On to a loser Republicans' Trump problem is sweet balm for Biden

And the loser is ...Donald J Trump. The identity of the winners of America's midterm elections was not clear the morning after the night before even at lunchtime yesterday the TV anchors could not tell their audiences whether Democrats or Republicans would be in control of the House of Representatives or Senate - but there was no such ambiguity over the fate of the man who continues to loom over US politics, even two years after his removal from the White House. Trump took a beating.

- Jonathan Freedland

True to form, the ex-president had wanted this election to be all about him. His rallies, nominally staged to boost support for Republican candidates in whichever state he had landed in, were intensely focused on himself.

At an event in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday he spoke only fleetingly of the men running for governor or senator, devoting most of his two-hour speech either to relitigating the past - insisting, against all evidence, that the 2020 election was stolen - or hinting at a glorious future, talking up his prospects for retaking the presidency in 2024.

When he projected charts onto the giant screens, the graphics did not make a case for why Democrats deserved to lose their majorities in Congress, still less offer policy remedies for how the Republicans would combat inflation or crime. No, they showed a series of opinion polls, each one confirming how Trump remained the Republican faithful's favourite, miles in front of any would-be rival.

As things turned out, the expresident's trademark narcissism was not so wide of the mark. In a way, the 2022 midterms were indeed all about him - just not in the way he had hoped.

Trump, like so many others, had assumed Tuesday would see a red wave rolling across America. But even if his party does eke out an eventual congressional win, there was no Republican tsunami. "Definitely not a Republican wave, that's for darn sure," admitted the senator and tireless Trump sycophant Lindsey Graham.