The Americans inflicted a crushing defeat on Trump, which will go down in history. The Financial Times Tuesday night looks like the beginning of the end for Donald Trump. His response to the overwhelming personal blow that America dealt him in the midterm elections is expected to be unpredictable. But it's hard to see how he can recover from such a strong wave of Democratic support, given that he himself encouraged voters to vote as if his name was on the ballot. Against advice, Trump turned the election into a referendum on himself. In doing so, he took responsibility for the historic scale of the Republican defeat, writes columnist Edward Luce. Democrats will now control both houses of the US Congress - a result that even Trump may consider "too significant to be fake". This has two immediate consequences. First, the Republican campaign to nominate another candidate in the 2028 presidential election will begin immediately. Ron DeSantis, the outgoing governor of Florida, actually started the campaign before the polls closed. Without mentioning Trump by name, he said no government official should profit from his position. This indicates the reaction against corruption following the elections, with the issue at the top of many polls recently. The second implication is that Trump's unpredictability may become an even more prominent feature of his presidency. For those who oppose him, Tuesday night was lightning. But Trump rarely indulges in drama. No matter how he responds, the outcome of the 2026 election will change the course of America.