime in the US capital.
He has still not directly spoken to the results of the US midterms, which saw his Republican colleagues suffer massive losses in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
The media event ended with Trump signing his name onto one of the support beams that will one day form the structure of the White House ballroom.
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:57amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:57am
Breaking: Trump makes first public appearance since election
In his first televised press event since the election result, Donald Trump is speaking from the construction site that he one day hopes will become the White House ballroom.
“Right now, we’re ahead of schedule, under budget and it’s moving very nicely, and everything should happen like that,” he said.
Donald Trump speaking from the ballroom construction site. (Reuters: Evan Vucci)
He added that the roof of the new ballroom “could actually hold helicopters on it” and was drone and missile-proof.
He is yet to address the election result.
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:46amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:46am
Trump posts about ‘record high’ US stockmarket
US President Donald Trump is back posting on social media after an uncharacteristically quiet start to the day.
After 12 hours of silence, he’s posted twice in half an hour.
First, he shared a series of newspaper front pages which featured his image and headlines, including: “How the west was Don”.
(Truth Social)
Next he commented on the ” record high” US stockmarket.
“Stock Market just hit another Record High — 91 Days in just a short period of time — Less than two years,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“Your 401(k)s are through the roof. Record Setting All!”
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:33amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:33am
Kamala Harris urges Democrats to focus on delivery
Former US vice-president Kamala Harris, who lost to Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential contest, has said Democrats’s breakthrough result on Tuesday showed the American people were “done with corruption, incompetence and callousness coming from the White House”.
In a statement on Facebook, she said work now had to begin to “actually deliver results”.
“The American people have elected Democrats across the country in federal, state and local races who must be ruthless in using every lever of power to deliver economic relief for working families and hold this administration accountable for their deep-seated corruption.”
Harris has previously not ruled out running for president again in 2028.
Former US Vice President Kamala Harris. (Reuters: Carlos Barria)
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:16amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:16am
How could the US midterms impact Europe?
The bottom-line is we don’t know yet.
America still has an unpredictable president in office who tends to control the foreign policy strings largely outside of Congress.
But we can make some informed judgements.
The Democratic blue wave is unlikely to offer Europe immediate relief.
With President Donald Trump now constrained at home – that leaves him free to meddle further on foreign policy and trade from the US executive branch, where there are fewer congressional checks.
The key things Europeans are watching for is how he’ll handle trade, the NATO alliance and the war in Ukraine going forward.
Javier Carbonell from the European Policy Centre. (ABC News)
Javier Carbonell from the European Policy Centre said he doesn’t see Trump changing his approach to Europe.
“Trump sees Europe as basically some kind of vassal state and foreign policy is really governed by the executive branch. So, I don’t think that’s gonna be much difference there,” he told the ABC.
“If Europe does something that he doesn’t like or there’s a strategic reason that he wants to do something to Europe, he will still do it.”
While we won’t know for some time if a defeated Trump will lash out abroad, what is certain is the far-right wave has been rebuked.
Carbonell said that will have a positive impact across Europe as it gears up for an election super cycle next year.
“We’re gonna see a lot of influence in the narratives, strategies and campaigns that the European parties are going to put forward because of this,” he said.
“Here is where Europe still sees the US as an example, as a leader.”
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:03amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 4:03am
Vance: Republicans need to have ‘honest conversation’
US Vice-President JD Vance says his party needs to have an “honest conversation” about “where we go from here”.
We earlier reported that Vance blamed the Iran war for the Republican’s election defeat in his first comments since voters went to the polls.
In his lengthy social media post, Vance seemed to distance himself from Trump’s agenda, accepting that Republican supporters had tried to tell the party they were “p****d off”.
He also said there would be “a lot of gaslighting” over the next few months about what had gone wrong.
“There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is,” he wrote.
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so.
“But everyone knows why we lost.
“And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 3:31amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 3:31am
Florida governor calls result a ‘meteor strike’
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has described last night’s US midterms as “close to a near extinction level event” for Republicans.
“Last night we witnessed, to call it a wave I don’t think would be fully accurate,” DeSantis told reporters.
“It’s the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States.
“Blue states, red states, everything in between and the one state that was able to hold the line and withstand that is right here in the free state of Florida.”
DeSantis said that Republicans will face an uphill battle as they regroup ahead of the 2028 election
“The Democrats will likely go into January with 56 US senate seats and as much as 258 US House Seats.
“So what that does, not only does is that totally going to change the dynamic of the next 2 years to the detriment of course of President Trump. This is going to last far beyond two years.
“You look ahead to ’28, a presidential election. You are not as Republicans going to be able to retake the senate under this current map just two years from now and with all the house seats done probably not viable to take that back as well.
“So this is really going to have an impact two years, four years, six years, maybe even longer before Republicans can exercise unified control in Washington again like we have enjoyed over the last two years.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, left, is considered a potential contender for the Republican presidential nomination. (Reuters: Umit Bektas)
DeSantis was favoured to become the Republican nominee for president in 2024 before Donald Trump announced he would enter the race.
He ended up dropping out of the race but is seen as one of the potential Republican frontrunners in a post-Trump world.
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:42amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:42am
Mike Johnson not seeking GOP minority leadership in House – reports
The current US House Speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, is understood to be not seeking to stay on as his party’s chief representative in the US House.
He announced his decision to staff on Wednesday morning, the day after a massive repudiation of his party by voters, according to multiple news outlets, including Reuters.
As the Democrats have won a majority in the US House of Representatives, whoever takes over for the Republicans would become the US minority leader.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson. (Reuters: Kevin Bartram)
Johnson has been one of Donald Trump’s biggest and highest profile backers since taking up the speaker’s post three years ago.
He has also had to maintain party discipline given the Republicans only had a narrow 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives.
An internal party election for House minority leader is expected later this week.
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:22amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:22am
What are the markets doing?
Most of the US stock market is rallying this morning.
About 20 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 2.3 per cent, the broad-based S&P 500 gained 1.7 per cent while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 2.2 per cent.
Some of the early financial winners from the election appear to be solar-power companies with Elon Musk and Trump’s social media company some of the biggest losers.
Shares of Elon Musk-led SpaceX and Tesla fell decisively in early trading on Wednesday after Democrats dominated US midterm elections and defeated candidates favoured by Musk.
SpaceX was down 2.1 per cent and Tesla 4 per cent after 20 minutes of trading.
Musk donated nearly half a billion US dollars to Republican political efforts, including heavy amounts in Texas where Democrats scored historic wins.
Stocks worldwide got a boost from easing oil prices while the US dollar weakened against most currencies.
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:22amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:22am
EU wants new US congress to help end Ukraine war
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas hopes the new US Congress will support Ukraine and ramp up pressure on Russia.
European Commission Vice-President Kaja Kallas. (Reuters: Yves Herman)
“US voters have made their choice clear,” she said from Brussels.
She went on to add that Europe and the US were “much stronger together” in pressuring Moscow to end the war.
Thu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:22amThu 5 Nov 2026 at 2:22am
Good morning!
Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the US midterm elections.
We’re keeping a close eye on the still too-close-to-call Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi.
Overnight, we’ve also seen world leaders react to the results and giving their thoughts on what that could mean for wars in Iran and Ukraine – and, of course, the cost of living crisis.
Stay with us as we bring you the results and reaction throughout the day.