World leaders who clashed with Trump express a mix of relief and caution over the Republican Party’s electoral rout

LONDON (AP) — World leaders who clashed with “America First” President Donald Trump greeted his Republican Party’s rout in the U.S. midterm elections with some relief Wednesday, allowing themselves to hope for a less combative U.S. foreign policy.

LEARN MORE: Democrats usher in a new era with their resounding victory in the House and Senate

But that hope was seasoned by the hope that criticism from American voters would not necessarily end America’s conflict with Iran or change Trump’s policy on tariffs or his lukewarm-at-best support for Ukraine and America’s European allies.

Progressive politicians portray the results as part of a trend toward a comeback for liberals around the world, following recent defeats for right-wing populists in Hungary, Brazil and Serbia.

Spanish Social Democratic Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X that Americans had voted “against hatred.” Against machismo. Against climate denial and against elite privileges.”

“This happened in Brazil. It just happened in the United States. And it will happen soon in Spain,” wrote Sánchez, who faces elections on November 29.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said the majority of Americans had sent a clear message that “they have had enough of MAGA and now want a different path. Enough polarization.”

Leaders are hopeful but wary

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham expressed hope that the election results would sway minds in Washington and other capitals to end the war in Iran, which has sent fuel prices soaring – a major source of frustration for voters.

“The world now has an opportunity to unite around an issue that affects us all, namely the cost of living,” Burnham said during a visit to the Commonwealth summit in Antigua. “But I won’t be able to bring down the cost of living pressure until the conflict in the Middle East is resolved.”

LEARN MORE: Iranian leaders say midterm results show US voters rejected Trump’s war

That and “the conflict in Ukraine triggered by Russia.” These are the things we need to focus on now.”

But others in Europe warned that with Trump in office for another two years, there would be no rapid change in U.S. foreign policy, which has strained military, economic and diplomatic alliances. The president has berated European leaders on everything from immigration to wind farms, shaken their economies with tariffs, threatened to pull the United States out of NATO and expressed a desire to seize Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

Austrian Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger said that “regardless of the outcome of the elections, our security and prosperity in Austria and Europe must not depend on the vote of the people of Kansas or Iowa. This is why we are strengthening our own defense capacity and our own competitiveness.”

Laurel Rapp, director of the US and North America program at the Chatham House think tank, said there would be “no ‘we’re back’ moment in US-Europe relations.

“I don’t expect this to significantly change the administration’s approach to Europe,” she said. “This is a very transactional matter, which raises deep skepticism about the value that Europe can offer the United States in terms of a defense relationship.”

America’s immediate neighbors reserved judgment on whether the Republican defeat could smooth rocky relations with Washington.

“We have to wait and see,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said.

Canadian Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc said it was unclear whether the election result would strengthen Ottawa’s position in negotiations aimed at easing a bitter trade war.

“I guess we’ll see in a few weeks,” when the new Congress takes office in January, he said.

But Ontario Premier Doug Ford, whose province was hit by Trump’s tariffs on automobiles and steel, said the Democrats’ landslide victory would give Canada “a little more leverage” and called it a victory for the country and the world.

“I was cartwheeling in the street,” Ford said.

Russia hopes Trump sticks to current approach

The Trump administration has also tried to pressure Ukraine to end a war that Russia started with its full-scale invasion in 2022. Ukraine has accused Washington of delaying the delivery of vital interceptor missiles and reported that a temporary outage of Starlink and Starshield satellite internet service had hampered its ability to defend itself against Russian attacks.

Last month, while insulting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump lifted sanctions against Russia, even though Congress had overwhelmingly approved the measures as part of legislation aimed at supporting Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Russia hoped Trump would “continue his peacemaking efforts” regardless of the election outcome.

A prominent German lawmaker urged Republicans to view the outcome in part as voters’ verdict on Trump’s “bad foreign policy.”

Jürgen Hardt, foreign policy spokesman for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right bloc parliamentary group, told ARD television that he hoped Trump would “show more reason” on foreign policy.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been the target of Trump’s baseless claims that his government discriminates against the country’s white minority, said Democrats taking control of both houses of Congress would “usher in a new era in global relations.”

But Chatham House’s Rapp said Congress would have an easier time constraining Trump domestically than in foreign policy.

“On many foreign policy tools in his toolbox, Trump retains wide latitude to use them as he wishes,” she said.

Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin, Suman Naishadham in Madrid, Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland, Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, and María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this story.