US Midterms: 'It is now going to be pretty chaotic for Donald Trump'

We can now bring in our international affairs editor, Philip Turle. Philip, good to see you. What is the remainder of Donald Trump's presidency likely to look like? And how will the Republican Party recover from this historic defeat? OK, two big questions. It's going to be pretty chaotic for Donald Trump. As far as the end of his presidency is concerned, basically because it's the House of Representatives that will decide on the budget. And now the House of Representatives is in the hands of the Democrats. So if they don't like what Donald Trump is doing, even if he thinks as president of the United States, he can sign a decree to go ahead and do it. If there's no money, he won't be able to do it. So he's going to find himself really, I think, in a position of a lame duck president from now onwards. I think there's also a sentiment to answer the second part of your question that within the Republican Party itself, the Trump era is now more or less on the way out. Candidate for the presidential election has to be found from now onwards. The presidential election is starting today, or the presidential campaign is starting today. Trump has been beaten. He's still president for the next two years, but the search will be on for the successor candidate. And I think Trump's hand over the party is also going to be weakened. A lot of people in the Republican Party were terrified of Donald Trump because they feared that he could undermine their careers. And what they were doing just by the stroke of a pen. I think there will now be a feeling of liberation by many within the Republican Party that Donald Trump has been beaten. They are free now to recover and to try to. Come together to fight back and create a new form of the Republican Party that is independent of Donald Trump. So I think those are what could happen right now. It doesn't mean Donald Trump doesn't have any power anymore. He certainly has a lot of power when it comes to foreign policy. But within the United States itself, I think the role Donald Trump will play over the next two years certainly won't be as important as the one he's played over the first part of his presidency. Now, Philip, the US President Donald Trump has been impeached. Not once, but twice, and there are rumours that Democrats could impeach him another time. Anyone else on the list that could wind up in the same situation? Well, I think, to be honest with you, the Democrats will be a little bit less enthusiastic about trying to impeach Donald Trump a third time. Remember, no President of the United States has ever been impeached as much as Donald Trump. And so I think that as they knew last time round, They couldn't manage to pull it off. Because they didn't have the two-thirds majority they needed to do that. They're going to be a little bit more reluctant to try to impeach Donald Trump again. And that took the debate away from what the Democrats could actually do to them being perceived as trying to retaliate against Donald Trump and to get their own back. I don't think that's really what they want to do this time around. To answer the other part of your question, yeah, there are other people on the list who could be impeached. I think... Robert Kennedy, Jr., the health minister, he could be one of them for the positions that he's taken. And also the other one that comes to mind, I think everybody's mind is Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, who has now called himself the secretary for war. Just even for one element in that, which was bombarding and attacking ships coming across the sea, which the Trump administration accused of being drug dealers and hit those ships, killing those on board without any formal investigation being done. Normally, what would happen would be that those ships would be intercepted and those on board brought in for trial. You can't go killing people straight away. So that was considered as a war crime. And that's something that Pete Hegseth can be found responsible for. So yes, I think there will be some impeachment proceedings, proceedings, but maybe not for Donald Trump straight away. And Philip, finally, From you, the Iran war also had an impact with the outcome of this election. Clearly, even the U.S. President Donald Trump has admitted to it. That is a very interesting point. And as far as the war in Iran is concerned, it was the... element in this election that pushed many to vote for the Democrats. I think even many Republicans didn't want to vote for Republicans because of the war in Iran, because of the cost of living, because of the cost of gas and gasoline and heating bills. So they preferred to vote Democrat to complain about Donald Trump. Doesn't mean they will stay voting Democrat the next time around. So that's something for the Democrats to worry about. But we don't know how this is This is going to play out. Donald Trump. He has still got full command until the 3rd of January. That doesn't stop him from launching an attack. He's hinted on the idea that he might do that. So we don't know how Donald Trump is going to react right now. The Iranians are calling this a defeat for Donald Trump. Donald Trump has repeated time and time again that Iran is desperate to make a deal, but we still don't have a deal. So we don't really know where this is going to play out. And as one... Usually he says an injured animal is a more aggressive animal. Donald Trump has been injured by the result of these elections. What is he going to do in the Iran war? Is he going to launch an attack? And if so, when and how? That I think we don't know. We might find out in the next few days. Thank you very much for that, Philip. Philip Terrell there.