Justin Ling: The U.S. midterms were a productive cough. But America is still sick - Toronto Star

President Donald Trump has insisted he's got nothing to learn from election night. It's clear Americans don’t agree.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton at a campaign rally in Lubbock, Texas, on Oct. 27, 2026.

Justin Ling is a staff columnist for the Star and an investigative journalist based in Montreal. Reach him by email: jling@thestar.ca

American streets are being patrolled by murderous secret police. The constitutional order and the division of powers have broken down. Some major media outlets have become sycophantic devotees of the ruling party, and others are following suit. A sitting U.S. president has amassed billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains from brazen and scuzzy quid pro quos.

Donald Trump has starved Cuba, effected a coup in Venezuela, forsaken Gaza, bullied Greenland and stumbled into a world-worsening quagmire in Iran.

On Tuesday, there was finally a bit of comeuppance. Voters turned out in staggering numbers to oust Trump’s Republican bootlickers. It was a productive cough for democracy in the United States.

Just hours after Trump begged the public to “pretend I’m on the ballot,” he pleaded with them to recall “I wasn’t on the Ballot.” If it had been Trump’s name, he wrote on Truth Social, “we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!” Instead, his party has gone down in a defeat of historic proportions.

Ottawa will be celebrating the GOP’s losses in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, even if it does not end the trade war.