The US has many faces and souls. The recent vote has underscored one face, but another could reemerge. Europe should seize the fleeting moment to negotiate better terms with the transatlantic ally.

Across much of the world, the result of the recent midterm elections in the United States was greeted with joy and sincere relief.

The end of President Donald Trump’s almost uncontested dominance over nearly every sector of American politics and administration was taken as proof of how deeply rooted democratic values really were, and therefore how binding they were, for the mass of the American population.

According to the collective interpretation, it was clear evidence that the structure of the US might appear deficient in the short term but still contained the control mechanisms that would kick in at the right time to put the situation back on track.

Consequently, there was a great collective celebration and a widely shared feeling that, after an interval of madness, the United States had definitively gone back to being, above all for Europe, the benevolent and.

Will the President clash with Congress, or will they find a way to work together? Will institutions restore their democratic processes soon? Some signs suggest they might not.

President Donald Trump’s quick turnaround from his disappointment over the midterm election results may foreshadow what lies ahead for the nation over the next two years. This is evident in his statements, ranging from 1) «I’m still the president» to 2) «the possibility of working with Democrats,» 3) as well as his appointment of Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff.

1) This seems to reaffirm Trump’s vision of the supremacy of an executive branch which feels being immune to popular opinion when it dares to differ – with all due respect to Lincoln’s vision of a «government of the people, by the people, and for the people,» which he saw as the essence of the American democratic experiment. 2) Dealing just with the majority party (whichever it may be) also renders Congress more and more irrelevant as an autonomous institutional and political entity. 3) Clearly, Miller’s appointment is intended to reaffirm.